Beyond the Body
EP140: Why I Gained Weight for 15 Months Straight
It is so ingrained into us by society, especially for women, that the scale weight going up is a bad thing, or the scale weight going down is a good thing. Christina did something quite the opposite of that. She intentionally gained a whopping 36 pounds over 15 months. In this episode, she shares why she decided to embark on this journey and why this decision was necessary for her fitness goals.
Christina also provides tips for the muscle-building phase and explains why it is so important to embrace each phase of your fitness journey.
In this episode, Christina discusses:
- Why Christina intentionally gained 36 pounds over 15 months
- The mental and emotional challenges of going through a building/bulking phase
- Understanding and appreciating the different stages of your fitness journey — cutting, maintenance, reverse dieting, building, recomping
- Benefits of adding lean muscle mass beyond just how it looks
- The role of a coach in providing guidance and support during the building phase
- Overcoming body image issues and negative thoughts that can occur when the scale goes up
- The importance of nutrition and maintaining a structured plan during the building phase
- Preparing mentally and physically for the cutting phase after the building phase
Memorable Quotes:
“It’s ingrained into us by society, especially women, that weight going up is bad and going down is good. As a result, many of us chase weight loss our entire adult lives, which is why we don’t often maintain that weight loss.”
“The time is going to go by anyway; you might as well utilize it. You might as well start now because it’s still going to be Christmas eventually, and then it’s still going to be spring after that.”
Links Mentioned:
Beyond the Body EP128: Cutting vs Bulking: What Should YOU Do?
Christina’s Instagram: @knifina
Cut & Conquer Instagram: @cutandconquerfitness
Cut & Conquer Coaching Application: https://cutandconquer.typeform.com/CQA-application
Free FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weightsandwellness/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Welcome to Beyond the Body, a podcast for women who aren't afraid to dive deep into who they are, embrace discomfort, and level up their mind, body, and life. I'm your host, Christina Slater. If you've ever struggled with body image, self-worth, or knowing how to take your fitness to the next level, you have come to the right place. We go deeper than just the latest bad diet or trending workout to provide you with the mindset tools, to transform your body, upgrade your mind, and reclaim your life. Let's get into it. Hello, you guys. Welcome back to Beyond the Body. I am your host, Christina Slater. And today I'm going to be talking about why in the world I embarked on a journey to gain weight for 15 months straight. It sounds crazy, right? And the reason it probably sounds crazy is because it is so ingrained into us by society, especially for women, that the scale weight going up is a bad thing, right? Or the scale weight going down is a good thing. And as a result, so many of us end up chasing weight loss for our entire adult life. And I mean, that in itself is part of the reason why we don't often maintain that weight loss. Now, I am going to be talking a little bit about that. But the main topic for today is, I mean, I'm really going to be breaking down and just chatting about some of the key lessons and takeaway points from my last building phase that I did, and specifically talking about the mental and emotional journey that came along with gaining 36 pounds over 15 months. I am also going to be talking a little bit about effective muscle building protocols. But I do have an episode, I believe it is episode 128, that talks more about kind of like the tactical side of cutting versus bulking, and how to kind of determine whether you should go into a bulking phase or building phase, or if you should maybe start with a cutting phase. So again, that is episode 128. But I really, really wanted to do this topic, this particular week, because at Cut and Conquer, we do have several ladies who have recently entered their first ever real building phase where we are really pushing for that lean muscle growth specifically, right? And when you're going into a building phase, honestly, the beginning is the easiest part. It's the part where you are least in your head, right? And I feel like it's talked about so often in regards to weight loss, right? How challenging weight loss can be the thoughts that come into our head, the body dysmorphic thoughts, and I'm not trying to downplay or disregard any of that because it's so real. I've lived that, I have clients who are living that, people are living that every single day. But we don't often talk about the flip side. So today, I really hope to normalize and shed some light on the crazy feelings and thoughts that enter our own head as we see the scale weight going up. And as we see our body changing in the opposite direction, adding a little bit of more lean tissue, potentially a little bit of more body fat as you go through those phases. And I guess a few little tips on how to go about your building phase effectively to, you know, kind of reduce the unnecessary fat gain and kind of maximize the muscle growth when you are seeing that number go up. We don't want that ratio to be extremely skewed of, wow, I gained 20 pounds and, you know, 18 of it was fat, right? And not only that you guys, but the amazing, amazing and powerful benefits of adding lean mass to your physique. Because yes, it is a challenging phase and a challenging stage of fitness to embrace. But the benefits of having more muscle mass really transcend way beyond just the aesthetics of, you know, having more shape to your physique. So first off, I guess you guys like, what is a building phase, right? Building phase, bulking phase, essentially, they are the same thing. Unfortunately, the word bulking has a really negative connotation, especially for women. Now, I hope, hope, hope that this, this myth has been busted. And I feel like if you're listening to this podcast, you probably like, you've seen the light. But I mean, lifting weights will not make you quote, unquote bulky. Okay, I know that that is still a common belief out there. And I will quickly, you know, address that, I suppose. And ladies, especially the ladies, lifting weights, resistance training, it's nearly impossible to actually add muscle to your frame. If you are not eating in a calorie surplus. I do believe the reason why, you know, it might seem to some people that they've gotten more of a bulky look from lifting weights is because they are eating in a calorie surplus. And either a they put on fat too much fat with the muscle that they've put on, or they had too much body fat to begin with. And I mean, too much body fat is subjective and kind of vague. But in their own perspective, right, they weren't lean enough, or they didn't have a low enough body fat percentage in the first place. Because if you are eating in a calorie deficit, and you are lifting weights, the chance of you building muscle, especially as a woman, unless you are completely untrained, meaning you've never really worked out, or you've never really lifted weights before, like it is so slim, and the amount of muscle mass that you will put on is so negligible. So when you see, you know, people who are lifting weights, and they're leaning out and they look like they're building muscle, most often, assuming that they are not, you know, taking drugs, they are actually losing body fat, and they are maintaining their muscle mass through resistance training, and through adequate nutrition and optimal, you know, meal timing and nutrient timing around their workouts, specifically when it comes to protein. So now that we got that out of the way, you guys, I do want to talk about my journey a little bit. Again, you know, this focus of this podcast isn't about me, but I think that, you know, understanding the context of where I was starting 15 months ago, and what that looked like will just help, you know, give a little more context. And my situation that I'm going to explain to you guys, it is a little bit extreme. However, I do like extreme cases for examples, because the extreme cases are the really, really good examples. So rewind to 15 months ago, and that was the leanest, leanest physique I have ever had in my life by a long shot, even when I competed back in 2016, 2017, like I didn't have a shredded six pack on stage. If I had to guess, and I don't know the numbers, if I had to guess my body fat percentage, then, you know, I would have guessed it was maybe around 12, 13% back then when I was on stage, you know, this time, again, I don't know my precise stage body fat percentage. And if you're a bodybuilder, like you will know that it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter your weight. It doesn't matter your body fat percentage. It really just matters how you show up that day. And it matters how your body looks and how it presents in the category that you're competing in. So I mean, if I were to guess, I would say like 8% body fat, I had like a shredded like eight pack, like you could see eight on my core. And I have never had that in my life. And the crazy thing, I did talk about this in a previous episode as well as like even after my show, for the next couple weeks, I kept leaning out. And it was like, I've never been that person. I've never been like, I'm trying to gain weight and the skills going down. That's never happened to me in my life. I've always been the person who, you know, is trying to lose weight and it's stubborn. But anyways, the lowest weight that I did hit was 103 pounds, right? So about 15 months ago, I was sitting at 103 pounds, very, very, very small, very, very, very lean. Now, of course, I am not new to the fitness industry. I'm not new to the bodybuilding industry. But I really don't think I truly anticipated the mental mindfuck that I was about to have. You know, considering that I started my prep at 134 pounds, I ended up at 103 pounds at the lightest and, you know, was for lack of a better description, like chasing the weight loss, it wasn't about the number on the scale, but it was about getting shredded. It was about getting lean. Now again, competing, like I said at the beginning, it's one of the extremes. Competing is not healthy. Every competitor will tell you competing is not the epitome of health. Can you compete and do it in a healthy way? Yes, absolutely you can. But when you see competitors shredded up on stage, they are definitely not the epitome of health. They probably feel like shit. Their hormones are probably screwed up. Again, I'm not speaking for absolutely everyone, but that is largely the case in that industry. So seeing the scale and my body lean out day after day after week for, you know, six, seven months. And then seeing it go up and up, and my body fat increase and my scale weight increase. For 15 months straight, I really didn't anticipate truly what that was going to be, especially because the majority of my life, even as a teenager, was focused on leaning out. There hasn't been many times in my life where I have purposely tried to drive up the scale weight and my body fat percentage. And now I'm not saying that I didn't expect my weight to go up. I knew that I absolutely had to put on body fat. I knew that. And I wanted to. Now, again, if I could be shredded as shit all year long with zero health consequences, would I choose that? If I'm being honest, I think I would. But the mental fatigue, the physical fatigue, the hormonal down regulation, the metabolic down regulation, the loss of, you know, ability to enjoy training because you're weak as shit. Like it's not that's not enjoyable. But I think a lot of people, including myself, really glorify the process of leaning out. It is so cool to see new lines popping out on your body. It is so cool to see muscles looking different. It is so cool to see those new veins. You know, it feels good when you when your clothes are fitting differently and looser. And you're like, wow, I can buy a size smaller than what are you normally fit? But we don't often prepare ourselves for, oh, now I got to buy clothes this couple sizes bigger. Oh, now I can't see that definition in my core. Now I can't see those veins. And again, I do want to emphasize this. When you are in a building phase, when you are building muscle, especially as a woman, the scale weight will likely be going up. And when you're adding lean tissue to your physique, you will also be adding fat. You can't completely only just strictly gain muscle and zero, zero fat. The goal, of course, should be to add the max amount of muscle possible. And you know, the least amount of fat with that muscle. And that's why, you know, from an athlete standpoint, as well as from a coaching standpoint, muscle growth and programming for muscle growth and training for muscle growth is way trickier. And in my opinion, way more challenging than fat loss. Fat loss and weight loss is pretty easy. The challenging part of weight loss is, you know, the habits and the deep rooted beliefs that come along with changing our lifestyle when you're trying to lose weight. The actual protocols for weight loss. And I mean, at Cotton Conquer and with our clients, like we are super precise, because again, we want to make sure like we're maximizing fat loss. You don't want to be losing bone density and muscle mass. And we want to make sure you're eating, you know, the most that you possibly can to still achieve that optimal rate of fat loss. And that you're not sacrificing your life and you're not sacrificing the things that matter to you. And you know, we're doing the right dose of cardio. And we're training enough that you're getting a stimulus, but we're not over training so that we're seeing, you know, hormonal crashes and that your recovery is suffering. But simply put, like, you can do a lot of things and still lose weight. Like, there's no one perfect way to do it. Building muscle, however, it does require, in my opinion, a lot more detail and a lot more strategy, because you can't just do anything and gain muscle. Whereas with weight loss, arguably, you could not even work out and simply lose weight through, you know, doing adjustments to your diet and to your nutrition. Really, you don't actually have to work out at all to lose weight. Whereas when he comes to the muscle gain, it's gonna be pretty freaking tricky to put any muscle on your body if you're not lifting weights. And then, you know, if you're not lifting weights, the right way. And if you're not getting the right amount of tension on the proper muscles that you're trying to grow, and you're not doing exercises that are, you know, optimal for your physique and for your goals, or the sets aren't set up in a way that really drives muscle growth, right? You can set up a program that is, you know, resistance training that is more so going to drive weight loss, arguably so higher output sets, right? Whereas, you know, if we're trying to drive muscle growth, you also want to consider, you know, like, what amount of stimulus do we need? And at what point are you just adding junk volume into your training, where it's only going to, you know, decrease your ability to recover? Now, one of the things that I will say about doing a really, really intentional cut last year for my show, and then, you know, a really, really intentional building phase is it truly has given me such an appreciation for the different stages of fitness. Now, it's not that I didn't appreciate them before, but, you know, I would do like a fat loss phase for myself. And I'm not saying I didn't take it seriously at all. But sometimes I would spend maybe like a little longer than I needed to in that stage, just because, you know, I was like, Oh, like, you know, if I went out of my deficit this week, you know, whatever, I'll just go back into it next week, right? And like, my own bad habit, myself, I'll admit it is, you know, I've, especially before I knew what I was doing, if it is, if I go back to the younger version of myself, you know, at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, even like, I was that person who would chase weight loss. And my goals were always weight loss, right? And the reason why I would still kind of go into a building phase was because, you know, I would accidentally screw up and I would binge. And then I'd be like, well, fuck, I already put on 10 pounds this month, I might as well just keep fucking gaining and, you know, optimize it. But it wasn't so much of the intentional appreciation for, okay, right now I'm cutting my whole and the sounds obsessive, but it's like my whole life, you know, is geared towards me cutting. And that sounds extreme, but it doesn't have to mean that you're living your life for cutting. It means, you know, you're taking the actions that you need to really optimize and get the absolute most out of that cut. So you can get out of it, because it is not healthy. And not only is it not healthy, it is not, you know, like going to help your aesthetic physique goals to constantly be chasing weight loss and to be always trying to lose weight, because you're going to down regulate your metabolism, you are going to end up losing muscle mass. And both of those things in combination make it so much harder to lose weight in the future, because now you got cravings and now everything is screwed up. And now you got to battle through all that. And it feels like your body is fighting you. And you're going to gain weight a lot easier, right? Because your metabolism will have slowed down. So if you could have consumed 2000 calories before and not gained weight, well, now you're not going to be able to do that. So now you're going to gain weight with less calories. It's a slippery slope. So the one thing, one big thing, and this is something we've really been trying to teach to our clients at Cotton Conkers as well, is, you know, really appreciating and getting intentional about the stage of fitness that you are in right now. Now that could still be a maintenance phase. I mean, the basic stages, if you guys don't know, I'll break them down. And these aren't, you can be in a cutting phase stage, which is like specifically looking for fat loss, you can be in a maintenance phase, which is essentially maintaining where you're at without, you know, gaining or losing weight. You can be in a reverse diet, right? I have a whole episode on that super, super insightful. Reverse dieting is like one of the keys