Bulk It Up for the Summer

Monday marked the start of my first ever bulk, and in many ways, that terrifies me.

The Decision to Bulk

I've been at a weight plateau between 151-153 lbs (68-69 kg) for over a year now, maybe even two. Sometimes I'll fall to 150, other times I'll skyrocket to 156. Considering I was at 143 when I first returned from Japan, the stall has been, quite frankly, shriek inducing.

Now, that said, much of that plateau is the result of losing fat and gaining muscle. I can see far more definition in my shoulders, biceps, and thighs than I have in a good long time, even when I was "skinnier." My strength continues to improve, and I've been getting better about showing up even if I can't bring myself to complete all the exercises, which has been a vast hurdle to leap because there's a part of my mind that can scarcely conceive working on something to partial completion. (Hello, Perfectionism, you scurrilous thief of progress.)

A few reminders of the change my physique has been undergoing has kept the frustration at bay for the most part, minus occasionally when it ekes out at seeing the unchanging scale.

Then, I received an e-mail from my Built With Science (BWS) newsletter informing me that in a few days an 8-week summer challenge would begin in the app, and did I want to join?

Hell yeah, sign me up. I could use a challenge to rock the boat.

Come Monday, I received the long awaited e-mail describing what the challenge would entail, and...oh, just use the app as I have been...

Welp, so much for some added spice, guess I need to add some myself.

Hence my decision to bulk. It felt like a good time to try, even though I suspect seeing the number rise on the scale will stress me out, but! I have decided to trust the process. For now.

The decision to bulk did inspire me to philosophize about lifestyle, and it made me realize just how lucky we are.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Air conditioning makes the hot summer months more bearable, and likewise for heat in the winter. Without AC, I wouldn't be able to work out as easily, because I'm prone to exercise-induced migraines when it's too warm.

Speaking as a middle class citizen of the US, we have access to plentiful bounties of food all year round. I can stuff my face just as easily in the winter as I can in the summer. More easily in some ways, since many of my favorite foods and desserts cycle back around during the latter half of the year.

However, are we really built to be able to gorge ourselves all year long? Without having done a lick of research and basing my answer off of my own critical thinking into the evolution of society, my gut says, "No."

So, I'd like to try something, and the experiment could make the idea of bulking now more palatable if I plan to lose weight in the winter months. I want to research and then see what happens if I follow a bulk-loss routine structured around how our bodies would have naturally adapted to the particular climate in which I live.

In my experience, people look to shred for the summer months--I'm getting flashbacks to all the Blogilates "summer sculpt" videos *shudders*--and ease up during the winter, which is kind of the opposite to how our bodies are designed, no? Yet it makes sense from a psychological perspective, because not many are going to be so inclined to wear swim trunks and bikinis outside when it's snowing. Strut your stuff in the summer, soften up a bit in the winter.

It's certainly a topic of fascination for me, to say the least. If I can find a peer-reviewed study that supports the idea of seasonal adaptations to diet increase/decrease and exercising, I may attempt a similar routine. Maybe there's no substantive evidence to suggest our biology cares which seasons we choose to gain or lose weight. Maybe being able to work just as hard in a heated room in the winter as you can a chilled room in the summer is a boon for year-round sculpting. Or maybe shifting phases according to the season will make all the difference.

We'll see what my personal findings are in about a year, I suppose, if I follow through with it, and if you know of any studies, feel free to send them my way!

Other Notable Accomplishments:

• Teyr'loch Delter Pach fought me the last couple of weeks, but after two blocks, progress has picked up again. I'm so close to finishing Act II, but I suspect Act III will also give me trouble, since it was the weakest element before the rewrite. Who knows? It could surprise me.

  • The rough draft, including scraps of notes I've taken within the doc that won't be present in the final, is ~16,700 words. To put that in perspective, the longest performance I wrote before this for our campaign was ~12k words and took an hour and a half. Ahahahahahahahahahahaha.....

• Been jogging consistently the last couple of weeks even though the humidity makes me feel like I'm drowning.

• Keeping in mind it's only been a couple days since I started my bulk phase, I feel like I can accomplish more. I eat more, so I have more energy, so I can push harder, and I don't feel as exhausted during my rest days. It could just be the result of excitement following a routine shake-up, so we'll see how the weeks progress.

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

• What decision(s) have you been putting off? After you strip away all the excuses, what's the real underlying reason for doing so? Like I mentioned for myself at the beginning of this post, the idea of bulking, of gaining weight even if most of it turns out to be from muscle, terrifies me, which is why I haven't yet attempted it, and that fear, unfortunately stems not just from societal perceptions of how women should look but also having grown up with an extremely judgmental mother.

• Is comfort a boon or a bane, and in what ways is it one or the other?

  • What are some comforts you could live without? What are some you could not?

  • At what point does comfort toe the line with complacency?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Salad

Daggerheart: Salad approved.