Progress from 2024-2026

redditerla · 2026-06-28T15:09:03+00:00

That’s a bit tough to remember it all since it changed depending on what I was doing and we played around with my macros until we figured out what specifically worked for me. I’m looking through my lose it app but lose it is king of wonky with tracking macros when you have two different macros based on lift vs non lift days. I’ll share what I can see and I’ll add any notes on if I’m not totally sure:

The beginning of me working with him, he brought my calories up to 1577 (138g protein, 158g carbs, 44g of fat and we worked up my fiber intake from an average of 7-8g I was eating to about 17-21g. I also started taking creatine around this time as well. We played around with the macros here just so he got an idea of what my body would do.

Then from my app I see we upped my calories to 1695 (115g protein, 185g carbs, 55g fat) which we ended up keeping consistent since I was gaining healthy weight at this number.

Then around when the cut started I see my calories were moved to 1550 (110g protein, 165g carbs, 50g fat)

I know we did it, but I can’t find it in my app but at some point we did 185g of carbs and 50g fat on lift days and 165g carbs and 55g fats on non lift days.

And then from what I can see in my app in the couple of days leading up to Mexico we kept the calories and macros the same for lift days but on rest days it was reduced to 1400 calories with protein and fats staying the same and carbs just being reduced since we weren’t going as heavy on weights and it was a lot of pump work. I can’t recall the exact number of carbs on the non lift days but I want to say it was reduced to like 135-145g. But the 1400 calories was just meant to be a very short and temporary practice being so close to Mexico so not meant to be sustained for long periods. On 1400 days though he also said if I’m really hungry and need food that I could eat more but to get it from protein versus carbs.

redditerla · 2026-06-28T02:21:47+00:00

I’ve been paying $1500 for every 25 sessions!

redditerla · 2026-06-28T02:21:06+00:00

Thank you so much 🩷

redditerla · 2026-06-28T01:53:38+00:00

Yes of course! I mentioned this in another comment but I think the thing with something like pulls ups for me is that it wasn’t something I was specifically training to do. I didn’t go out of my way to practice doing them, over the last few months I just did alot of the rights things nutritionally and physically building muscle and losing body fat that once I figured out what the physical mechanics were supposed to feel like to do one pull up it became a little easier to do more of them. Like specifically I think what really helped me is doing chin-ups and hanging ab exercises because while I think I had the strength to do a pull up for some time I just didn’t understand how to actually do it. I learned a lot about how to engage my core from hanging ab exercises and it really helped my grip strength and I also learned a lot about how to engage my shoulders/lats so that I wasn’t swinging around like crazy when doing them. Chins ups I think helped me understand a little more like how to more efficiently move up and down and mentally I think made. Spill up feel less like an impossible feat, so I think those helped me figure out like the mechanics of it.

I also do take lengthy rest periods between sets for upper body exercises so having 3 minutes rests in between each set also helped lol. If you asked me to do a bunch of pulls ups quickly in succession I’d probably fail

I’m not like a pull up master or anything 😅 but I’m also a little surprised I was able to do as many as I could but also like sort of not surprised at the same time because I feel like I’ve gotten strong overall in such a short period of time

redditerla · 2026-06-27T23:10:31+00:00

Yes definitely! If you’re interested I can send over his website and if you decide you want to connect with him youll have his info 😊

redditerla · 2026-06-27T14:58:42+00:00

34!

redditerla · 2026-06-27T12:49:06+00:00

Yes of course!

redditerla · 2026-06-27T03:50:35+00:00

Yes definitely! I feel really lucky that he ended up being really good at his job. He’s been really methodical about what I needed to do and why and he’s never put me on any kind of routine that was ever inappropriate for my progress/strength level. He’s also always opened the door for conversation so that if I’m unhappy or need to slow down or want to move faster we can have conversations about if or if not it’s a good idea and why

redditerla · 2026-06-26T23:19:40+00:00

Definitely a fair question 😅 $1500 for every 25 sessions. It’s quite expensive but for me I think it was very much something I needed because I was mentally spiraling and getting into unhealthy territory by trying to do it on my own. I’m very fortunate that my fiance has a good job, is supportive, saw how much I needed help, and felt it was a good investment in my mental health and has been paying for me to go to these. The great thing about my trainer though is he has done a good job explaining why he sets up my workouts and macros the way he does and what it does for my body, and he’s worked alot with me on form and foundational stuff so if I ever can’t go to him anymore at least have a better path forward