and one of the reasons why people, you know, don't maintain their weight loss is because they don't reverse diet or they don't know what that is. So you can be in a reverse diet, reverse dieting will often transition into either a building phase or it could transition back into another cutting phase. And then you arguably could also have like a recomp phase, recomp. If you are, if you are intentionally trying to do a recomp, meaning like you're trying to lose muscle and, I mean, sorry, gain muscle, lose fat right at the exact same time, you know, that's typically only going to happen at the very beginning of your program or for like an untrained individual. Or if you've taken like a very long time off of training or maybe like after a pregnancy, or those types of things as one recomp is really going to, you know, happen. Otherwise for a successful recomp, we're typically taking you through like a cut a reverse and a build or, you know, a build a cut and a reverse. And then we have, if I didn't say it already, you guys, we have your building phase, which isn't just about building muscle. It is also about, you know, building strength. It is also about building up your metabolism and building up your caloric intake so that you can in the future maintain a leaner physique, actually eating more food. And if you guys are like kind of interested in that or you want more info, I am actually going to be running a masterclass, probably the first week in November, maybe the last week in October. It's going to be open for obviously clients and for the public that talks about the stages of a fitness journey and kind of what that can look like, how you can set it up, the different protocols, what you can expect in each stage as well as what you can feel in each stage and specifically what that looks like at cut and conquer. But you guys taking it back on track here, if I'm being honest, I had never done not never really done a hardcore intentional bulk for an extended period of time. Okay, I have gone intense for, you know, four to eight weeks to try to build as much about sole pause possible in eight weeks. I have, you know, accidentally, like I already referenced, gone into a building phase because I accidentally binged and ate too much and put on 10 pounds of fat. So I was like, well, might as well just keep going at this point. But what I mean when I say I've never done a hardcore intentional bulk for an extended period period of time is I've never pushed through the actual point of discomfort of like, I don't like this anymore, but I'm doing it for the greater good. Now I did take six years off between shows. So between when I last competed to when I recently competed, there was a six year time frame where I did take six years off to build muscle, like that was my goal because I didn't feel like I had enough muscle on stage. I wanted to come back and be impressive, right? So I took six years to do that. However, I wasn't, you know, in a aggressive building phase for six years, I was in our in and around, you know, maintenance, like just above my maintenance level for the majority of that. But when I got to a point where I felt like my body fat percentage was a little bit too high, I would pull back, I would pull back. So it was a, you know, six year duration of building and, you know, kind of going like above my maintenance, below my maintenance, whatever the case. And there's nothing, nothing wrong with that. However, it will just take you significantly longer to, you know, build muscle mass when you're doing that going in and out of like a surplus. And if you are like a hard gainer, again, I would definitely not recommend that. Like if you are someone who doesn't build muscle easily. Now, thankfully, I was blessed with the genetics that I do build muscle a lot easier than a lot of females. Okay. There is a genetic component that comes into play. And I mean, specifically, I build muscle quite, I don't like to say easily, but I build muscle quite quickly on my upper body. I do. And I think that's, that's part of the reason why, you know, I would kind of pull back a little bit is because my upper body grows completely out of proportion to my lower body. I can do two fucking lateral raises and my shoulders grow, like I swear to God, whereas my lower body, I can destroy it. And you know, I mean, back in the day, I mean, I think I arguably maybe was over training my lower body a little bit. But even so, even now, when I know that I am training very much correctly, it's like, come on. And the fact that I do love training doesn't like makes me like some people will cut upper body out of their training. But I love training upper body. I don't want to not train upper body. I don't just train to like look a certain way. I also train because I love it. I love it. I don't want to not train my back. And I've cut my back days down to once a week because like my back blows up. However, you guys like doing this building phase over the last 15 months, it was challenging. Like, for me personally, it was way more mentally challenging than doing a prep way more. And, you know, being dialed in is kind of like my strength. So I really, really did try to apply that to this. And I think that, you know, that was super helpful to me. But there were days, lots of them, lots, lots, lots of the days where I wanted to go back into a cut so badly. And if you guys caught one of the last episodes with Jeff Ingram, where we talked about training age, there were days where like I messaged Jeff because he was helping me through this building phase. And I was like, I hate how I look right now. Like, I hate it. And Jeff's like, you know, like, you know, that sucks and like talked me through it. But he's like, you know, this is for the greater good. Like, this is going to help you so much in the future and logically, logically, like, I know that logically. Yes, he's right. But like, when you're living it in the moment and when you've seen yourself go from having a shredded eight pack to like not even really having a visible four pack, it's, it's difficult. It's challenging. It messes with your head. And like, the thing is, is even, you know, if I was at 125 pounds, I think back to when I went to Vegas in 2022, and I was like, like 125 pounds, and I felt so good in my body. And then fast forward, I'm like, I can see that I actually look better. Like, I actually have more muscle mass. Why do I feel so disgusting? Like, why do I feel so fat right now? And again, it's like, I really don't think I was, I don't know. I don't want to say I wasn't ready because there was really no choice other than to get ready. But like, I didn't understand the impact it would have on my mind to see myself go from so lean to not so lean. And I think honestly, in my defense, I mean, not in my defense, like, like in, for argument's sake, I, the fact that I followed my reverse diet so perfectly and stayed so lean so long after my show, I think actually in the long run almost worked against me a little bit because I was like, like four months post show, and I still looked, you know, pretty lean. I'd only gone up a couple pounds. And again, I followed everything perfectly and we were reverse dieting and everything was going well. I ended up getting sick. And that was kind of the the start of the added fat that I put on. And again, everyone may have their own opinion on that. And a lot of people love to bash bodybuilding and a lot of doctors that I saw said, Oh, yeah, it's from bodybuilding. And I personally do not think it is at all from bodybuilding. I think it is completely the sickness that I had was very much unrelated. But you know, again, going back to finding the appreciation for the different stages, finding the appreciation for your body at different phases, at different weights, because being shredded as shit, you know, the one lesson that I really got from that is like, you don't need to be that lean, Christina, you do not need to be that lean for what purpose is that like, what purpose is that serving you? Like, yes, it's forgetting on stage. And yes, it's because that was, you know, the goal was to get on stage and do my best and present my best physique and whatnot. But like taking the stage out of it in the realm of life, and even coaching and athleticism, there is no purpose to being that lean other than on your stage day, right? So it's like a lot of people think like, I'll be happy when I achieve X, I'll be happy when I look a certain way, I'll be happy when my stomach is just completely flat. That was one for me. It was like, I always had it. I felt like I was had like that little frickin bump on my belly, under my belly button. And it's like, I'll just be happy when that's gone. But it was gone. It's was completely gone. And it's like, it didn't really change that much, you know? And to be honest, even when I was at my leanest, I was like, I'm not happy because my legs aren't big enough. Like, it's great to have a six pack, but I need big legs. I need a bigger butt. So one of the really important messages here is, you know, find happiness at that heavier weight, because if you can't find happiness at a heavier weight, you're not going to be happier at a lower weight. I know it sounds cliche, but you know, that fulfillment that you are looking for in, Oh, I'll be happy when this happens. I'll be happy when that happens. That needs to come from within you. And if you can tap into that or start to tap into that or even open your mind to that, you're going to be able to appreciate the stages so much more because the drive to, you know, lose fat or the drive to gain muscle or whatever that is for you is going to come from a place of, you know, I am enough already how I am and not from a place of unworthiness or that I'm not worthy. And you're going to enjoy the process so much more. And I know, I know, because I've lived it, it's like, sometimes we feel so disgusted about ourselves or we hate how much we weigh or how we look so much. We're like, I don't even care about enjoying the process, Christina, I don't even care about enjoying the process. I just want to lose this weight or I just want to look this way. And it's like, okay, cool. I understand that. I respect that whatever. But enjoying the journey is only going to make it better. It's only going to make it more powerful. It's only going to make it more sustainable. It's only going to make it better for you if you can find that enjoyment. It's the same concept of like, the time is going to go by anyways. You might as well utilize it. You might as well start now because it's still going to be, you know, Christmas eventually, and then it's still going to be spring after that. So like, what are you going to do with that time? Because you might as well start. Now, a few other, you know, key points with this with this building phase is focus on, you know, the benefits focus on the strength gains, like lean into that shit. Because that is really what helped me keep pushing forward. Like, if it wasn't for the fact that absolutely everything in my program was fucking phenomenal, except for my body image in my head, I don't know if I don't know if I would have been able to do it. Like, I don't know if I would have kept pushing through because my strength has never gone up like that in my life. Okay. My performance was top notch. My recovery was top notch. My nutrition was top notch. My nutrition is always top notch if I do say so myself. But my relationship with food was top notch. Like, everything was so good, everything. I've never been that strong in ever. Like, I hit PRs that I hadn't hit since way before my back injury, some of them lifetime PRs. And I had my like strength peak back in 2019. And, you know, it was, it was incredible. It was awesome. So when you're in that building phase, yes, it's, it's highly probable, especially if you have preexisting, you know, body image issues in your head that, you know, that's going to be a struggle for you. But focus on all of the great things, focus on how good your workouts feel, how good your sleep is, you know, the strength gains, the performance, the curves of your physique, like, you know, you might be adding a little more shape in certain areas. Yes, your body fat percentage might be going up. But you know, my head, I'm like, I fucking love my legs right now. Like, yes, I wish I had a little bit less belly fat. Yes, I wish my shoulders popped a little