Progress pic (Nov 2020 to Sep 2021)
History: Before COVID hit, I did ballet two times a week as my only form of exercises and was super sedentary otherwise. I quit once COVID began. Started gaining weight around July 2020 in ED recovery, but pic is from November of 2020 when I had gained a bit of weight back. I began actually strength training in February when bitter cold forced me indoors for exercise instead of my normal long walks in the mornings! I followed Caroline Girvan and Sydney Cummings videos, mostly full body videos. Technically I began any form of strength training in December—but I only did one set of five exercises targeting most parts of my body a few times a week so I’m not sure how much difference that made. My goal was to get stronger and focus on healthier weight/mental goals than I previously had.
Diet:
I try to be pretty flexible with my diet. When I lived at home, just beginning my journey, I ate anything I wanted to get my weight back up since I had lost my period due to being underweight and was in recovery. Cookies, lots of pasta, nuts, salads, fruit, lots of carbs. After it came back was right around when my weight settled a bit more as well. Later on, around the April 2021 mark, I got my diet a bit more in-check, and tried to generally be more balanced about things. I usually had nuts, a fruit, and toast for breakfast, sandwich wrap with peanut butter, spinach, and fruit, a granola bar, yogurt, and more nuts for lunch, and a protein and carb for dinner, with more snacks of bread/eggs/fruit in between. I started actually monitoring my protein intake around then too and aimed for 90-110g per day. Recently, I just moved to college, so college food is a whole other beast! It hasn’t been too hard to stick to a better diet so far. I eat eggs and fruit for breakfast and then the rest of my meals are a protein + starch + veggies + fruit, sometimes with yogurt or a granola bar added in here or there depending on how hungry I am. I eat lots and lots of roasted chicken thigh though
. I don’t know how many calories I eat now in college, but at home, I ate 1800-2000 per day, so I imagine here is similar.
Routine:
After a hernia surgery in May 2021 and the recovery after that, I couldn’t do the Girvan Cumming’s videos I had before, so I just did my own routine instead. I had only 8, 15, and 20 lb. dumbbells. Over a few weeks, I worked up to strength-training 6 days a week along with three 30 minute runs. My split was U, L, U, L, U, L. I usually did a few exercises for biceps and triceps and a few for back and shoulders each time for my upper days with one for chest sometimes, and I did hip thrusts, squats, split squats, lunges, and SL deadlifts for my lower days. wasn’t following a program or anything since I wasn’t focused on the quickest progress possible, moreso on the mental benefits of strength training and how fun and happy I felt doing it.
Now that I’m at school, I use the PHUL program and run two times a week. I am getting a lot of steps in at college since I am walking everywhere, so I’ve had to shorten my runs to 25 min to make sure I don’t burn out the rest of the day. I only run to get the heart rate up in that higher zone, not for speed or anything. I train my abs during breaks in studying around 3-4 times a week. I have to be careful since I had the hernia surgery in May, so I mostly do beginning reverse crunches, a plank variation, side plank raises, and beginning leg raises. That also means I am not trying for any 1RMs!
Future:
Going forward, I’m just hoping to make more progress. My goal is to recomp right now, (probably won’t consciously bulk/cut for a long time or ever due to mental health) and keep myself happy with the exercise I am doing. My biggest thing is making sure I always feel accomplished and happy after my workout. Besides forcing me to buy half a new wardrobe, the aesthetic changes of course have been great. They have helped encourage me to continue to eat enough too since I want to keep being able to build more muscle with enough fuel, so that has been really beneficial. I’m really proud of how far I have come in terms of mental and physical health, and just wanted to share with one tiny space on the internet!
History: Before COVID hit, I did ballet two times a week as my only form of exercises and was super sedentary otherwise. I quit once COVID began. Started gaining weight around July 2020 in ED recovery, but pic is from November of 2020 when I had gained a bit of weight back. I began actually strength training in February when bitter cold forced me indoors for exercise instead of my normal long walks in the mornings! I followed Caroline Girvan and Sydney Cummings videos, mostly full body videos. Technically I began any form of strength training in December—but I only did one set of five exercises targeting most parts of my body a few times a week so I’m not sure how much difference that made. My goal was to get stronger and focus on healthier weight/mental goals than I previously had.
Diet:
I try to be pretty flexible with my diet. When I lived at home, just beginning my journey, I ate anything I wanted to get my weight back up since I had lost my period due to being underweight and was in recovery. Cookies, lots of pasta, nuts, salads, fruit, lots of carbs. After it came back was right around when my weight settled a bit more as well. Later on, around the April 2021 mark, I got my diet a bit more in-check, and tried to generally be more balanced about things. I usually had nuts, a fruit, and toast for breakfast, sandwich wrap with peanut butter, spinach, and fruit, a granola bar, yogurt, and more nuts for lunch, and a protein and carb for dinner, with more snacks of bread/eggs/fruit in between. I started actually monitoring my protein intake around then too and aimed for 90-110g per day. Recently, I just moved to college, so college food is a whole other beast! It hasn’t been too hard to stick to a better diet so far. I eat eggs and fruit for breakfast and then the rest of my meals are a protein + starch + veggies + fruit, sometimes with yogurt or a granola bar added in here or there depending on how hungry I am. I eat lots and lots of roasted chicken thigh though
. I don’t know how many calories I eat now in college, but at home, I ate 1800-2000 per day, so I imagine here is similar. Routine:
After a hernia surgery in May 2021 and the recovery after that, I couldn’t do the Girvan Cumming’s videos I had before, so I just did my own routine instead. I had only 8, 15, and 20 lb. dumbbells. Over a few weeks, I worked up to strength-training 6 days a week along with three 30 minute runs. My split was U, L, U, L, U, L. I usually did a few exercises for biceps and triceps and a few for back and shoulders each time for my upper days with one for chest sometimes, and I did hip thrusts, squats, split squats, lunges, and SL deadlifts for my lower days. wasn’t following a program or anything since I wasn’t focused on the quickest progress possible, moreso on the mental benefits of strength training and how fun and happy I felt doing it.
Now that I’m at school, I use the PHUL program and run two times a week. I am getting a lot of steps in at college since I am walking everywhere, so I’ve had to shorten my runs to 25 min to make sure I don’t burn out the rest of the day. I only run to get the heart rate up in that higher zone, not for speed or anything. I train my abs during breaks in studying around 3-4 times a week. I have to be careful since I had the hernia surgery in May, so I mostly do beginning reverse crunches, a plank variation, side plank raises, and beginning leg raises. That also means I am not trying for any 1RMs!
Future:
Going forward, I’m just hoping to make more progress. My goal is to recomp right now, (probably won’t consciously bulk/cut for a long time or ever due to mental health) and keep myself happy with the exercise I am doing. My biggest thing is making sure I always feel accomplished and happy after my workout. Besides forcing me to buy half a new wardrobe, the aesthetic changes of course have been great. They have helped encourage me to continue to eat enough too since I want to keep being able to build more muscle with enough fuel, so that has been really beneficial. I’m really proud of how far I have come in terms of mental and physical health, and just wanted to share with one tiny space on the internet!
thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot!