Before & After 1 year of Crossfit, Lifting, & Eating Clean!

tl;dr warning haha. But I figure this will save me a lot of inboxes! One-year update for my loves who have been with me since last year!

Sometimes I get discouraged because I feel like I still have so far to go before I reach my goal. I'm human and I mess up sometimes, have setbacks, and take breaks (Christmas anyone?! Haha). But a couple of days ago I was feeling like I hadn't gotten nearly as far as I'd wanted to this last year. So I compared myself now with where I was January of last year, and it put everything into perspective.

The little things really do add up over time, especially if you do them the right way. Fast weight loss is temporary- but when you build muscle along with it, and lose fat in a safe, healthy way, it is lasting. I realize some of these "flexy" pictures may turn some people off but I really don't care, and you can kindly restrain yourself from commenting. I am healthy and feel great, and that's all that matters to me.

As you can see in some of the other pictures, lifting builds muscle that is also slimming and flattering. "Flexing" pictures aren't what I look like all of the time, obviously (that would be exhausting!). Contrary to the AMAZING rumor that lifting makes women "bulky," this is in fact the complete opposite- lifting slims women down and gives us that sexy definition that running and cardio don't really offer. Plus, feeling strong and capable is pretty boss.

January 2013 vs January 2014
January 2013: 32% body fat, 141 lbs (about)
January 2014: 22% body fat, 130 lbs

I'm 5' 3" and 25 years old















For those of you who are interested: What did I do differently? Without working out, I would have lost fat and whittled down to a skinny-fat mess (been there, done that). Working out gave me strength and motivation, as well as sculpted a physique underneath the fat for when it started to come off. Three days per week is about maintenance for me, but to gain muscle or lose fat, I push that to 5-7 workouts per week. Typically 3 of these workouts will be crossfit (don't care if you dislike crossfit), and the rest will be a mix of HIIT, long runs outside (weather permitting), or strength training my weak spots at the regular gym. This all depended on whether I wanted to gain muscle or lose fat. If losing fat, I added two days of fasted cardio (HIIT) in the mornings, and that made a huge difference.

Diet, for my body, is 95% of fat loss. When gaining muscle I ate about 150-200g of carbs per day, and 1g of protein per pound of body weight. Fat was low priority. For fat loss, I cut my carbs WAY down to keto level (about 30g of carbs per day) and did carb cycling. So 3 days straight I would do low-carb/moderate fats, then on the fourth day I would do high carb/low fats. Now I do high carbs on crossfit days, and the rest of the days are low-carb. I also had to cut my portions by about 10%. I take a multivitamin, biotin, fish oil, iron, calcium (neither of which are in my multi), and raspberry ketones/L-carnitine.

I don't have physique competition goals or anything like that. I just want to be comfortable, confident, strong, and proud of myself. I have more specific goals on my page, but that's the umbrella of it. My wedding is coming up and I want to look bausss.

Again, I am NOT -promoting- that everyone do Crossfit. I'm just telling you what I did. Do whatever works for you! I hope this encourages ladies to lift a bit. I find that most women love the results!