more. Yes, I wish I had my jawline back when I was on stage. But like, you know what, my legs look amazing. My butt looks massive and round and so good. Like, you know, focus on the good parts. Because again, it is temporary, right? Again, it's not just temporary for today. It's a long term process, right? It's a sacrifice that you're making for the greater good and being intentional with that and being intentional as well with your fat loss phases. It gives you the mental and physical freedom to go into that building phase confidently. Because if you know that you took your fat loss phase intentionally and you did everything right, it's like, okay, you did get a leaner physique. Now I can go into that building phase feeling confident, right? And when you're in that building phase and you do everything right and you stick it out and you stay the course, you will get so much power for your next fat loss phase, right? You will gain mental strength. You will gain a shitload of physical strength. You will have more lean mass. You'll be able to eat more calories, you know, and you can go into that fat loss phase feeling confident as shit. Again, I was going to kind of save this message for the end of the podcast. But like you guys, like, I do not regret it at all. Like, I'm so happy that I did this because I am in my my first fat loss phase in a while. And like, it is going so well. I feel so good. My weight is like dripping off me. Like, I haven't even, I have tried hearts. I don't want to say I haven't tried hard, but like, you know, my body is so ready and in a good place now to lose fat that it almost does feel too easy. And you are your worst critic. Again, like, I had the judgment in my head of, you know, what do people think of me? Because, you know, six, seven, eight months ago, I had a six pack. And now I don't. And it was like this fear of the judgment from other people and fear of judgment for myself, because I don't look like I did in my pictures when I was on stage and like, you know, I wish I did. And, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people don't understand this process. And they don't understand that being stage lean is not healthy. And they don't understand that, you know, you, the concept that like a woman would intentionally gain weight is so foreign to like the general population that I'm like, I'm like, do I have to like explain this to people? Like, if I explain this, are they going to think that I'm like, trying to justify this? Like, like, you know, it's, it's this pressure, it's this pressure in the industry, especially as someone who's who works in the industry as a coach, it's like, okay, do people think like, I don't know what I'm doing? Because I gained weight, I'm like, no, like, I'm trying to do this, but it's messes with your head because people don't associate gaining weight with success, typically. And I even, I even remember telling like Brendan about it like a couple of times. And he's like, and again, he wasn't being dismissive of it, but in my head, it was a big problem. I'm like, I feel shitty about how I look right now. And he'd be like, why is this even a discussion? Because you look great. Like, yes, you have more body fat than you did last year, but you still look amazing. And physically, you feel amazing, you feel great and you're strong and you're loving your training and your performance is amazing and your recovery is amazing. Like, like, what's the problem? And again, it's just a reminder that like, you are always going to be your worst critic, you are always going to be the most critical of yourself. And you're always going to be more critical of how you look than other people are. So one thing that like helped me is, you know, when you're doing your progress picks, and yes, please do your progress pictures, take your progress pictures, I'm going to explain why in a second, but, you know, don't like, take your progress picks, but then take your head off of them. Like, look at your body objectively without your face, because I would see you with my face, I would just, all I would see is me. But then when I take my face off and I like, look away for a bit and then come back and see just the body, it's like, I'm like, damn, yeah, like, look at those, look at those gains. Like, that chick's got big legs. I'm like, okay, that's me, like, okay, it's fine. But when you get so caught up just looking at yourself, it gets twisted in your brain. It's the same thing when you're prepping. You can't see that you're actually shredded as shit. You're like, I still have body fat right there. Oh my God. But then you look back at that photo and you're like, I look crazy. And when you, you know, are feeling that emotional charge from looking at yourself or looking at your photos, when we're emotionally charged, we typically make bad decisions, typically, right? And emotional decision is not usually a good decision. I would say the large majority of the time, right? And that's when we're going to want to do the whole hit the bucket button and either pull right out of that building phase and go into a cut, go into starvation, or hit the bucket bucket, the button the other way and go, I'm fat as fuck, I might as well binge eat this entire pantry full of goodies because I'm already fat and I've already screwed up and I already hate myself. Right. So I'm going to dive into that a little bit in a second, but please take your progress pictures. Again, please, please, please do it. And yes, know that, you know, you might feel that bit of emotional tingle when you look at them and maybe you have gained a bit of body fat and maybe you do look a little bit thicker or a little bit bulky and you're like, Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you're going to feel the pull, you're going to feel the pull to either, you know, binge or starve. And please, please push yourself to refrain, push yourself to refrain from doing that. Okay, stay consistent, stay committed because, you know, I promise you it is going to be so, so worth it. But one of the most challenging things is staying committed to that in the midst of those emotions and in the midst of those thoughts. But please, you know, if you're building, like, you