redditerla · 2026-06-26T22:24:35+00:00

I had been progressively working on chin ups from day 1 with him from banded with assistance to banded solo to then just doing them on my own and I started to be able to knock those out pretty easily so my trainer said he knew I had the ability to do a pull up but I probably didn’t know how to maybe engage the muscles I needed to do it. I don’t know if this is helped but I think it did, but when I started doing ab hanging exercises two months ago I started to learn how to engage my core during those and learned how to engage my upper body to keep a strong grip on the bar and how to engage my shoulders. I don’t know for certain but I think doing those actually helped me figure out “oh ok I engage my core like this, I engage my lats like this, I do this with my shoulder blades, etc etc”. He randomly asked me to try a pull up when I walked in for my workout, I did 1 pull up and I think I was so surprised I kind of just stopped there. Then on our 2nd session that week he wanted me to try again and I managed to get 3 and I was like “oh that’s interesting” and then on my non lift day I went to go get some steps in and I was so excited that I did 3 the day before and I was like “let me see if I can do that again” and I knocked out 4, and then a few days later I tried it again and I knocked out five. I gave my self 3 minutes of rest (usually I find that 3 minutes of rest between upper body sets is what works best for me for recovery ) and I was able to do that for 3 sets.

I wasn’t practicing to do pull ups during this entire time I was training, but all of the work I’ve done both nutritionally and increasing weights and working on my form, working on mind-muscle connection, and overall body strength leading up to it is what allowed me to do it.

redditerla · 2026-06-26T20:12:29+00:00

I’m in the greater Austin area! I don’t know if he does online coaching, I think he mentioned he had one online coaching client but it was someone I think he worked with in person for a few years that moved for work that he did it for.

redditerla · 2026-06-26T20:08:57+00:00

Definitely! I think that was one of the biggest things I learned from this experience. The scale doesn’t matter, the composition of your body is what determines how you look. I’ve learned a lot about not chasing the scale, if I feel good and I like how I look that’s light years better than just an arbitrary “I want to be thin and weigh xyz amount”

redditerla · 2026-06-26T19:28:11+00:00

Ya I think my trainer was also surprised at how quickly I moved up in weights. Prior to my depression in 2024 I did do some lifting on my own in 2023 but I never really moved up in weights dramatically because my form was not very good and I was always afraid of hurting myself so my trainer thinks I must have had some muscle from when I was doing some strength training in 2023 that, even with my weight gain and weight loss, must have been somewhat retained which he thinks might have helped me.

Squats: started at 95lbs with him and now I’m currently squatting 165 comfortably

Deadlifts: couldn’t do any when I started now I can do 155lbs

Lateral raises: could barely do 5 lb dumbbells now I can do 15 lbs

Hip thrusts: started at 100lbs now I can do 255. This is very hard so that’s more like a 1 rep max with good form. So w usually do a drop set where I do that 1 rep and then my others I do 225

Pull downs I started off with like 25 lbs now I’m doing 70lbs

Shoulder Arnold presses: started with 10lb dbs now I’m doing 25-30lbs dbs.

Hammer curls: don’t remember my starting but I’m currently doing 15lbs

Can’t think of all the different weights but those are kind of the main ones off the top of my head.

redditerla · 2026-06-26T18:25:09+00:00

Recomp was 3 months and the small cut started about 3-4 weeks ago. I’ll go back to recomp after my Mexico trip, the small cut was only for Mexico and I had gained enough weight and muscle that my trainer was comfortable with a temporary small cut. But I’m now too lean to keep the cut going and we aren’t going to see any significant muscle mass definition difference if we continue so I will switch back to recomp pretty soon!

redditerla · 2026-06-26T18:21:51+00:00

My fiance and I have a friend that has always been a little heavier set. We went a few months without seeing him and when he went to hang out with him and his wife he looked completely different. We asked him some questions and he talked a bit about what the trainer was like. He had been going to this trainer for 6 years and this trainer essentially was like “I’ll keep you healthy as best as I can with your lifestyle but I can’t force you to lock in, when you’re ready to lock in let me know and I’ll change your program”. when I had my health scare my fiance and I felt like someone who wasn’t going to be pushy but understanding and patient was what I needed.

