So today marks the start of my 15th week of my fitness journey. This is a pretty big mile mark for me just because it represents a consistency that I simply haven’t done so in the past. Most of my life I have had a really hard time sticking with something for an extended period of time. 15 weeks to me means that I have finally broke though that barrier of building a habit. I can confidently say that I have developed a life style for myself that I plan to keep at for as long as I possibly can.
I’m really glad I have built myself up enough to this point to where I can actually see a really positive future for my body fitness and overall health. Though I am proud of what I have done to change my mind set and to get to this point, it hasn’t all been easy. I have had many challenges along the way. Biggest one for me is the same it always has been, just diet. Which through these last 15 weeks I have really dialed in a couple of routines that work really well for me.
Since today is the beginning of my 15th week of my fitness journey, I was initially really excited to post a progress picture and do a big comparison of my lifts and I thought it would be a lot of fun for me. However, one of the challenges I am facing with this journey is the lack of physical results and appearances thus far. To be honest, it’s possible that I have tried to go too low on calories over the last 15 weeks which may have actually hurt me in the long run because one, I had bad over eating days about once a week which killed my calorie goal. Two, it’s possible that I lowered my metabolism to some extent. I am not really positive if that is the case, but I am thinking that could be a downfall of mine right now. I am too scared to eat too many calories that I may have shot myself in the foot.
What I mean by all this is that I feel like I have been really trying, I mean, really. I’ve been spot on with my intermittent fasting every day and was meeting what I thought to be a good calorie count. After all is said and done though, today was one of those down days as far as the fitness journey is concerned.
As you can see from the picture in the post, this is my 15 week comparison, and I am not happy or satisfied with the results. I would hope to see a lot more progress aesthetically after 15 weeks! To be completely honest, this is probably why so many people quit and give up. I mean, so much work and energy has been put into this journey the last 15 weeks and I feel like I don’t have much to show for it. Especially not in pictures. Good news is though, I have developed a habit. My whole attitude about it has changed pretty drastically over the last 15 weeks. As I have mentioned in a post before, why quit? It’s a hard journey, sometimes harder than you would think, but quitting isn’t going to get you there any sooner. I’d rather by mediocre looking the rest of my life by working my ass off rather than be way over weight not doing anything. At least I can tell myself when I go to bed at night that I tried and I gave it a valiant effort. So here’s to the next 15 weeks, hopefully I will continue to see at least a minimal amount of progress and if it takes me 3 years to get to where I want to be then that’s how long it’ll take.
Even though I may not look like it, I am proud to say that I have dominated my lifts week after week in the gym. I am stronger now than I ever have been and the strength gains has been so much fun in the gym every week. Going into the gym and crushing your workouts and lifting heavier and heavier every week is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. It just makes you feel powerful!
So below is the progress of my lifts from week 1 to week 15. I am only including the first lifts of the sets because I do my heaviest lift first so you can see a decent idea of the progress I have made since then
Monday’s
Pull Up: Week 1 – Body Weight X 6, Week 15 – 55lbsX6
Barbell Press: Week 1 – 135X6, Week 15 – 155X6
Dumbbell Row: Week 1 – 65X10X3, Week 15 – Barbell Row – 165X8
Incline DB Fly Rest Pause: Week 1 – 35X15, Week 15 – 55X15
Lateral Raise: Week 1- 35X4, Week 15 – 25X15 – Rest Pause Style
Wednesday’s
Squats: Week 1 – 185X6, Week 15 – 265X8
Romanian Deadlift: Week 1 – 205X8, Week 15 – 300X6
Calf Raises: Week 1 -205X15X3, Week 15 – 205X15X3
Crunches: Week 1 – 20X3, Week 15 – 25lbsX20X3
Friday’s
Incline Bench: Week 1 – 185X6, Week 15 – 225X3
Bench Press: Week 1 – 205X3 ,Week 15 – 225X4
Incline Curls: Week 1 – 35X15, Week 15 – 55X15
Skull Crushers: Week 1 – 55X6, Week 15 – 65X15 – Rest Pause Style
Weight
Week 1 – 187
Week 2 – 176
Total Loss – 11 pounds
Week 1 estimated Body Fat Percentage – 20-23%
Week 15 Body Fat Percentage – 13.13%
Well that’s all for tonight folks. One thing I hope that anyone reading this gets out of this post is that you can try really hard and still see lack luster results. I know there has obviously been progress made overall but I would just like to see a better result after 15 weeks. So it’s disappointing from a personal stand point. I was just honestly expecting to be in a better aesthetic place than I currently am. I am just trying to be as real as possible with you all as well. I don’t want you to think in any way that this stuff is easy. All those Instagram and twitter fitness pages, fitness blogs as well claiming to see these crazy results in a matter of a couple of weeks isn’t always realistic. A lot of before and after photos are angled and lighted to perfection. Not to mention that a lot of those people are out-liars. I am not hating or saying it can’t be done, but I am saying that it is uncommon and even for someone like me, I struggle. I have a pretty advanced knowledge of working out and of dieting as well as a couple of years of working out and being fit. Even after having done all that, I still am struggling to get the results that I want as quickly as I would like. So all I can say is I hope you can use my journey as example that it can be done and you will have your frustrations. I will show you that it can be done because I will get where I want to be eventually, no matter how long it takes.
You’re not getting any younger.
The Cardinal Gift 