know, everyone knows I'm a huge advocate for a coach. That's why I have coaches myself. That's why, you know, if I ever I'm trying to do something meaningful, I invest in some type of mentorship because, you know, having that support and that objective perspective and help on the things that you can't see is so meaningful. Like, I can't express that enough. And especially in a building phase, like it is so challenging to coach yourself through a building phase. But in a building phase, you do really need to take your nutrition seriously, right? Stay on a plan. The great thing about a building phase is you can have more flexibility with your diet. You can eat, you know, you can have a couple more treatments per week more than likely, but that doesn't mean that you just it's just a free for all, right? You still need to hit certain amounts of macros. You still need to hit certain amount of micronutrients. You still need to be like prioritizing your pre and post workout meals properly. And it makes a it makes a huge, huge difference when you keep that structure, right? In the past, sometimes when I would do those shitty building phases out of like, you know, a knee-jerk reaction to me going off and eating shitty, it's like, I didn't I was just like, okay, eat more, gain more, whatever. But like, that's not how it works. And in those building phases, I would put on so much more fat than muscle that it was pointless, because I would end up, you know, it would take me so much effort to burn off all the fat that I was like, well, I could have just done this like slower and actually just put on more muscle and be way happier and way better off. But now I'm kind of back to where I was to begin with. And also like, this is your reminder again, if you are embarking on that, you know, longer term building phase, and I mean, anything more than like 10 weeks, you know, most building phases are going to be like between 12 to 32 weeks ish, I mean, or even more. But that's kind of like probably typical if you're in like a program. And you know, if you even think about it in less than 10 weeks, you can't do that much damage if you're following your plan, right? Unless you completely derail and like binge every single day of your life and like, don't train. But you know, if you're doing a long term building phase, there might be times and periods where you do where we do pull food back down. That is fine. That is normal. There might be different reasons for that. Sometimes you might pull food down to kind of give your metabolism a chance to catch up a little bit. You might pull food down. If you do feel like, holy shit, like, I did put on a little bit of fat over these last couple of weeks. And that is why it is so important to have a coach and it is so important to monitor your progress. It is so important to take the progress pictures during the building phase, like at least on a biweekly basis, at least on a biweekly basis, you know, in in conquer anyways, the ladies who are in their building phases in the body recon program with me right now, which is, I mean, just to quickly explain, it's a period of weeks where we're strictly pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing for muscle growth. And then we're going into a cut for the obviously goal of body recon. But during that building phase, I have those ladies weigh in two times per week, two times per week. It is not to emphasize how important the scale is because the scale is not important. It's a tool that's used in combination with a lot of things. But looking at that weekly average compared to the previous week is so important in a building phase, in my opinion, as a coach, right? And again, it's going to depend as well on how long the building phase is that you're doing, because if it's a shorter building phase, you likely can be a little more aggressive and you can have a little bit more of a surplus and you can have a little bit more weight gain per week. If it's a longer term building phase, you know, you can take it a little slower. But again, what's important is the weekly average over time compared to, you know, prior weeks, because again, especially as women and like we do work with quite a few men at Conker as well, with men, you typically won't see as many weight fluctuations, right? With women, our hormones are kind of screwed. Right? There's, there's way more stuff going on there. Hormonely with, you know, water retention and around your menstrual cycle, where you will see, you will see a weight fluctuation, like almost for certain. And that can be, you know, even up like three pounds, like before you get your period, three pounds up, not abnormal whatsoever. Right? Again, we're looking at the average. So even though a three pound gain in a week, that's pretty high. That is pretty high for a typical female. But again, we're looking at the average. So, you know, just because you saw that big spike this week, right? You know, what's, what's going to happen next week, right? Like, we want to see the average over time and see that trend so we can make sure that you're gaining the weight at, you know, a rate where fat gain is minimized. And it doesn't mean that if your weight goes down, that you did something wrong, right? We know the scales affected by so many things. Right. And all of these factors, including how much your weight may fluctuate, how quickly it might go up, how long you might want to be in a building phase, phase four, it all depends on, you know, your starting weight, it depends on your height, it depends on your starting body fat. It depends on how quickly you build lean tissue, where you're looking to build lean tissue, how long you're looking to be building for, right? Again, shorter, you can go a little more aggressively. Another thing to consider is, you know, at the beginning of a building phase, you might see a quicker jump of your weight. I'm like that. A few of my clients are like that. I hold a lot of water, right? And when I eat carbs, I store a good amount of glycogen. If I stop training, if I don't train for 10 days, my weight will just drop like eight to 10 pounds. Literally, it will just go down and in my eating can be maintained. I just hold a lot of water when