“The tiny ant has a strength advantage because of the ratio of surface area to volume. An ant need only lift a small measure of its own weight relative to the strength of its muscles. ”  When I think about physical strength, I think of ants.  Their strength is relative to their size.  They may be small, but they are strong!  The more I strive to gain physical strength, the more I have come to believe that strength is beautiful and personal and achievable. 

Who doesn’t want to be a stronger person- in every way possible? Admittedly, I’m super impatient when it comes to myself and health/fitness results.  That whole slow and steady wins the race malarky? Sounds great for everyone else, except me.   I make a decision, set goals, create plans, and wanna see results.  

As 2015 approached, the desire to see measurable change in my physical strength gained momentum.  I, like so many others, vowed to see a physically stronger Melanie staring back at me from the mirror, come 2016, someone who could balance marriage, family, career, health, and recreation- and lift my body weight.  It’s 6 weeks into the new year and I am still just as fired up about all the wonderful things 2015 promises!

3 years ago, I embarked on a fitness mission:  drop some pounds, tone a little, enjoy the process.   At best, the goals were a place to start, albeit not specific enough, and, thus not well-suited for carrying out.   What happens after the pounds are dropped and muscle is toned?  Thankfully, my aspirations evolved and I began to look beyond mere aesthetics and ask myself what, precisely, do I hope to gain from my fitness endeavors? (Besides an excuse to make Nike capris part of my daily wardrobe-which I have).  What is the one MOST important outcome I hope to achieve? Strength. My answer is strength.

I tend toward the side of obsessive when I decide to take on a new goal,  so to gain strength, I started extreme:  workouts were tailored for increasing strength, meaning heavier weights, fewer reps, longer rests (so that the nervous system can recover), more consistent gym sessions.   I documented everything (I am a nurse, after all), from the food I ate, the amount of water I drank, and everything else that had to do with seeing results.  I weighed weekly, and even took pictures and measurements (that no one will ever see).   Doing all of these things- I just didn’t feel like I was getting the results I wanted:  little more muscle and lots more strength.  I felt I’d hit a wall.  Until…

Enter the Macros

I came across a great article about food intake and growing muscle.  Perhaps my diet, while healthy, just was not able to do what I wanted it to do.  I needed to make my food work for me.  I decided to track macros.  I thought it would be fascinating to see what MY body, MY muscles could do. Macros, simply put, are the main nutrients: protein, fat, carbohydrates.  I’m no stranger to macros.  I calculate them daily for my patients.  I know that it takes 80-120 cal/kg per day, 3-4 g/kg/day  of protein, and 2-3 g/kg/day of fat to induce weight gain in an infant.  What I needed to learn was how to grow muscle in adults. I started by choosing a daily calorie goal (something I had not been tracking) and a macro ratio:  60/30/10.  This means that 60% of my calories would come from protein, 30% from carbs, 10% from fat.  I soon discovered that this was an extremely low fat intake goal in comparison to my total caloric intake and a bit unrealistic for someone just starting out and after 4 days, changed my ratio to 50/30/20.  Once I calculated my goal calorie, protein, carb, and fat intake per day.  I wrote the daily goal in a small notebook to toss into my purse and proceeded to log macros.

Soon I was reading labels like crazy and found that I needed to a good source to find nutrition info on various foods (like veggies and fruits, which should be consumed in mass quantities).    More ingredients and a complex recipe, I realized, meant spending a little extra time and effort to tally the macros. I followed some advice from various articles and don’t “sweat the small stuff”-  in other words, I round numbers.  The  entire experience has been an eye opener.  Although I was eating “healthy,” I was eating more fat than I recognized- it’s hidden in so many foods.

Advice from a newbie:

1. Make goals specific and know your purpose for doing this- you can remind yourself of what you want to accomplish when you are tempted to stray from the plan.  Expect times of decreased will- power and make plans to counter those times.  I found that acknowledging the fact that I’m tempted to eat “just to taste” the food makes the food less attractive, especially when I think about how temporary the pleasurable taste will be.

2. Calculating and meal planning takes extra time and effort but that’s ok.  Make it work.  I remind myself that busy people do it all the time and feeling strong and healthy is worth the investment.

3. Expect to fall outside the limits of your intake, at times, but be mindful of how often this happens.  Eating meals out, I found, was the biggest saboteur of staying within the limits daily goals. It’s difficult to measure macros from food not cooked oneself.  Eating most meals at home is my solution, which is both healthier and saves money- a win-win for our family!

At just over 6 weeks into macro-counting, these are the tips I have to offer so far, based on my humble and limited experience. I have tailored my counting, to accommodate my schedule. I log every other day and am often able to gauge approximate fat/calorie intake without writing everything down.  The process continues to evolve as I learn more about building muscle, my work with weights becomes more consistent, and balance it all with cardio.

Progress on the Horizon

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”

Frank Zappa

Progress, too, is unique to the individual and happens in many little ways. lt may come in the form of being able to increase on weight squatted or a change in a measurement or even someone noticing the increase in muscle tone.  All these things have happened along the way and serve as motivation to continue.  These little goals are part of another, larger reason to gain strength, and keeping that thought close at hand helps me to stay on track.

To Infinity and Beyond

I may not do this for life, but I’m certainly learning lots and looking at food differently, these days.  Im seeking to learn more about the entire process, asking questions of others who have been there, done this.  In time, I hope to gain a better understanding of what MY body needs for energy and strength and to find a balance with it all.  It’s a dynamic process and quite exciting to discover what wonderful things this little pile of muscle and bone can be pushed to achieve.  I’m most thankful for my health.  Truly, it’s a blessing and worth the investment of both time and effort, because, I believe, it equates to a happy, long life, serving the purpose for which God intended.