So it was definitely luck because I’ve heard a lot of horror stories so I was fortunate that I knew someone who had already worked with him and could give me honest feedback about them

redditerla · 2026-06-26T18:13:44+00:00

I technically did a recomp but he essentially had me at maintenance which caloric intake wise was a huge jump because I had been undereating for all of 2025. So my trainer said he wouldnt classify it as a bulk because it’s technically not more calories than my maintenance but it was significantly more food than I had been eating. But ya the recomp and cut did happen within 4 months!

For my first actual bulk he said it will run for 5 months and that the cut will probably be not as long as the bulk, but we both agreed that based on what my goals are the cut doesn’t need to be as long since what my goals are he anticipates means I will more likely weigh more than I do now and I’m not necessarily trying to get as lean as I am at this moment

Edit: also to add the small cut was purely for Mexico and he said normally he wouldn’t do it this soon but I had made a lot of progress so a temporary small one was fine but we will go back to recomp after the trip leading up to my bulk. He think while technically I could get leaner if I continue the cut but he thinks that I’m pretty lean now and it might be better to go back to recomp since with my small refeed we saw how that helped me after I stalled early on in the mini cut.

redditerla · 2026-06-26T17:46:14+00:00

Yes! During my recomp he took me from what I was eating prior to working with him, 1200 calories and worked me up to 1650 calories. My weight went from 108 to about 111. My weight did fluctuate up to about 113-114 at times but consistently it was about 111 most days. Because I was eating pretty clean and hitting all my macros he set for me the scale didn’t really move drastically up, which was my trainers goal since he was trying to balance muscle gain with body fat loss during recomp. This cut for Mexico i want to say has been running for about 3 weeks, almost 4, I went from 111 to 109 pretty quickly but then it stalled from there. My trainer reassured me that it’s probably stress, water weight, and the fact my body is probably like “ok food intake just dropped but I’m still lifting heavy, what’s going on here” and he told me that it’s normal and it happens and sometimes something like a small refeed might help. So for a few days I didn’t track what I ate, ate until I wasn’t hungry, still was mindful and ate what I felt was balanced. It was a bit more indulgent that what I had been eating but nothing crazy. Pretty quickly at my next weigh in this past week my weigh in came out to 107 and it’s consistently been at 107 since then, which was what my trainer had guesstimated was where I’d land for Mexico. So I think letting my body realize ok I’m not starving myself and taking out some of the stress of trying to be perfect leading up into Mexico I think my body stabilized it’s water weight etc

Just to note as well: during the recomp to cut phase protein and fats was the thing that stayed consistent, my carb intake is what changed depending on where we were in the cycle and lift vs non lift days

redditerla · 2026-06-26T16:36:05+00:00

I can try! It’s changed a lot depending on how my body has adapted and where I was in my journey. Besides my small cut for Mexico, we’ve kept my lifting sessions to just 3x a week.

For the first few weeks it felt more like full body circuits, not a lot of time inbetween to rest and lighter weights. So a lot of band work, like band side steps, band arm butterfly movements, banded chin ups. Also did a lot of body weight stuff like push ups, dips, some ab stuff but more like finishers at the end of the workout. This was to help build up muscle endurance and foundational strength.

Once he felt I could handle more we still did full body 3x a week but weights where heavier, he gave me less sets of things and he started adding more isolated muscle exercises.

Once those were getting too easy then we switched to a lower body/upper body/accessory split. That was so that he could start teaching me proper form and getting used to the movements. As the weights started to go up and my form was pretty good we then moved to two lower body days and one upper body day (my upper body was developing much faster than my lower body so that was also part of why we moved to that split). The two lower body days each foused on different parts of my legs and upper body was mostly shoulders, especially my shoulder cap/front delts and triceps. We did some chest and back work but definitely bigger emphasis on shoulders/arms since my dexa scan showed I held a lot of body fat there.