I train, right? So, you know, depending on how many carbs you're eating, how much we've increased your carbohydrate intake, what your training looks like as you move into that phase, you know, you might just see a water weight increase on the scale. And then you might also see it, you know, come back down a little bit as your body starts to adjust. And another really important reminder is, and this one is especially for the men, it's not just about eating more to gain more muscle, right? Like that's something I've had to like remind Brendan a lot. I mean, he's he's someone who can eat like quite a bit and not get fat. But you know, it's not just about eat more to gain more muscle. There's a strategic way to do that, to optimize and get the most out of what you're eating. So to wrap things up, just a couple, you know, added tips and insights for those of you who are thinking about going into a building phase, who are in a building phase. I mean, first off, those feelings of, you know, body dysmorphia and, you know, not liking what you're seeing in the mirror and questioning it and feeling that intense desire to either completely go off the deep end or to completely switch gears and pull yourself the hell out of that building phase. They're normal. They're valid. You know, it happens to the best of us. Focus on their freaking benefits, focus on what you love about yourself, focus on what you love about your training, what you love about your life, focus on everything that is going good and push yourself at discomfort, you know, talk to your coach about it. Because I mean, maybe you maybe you can pull food down a little bit, but you know, commit to the building phase because I promise you it is so, so, so worth it. Another little tip, you know, lean into the flexibility with your food when you're in a building phase. I'm someone who's very rigid with my food, but I do try to be a little more flexible in a building phase because you have the leeway to do that. You're eating more calories. You likely have more carbs. You likely have more fats to play with. Enjoy it because when you do go into a cut, you know, even if you're doing a really flexible nutritional approach, you have less leeway because you're going to have less calories. So you have to be more selective with your food to make sure you're eating the proper foods. You know, in your training, push the heavier weight, right? Aim to increase your weight every couple weeks. Focus on those isolated movements. I know everyone says like, Oh, compound lifts are king. Like yes, compound lifts are amazing. But you know, if you're trying to build your quads, like fucking quad extensions, like there's not really anything better than that, right? Really dig into those isolated movements by lateral movements as well. Single arm single leg works so powerful, so good for muscle growth machines, machine work. I really think the reason I've been able to add so much size to my legs this year is because I was using the hell out of machines, right? I didn't do a lot of dumbbell or barbell work for my legs. I basically do none. I basically do only machines for my leg days. Now again, there is individual preference. There is individual cases in terms of body structure and goals in which that might not make sense for you. Be mindful of your cardio in a building phase. You're typically not going to be wanting to do an abundance of cardio because it's usually going to kind of work against what you're doing. That doesn't mean no cardio and it definitely doesn't mean no extra movement. But you want to be mindful because if you're burning off the calories that you're eating and taking yourself out of that surplus or just doing unnecessary cardio, you're going to add fatigue, right? Your fatigue is going to increase. That's energy that could ideally be going towards your training, which is going to help you the most with building that lean mass. The benefits of doing a building phase, there's so many. There's so many guys, but improved shape to your physique. I can even see right now, and I've only cut down five, well, I guess, seven pounds from my top weight, but really five pounds since my cut really started. I can already see, see a crazy difference in my shape, especially in my lower body. I think my shoulders too, just scaring the hell out of me because my shoulders are already big. My shoulders, you guys, are already very noticeable. When I drop another five pounds, I think my shoulders are going to look scary. Because they already look a little bit scary. I still have a decently high body fat percentage right now. You will be able to achieve a leaner physique with a higher caloric intake. You're going to be able to eat more. It's going to be easier to maintain that weight. You're going to have higher maintenance calories. You're going to be stronger. You're going to feel better in the gym. Your training performance is going to increase as you'll be able to stay at a higher capacity as you enter that cutting phase if you decide to. Weight loss in the future is going to become so much easier, and you're going to have a boosted metabolism. There's also so many more benefits, you guys, in terms of hormone health, in terms of recovery, stress management. There's nothing bad about a building phase. I really, really, really hope that this podcast inspires some of you guys, especially some of the ladies, to move into a building phase in the near future. Winter is coming, you guys. This is the time. The fall, the winter, embrace it. Please, if you're interested in a building phase, you want to chat about it, send it, send over a DM on Instagram @Nafina@caught.com or fitness. Maybe it's a fit to work together. Thank you guys for tuning in. I appreciate you, as always, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Beyond the Body. If you're getting value from the podcast, please don't forget to follow rate and review. It really goes a long way. And if you're ready to take your mind and body to the next level and you want to work closely with me and my team, head over to my Instagram page @Nafina and tap the link in my bio to fill in a coaching application to see if Cut and Conquer can help you transform your life. [Music]