Hammer & Chisel 30 Day Review

So in 30 days in to Round 2! And I'm definitely making progress. I learned a lot from Round  1 and I hope to help you avoid the mistakes that I made!

How I Feel

First of all I'm feeling a lot more like myself this round. And I can attribute that to the fact that I am making sure that I meal planning and I'm sticking to my program! I was definitely off track during my first round and when I look back to what it was that I was doing I was being a little bit too liberal with my meal planning. Things that you don't think are a big deal add up. We're talking in tossing Hershey kisses back like their TicTac's or having one too many handfuls of whatever treat was lying around that day, every day-- accounts for an extra 100 to 300 cal per day. If you're doing that every day do the math your derailing yourself. I definitely did all the work out but I was super disappointed in my results. 

What Happened in Round 1

I can honestly say now that I understand what happened. Is almost like I had "Meal Plan Amnesia" where I was forgetting all that extra stuff that I was either drinking or eating. Not that it's any excuse but my first round was over the holidays and I think that I just took liberties that I should not have taken.  Looking back I can see that I did not track my nutrition as closely as I should have.  I was using the Beachbody Performance line that did help me build muscle and recover from soreness.  But that extra 100-300 a day of extra crap essentially stalled my results.  I did experience a gain (muscle growth) but I didn't lose or cut any body fat.  So I was really feeling upset after the first 60 Days.   This Round I cut out all Performance Line products except for Energize.  My pre-workout gives me a boost to make it thru those tough workouts all together.  I need it to power thru when I'm not feeling 100%. 

Back to Round 2

I've definitely tightened up my meal plan and I'm doing the workouts as prescribed. I'm not doing any extra. The temptation when you don't see results is to DO MORE.  DON'T!! Resist the temptation.  Over training can mean you will either STALL or worse, your body will burn muscle vs. Fat for energy.  Last time I looked that was NOT the goal! My goal is to lean out and maintain my strength.  

The reward so far has been a nice progressive loss. More of a loss of fat over muscle which is what my goal is. I want to leave now but I want to keep that muscle but I work so hard to build. 5 pounds is 5 pounds but you can see here by volume when you lose even 1 pound of fat you lose serious inches! And that's the goal for me I want to keep myself fed the right way so that I carve the fat off and maintain my muscle. But everyone wants a QUICK fix and loss- I have learned from doing programs steadily for 2 years that it is better to build and progress slowly, you maintain and keep what you worked for.  Rather than just dumping a bunch of water weight that means nothing.     

Slow and steady wins!  But planning has been KEY to my last 30 Days! I managed to lose overall 3.4 lbs which may not sound like much but 2.4 of that was Fat.  I only sacrificed a little over 1/2 pound of muscle in the loss.  The scale is not a factor as much as how my clothes feel and how I feel overall.  I am making GREAT progress and I'm encouraged to see how the next 30 days wraps up!!

If you are interested in learning more about Hammer & Chisel or any of my Challenge Groups- fill out the application below! I'd love to help find the right group to help you with your personal goals!

All my best!! Keep sweating!!

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