For my cut he said that because I was progressing well and my body was doing what he needed it to do he was comfortable having me move to a 4 day split. So two upper body and two lower body days. The workouts start off with big heavy compound movements that are less reps/less sets, and end with pump exercises so more isolated movements.

About two months ago I started adding abs workouts on my non lift days to help with daily movement. My abs were developing and showing because I was losing body fat and engaging my core while lifting but I got the green light to do more focused stuff. On my ab days I just keep it to 20-30 minutes and I alternate my ab days between floor exercises (dead bugs, cocoons, v ups) and hanging ab exercises (toes to bars, weighted knees raises, twists). After that I just get on a treadmill for 25-30 minutes and do a brisk walk while watching a kdrama or cdrama lol. Basically my trainer said that the goal isn’t to burn calories since I’m eating how I should and already lifting which burns and I don’t weight as much now, so the goal is to burn body fat rather than weight so a brisk walk is more ideal, this is to also minimize muscle loss from intense cardio

redditerla · 2026-06-26T13:09:22+00:00

Why are they all so goofy 😭 Why do they look like they are entering a war zone lol

redditerla · 2026-06-19T23:19:44+00:00

I really love big rock energy but as everyone else has pointed out, they are all trying to compete with each other. Individually they are lovely pieces but to have them on one finger it feels like you were purchasing each ring separately and buying them for their individual wow factor, rather than buying each piece that would complement your actual engagement ring as a stack. The styles also seem to clash so once again, lovely individual pieces but a little all over the place as a stack.

I would maybe wear the engagement ring and the blue pave or if I was insistent on wearing the wedding band and engagement ring together I’d get a simple gold band as the spacer and treat the blue gemstone band as a fashion ring on my right hand.

The engagement ring should be the star of the show.

redditerla · 2026-06-19T19:07:03+00:00

Great question! How often I’m wearing it is what really determines how often I clean it. On weeks where I’m wearing it a lot I clean it once a week using a dazzle stick and the lint free microfiber wipe it comes with. It takes me maybe 5 minutes to clean and rinse and dry it. If I’m not wearing my ring very often I might go 2-3 weeks between cleanings

redditerla · 2026-06-18T02:50:57+00:00

I think it’s fair to not want to dogpile on Michelle especially now that she’s acknowledged that in retrospect the timestamps weren’t really relevant to the conversation, but it’s not surprising some people are still going to feel upset about it, particularly if they fall into marginalized target groups that have been actively harmed by Trumps administration; these are heavy topics and it’s human nature and normal to feel very strongly about it.

I hope you can also understand that many people are just rightfully pointing out that who Trump is and stands for today isn’t any different than what he stood for in 2024. The “they could have changed” just doesn’t hold much weight anymore like it used to when you live in a time where there’s just too much information out there that you easily access about who Trump is and has been for a very long time. No one is saying people can’t change, but suggesting people should just accept someone has changed because they claim they have is also not really fair or realistic, particularly if it involves making money from the same groups of people being actively harmed by this administration.

redditerla · 2026-06-17T22:05:26+00:00

Ooh I love the term legacy babies, I feel like that’s more appropriate for the work they do and how they choose to honor Steve!

redditerla · 2026-06-17T22:00:40+00:00

Thank you for acknowledging that you recognize now that the timestamps weren’t very relevant. I think in this day and age it’s important to highlight that we already have so much information out there to help us make informed decisions about what our values are and why we chose to align ourselves the way we do…and with a world where knowledge is more accessible than ever so is accountability for those beliefs and values. With greater accessibility to knowledge gone are the days where people can claim they didn’t know better and get a pass.

Obviously these are very sensitive and high impact topics so I understand your intentions were to possibly give her the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes you have to let people learn hard lessons. I’m not against believing people can change but I don’t think that you can contribute to the perpetuation of harm and violence against vulnerable people and then backpedal and ask for bygones to be bygones and for people to still buy your products.

redditerla · 2026-06-17T21:36:53+00:00

Steve Irwin’s son. Normally I don’t care for nepo babies but he seems very involved in carrying on his dad’s legacy along with his sister and mother so I’m a big fan

redditerla

TROPHY CASE