From April 1st through May 31st, I went on a journey to lose weight... or at least that's what I thought. I have blogged a number of times that one of my biggest issues with my health and fitness journey is my diet. For over a year, I had been following this account on Instagram called @rpstrength. The images were remarkable. These people went from total flab and in just three months having washboard abs. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided, what the heck? I have got to try this!
I started this diet thinking it was solely a weight loss journey. I had put on some "love weight" in my first year and a half of marriage and my diet was not conducive for a twenty-eight year old adult. It was time I make a serious change to my diet and start eating like a grown-up. I had no idea the impact my nutrition was having on my body until week one.
This week, I learned a lot about nutrition; like how and when to best fuel my body. I lost 3 pounds the first week and I was eating more than I had ever eaten in my life! Lots of veggies (which I can honestly say, I may have gotten once a week in my diet before RP) and starting and ending my day with protein shakes. I stayed on the base template for three weeks before moving onto Cut 1 because my weight loss was still going strong!
Weeks 4-7, I continued to see weight loss. Workouts were getting easier and I had so much energy because my body was rid of sugar and it was running off of just the food it needed. I started lifting weight I never even thought I could lift. I was hitting personal records (PRs) on my front squat, cleans, snatch and being able to hold the prescribed (Rx) weight during a workout. I was doing more and more workouts Rx. People began to notice my weight loss and that my clothes were fitting better. I even started to feel more confident in my own skin. I was getting my groove back in my workouts and in my wardrobe.
But then came weeks 8-11. These weeks I was extremely disappointed in my weight loss. This was Cut 2. During these weeks, I never saw a single pound come off. In fact, I actually gained weight. After you gain weight, you are supposed to go onto the next tab and continue the diet but I had just gotten into Cut 2. I thought maybe I am just doing something wrong and would try something different the next week.
During this phase, all of my fat grams were taken out of my diet and I was running off of lean protein, vegetables galore and approved carbs. These were the weeks that I saw the biggest improvements in my lifts. I was lifting 20-50 pounds more than I had EVER lifted in my workouts. Rx was the only option now! I did my first ever Rx Murph (minus the weighted vest). Every moment up until now, I was undermining myself. Thinking, "I'm not strong enough and never will be strong enough so I'll just use a band for my pull-ups or knock the weight down 20 pounds." I was SO wrong.
After I beat myself up in week 10, because my scale wasn't moving my dear friends, Alex and Amanda, that I did this whole journey with said let's just take measurements. So we did and I could not believe the results. Over a course of 10 weeks, I lost 11 inches all over my body! I still did not have the washboard abs like I thought I would but losing 2 inches around my waist and 2 inches around my one thigh was HUGE! While my measurements were fantastic, I wanted that before and after picture so bad.
I quickly realized this diet is not about those washboard abs. Yes, that's an added benefit and I am slowly getting them to shine through, but this diet showed me I am strong. I can do anything I put my mind to. This diet was exhausting some days. You had to meal prep for every meal! Going out to eat was really hard and would almost always derail me. No booze, no sugar and very limited dairy was really hard. Especially being in a work environment that is built around entertaining clients with drinks and food. BUT I discovered my strength more than I ever thought possible. Just yesterday I hit a triple digit squat snatch! Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I could do some of the things I am able to do know thanks to RP.
If you are looking for a diet that challenges you mentally, physically and emotionally (sometimes), RP is the diet for you. It will help you build muscle all while loosing weight and redistributing your body composition. I wish I would have gotten a full body scan before I started to know where my body fat percentage started and where I ended. The scale is a good gauge for day to day life but I have always been a proponent to knowing your body fat percentage.
If you have done this diet, what did you think? What were your take away's? Have you been thinking about trying a new diet but don't really want to spend the money? I hope this blog helped you realize it is worth every penny! If you have questions about the diet, products I used, or just nutrition in general, ask away and I will do my best to answer them. If I cannot I will at least point you in the direction to find out the answer. I do not know everything about nutrition but this helped me realize so much about why we eat what we eat and when we should it this food. I am mind blown by all it has taught me!
I cannot say enough great things about this diet. I am taking the summer "off" and staying on the maintenance plan but I will jump back into another cut in August to hopefully get to that washboard ab status. In the meantime, I hope to keep pushing myself in the gym and continue to improve on skills I never thought I could do. And if you see more workout videos than you would like, I apologize in advance!
Thanks for all your support.
Cheers
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