Trying to gain weight with Paleo

For someone that is overweight it seems like one of the hardest things in the world to lose that weight. The words diet and exercise are dirty words. You want me to do WHAT?!  Does that sound about right? It is mentally and physically challenging to get out of your comfort zone to make the changes you want to make. One of the ways I kept my motivation up while trying to lose weight was looking at fitness models online and in magazines. That isn't exactly what would work for everyone but it helped me. It was the only thing keeping me from shoving chocolate down my throat at some points! I would look at the picture of a girl with a six pack and rockin' arms and say to myself, "this Reece's cup is not going to help me look like that." So I didn't eat it. For me it was that simple and that difficult.

Eventually I reached my goal weight and size and I stayed there for almost a year before the desire to set another goal set it. I wanted it to be something that if I reached it, it would be a huge victory. Something that would be mentally and physically challenging and push me to my limits. I decided that I wanted to enter a figure competition!

When I started this I weighed in at 135 wearing a size 0  and I am 5'9" tall.

I have a LOT of work to do!

I was going to have to gain a significant amount of muscle weight. I'm tall and lean so that was possibly going to work against me. Every models body that I love is short with stalky muscles. There is no way I can obtain that exact look physically. So I found a few pictures of taller models to aspire to.

I gained quite a bit of weight right off the start by increasing my calorie and carb intake. I was seeing a huge difference in the size of my muscles, especially in my shoulders and back. I was working out only 3 days a week with heavy weight and super sets. Little to no cardio other than what I was getting from my workout.

As many of you know, I'm pretty strict paleo. I would say I'm 98/2 when it comes to strictness. My cheats are very few and far between. I just feel yucky afterwards so what's the point?

With this being said, gaining weight while eating clean is F*ING HARD! My body is basically refusing to gain. I keep losing!!! I was told to eat more... MORE?! I started eating more and I've finally stayed at the same weight for a week now, that's something... I thought losing weight was hard!

I got smart and started logging the food I was consuming and realized that I wasn't eating enough protein. You need protein to recover, duh! Now I'm drinking a protein shake with my meals. I don't tolerate dairy so I'm drinking beef protein called Carnivor. I have the cherry vanilla flavor and it is disgusting! The chocolate it better.

So, one upside to trying to gain weight is I get to eat all the time, I can eat basically anything I want within reason, I need to keep my ratios right at least. Lots of fruit and sweet potatoes!! Yummm!

I heard that adding a half teaspoon of baking powder to the water helps them peel easier, or is it baking soda? Is that true? Maybe I'll try it this weekend when I have a little time, just in case it takes forever. I hate when you peel the shell and the white comes off with it, very disappointing!

I hope this explains why my recipes have been less geared toward weight loss and a little more indulgent. I need the calories! There will come a day when my recipes are very simple and geared strictly toward fat loss. Meat and veggies!

Oh!! Good news!! Today is day 3 of restricting myself to one cup of coffee a day. Last night was a success!!! I actually slept really well and woke up feeling like I slept after only 6 hours. Of course the rest of the day I will be a zombie but yay, I slept!! Since I only get one cup, I make it especially delicious. I put a tablespoon of full fat coconut milk, a splash of vanilla extract, and stevia in it, give it a stir, and it tastes better than a Dunkin Donuts latte!

Right now I weight about 158 lbs and still fitting into my same clothes. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress :)