Eat, sleep, train, repeat!

I've had a bit of fun lifting recently!

For my birthday D got me a lifting belt, so I've been practicing doing squats and deadlifts with that. It's been great for squats, meant that I have a lot less pressure in my lower back and it's improving my form. My lower weight lifts have been much cleaner and I've been getting a lot more reps in a set. I'm working my way up to heavier weights at higher reps as well, so we'll see how that goes.

Deadlifts I'm finding a little trickier, mainly because I can never seem to get the belt done up tight enough and it always seems to shift even when I press my abs hard into it. I'm going to have to keep practicing to see if I can get it right.

I have had two weeks with a rest day now. Although last week's rest day wasn't exactly restful because it was my first week of class, I am actually looking forward to it each week now. Let's just hope I can keep that up! I'm enjoying the stress relief of bodybalance and it's been nice having a really thorough stretch and roll out every week. I've also started listening to a little relaxation app on my phone when I need a break at work, got to reduce those cortisol levels!

One thing I need to do a lot more of is sleep. Sleep is so important for growing muscles and I've just been terrible at it recently, so I need to be a little harder on myself, getting to bed and getting up at reasonable hours. I know once I get into a steady routine I'll appreciate it so much more.

I've been thinking about what my next step is diet wise, and I've got a bodyfat test on Sunday because I'm not entirely happy with how my progress is going at the moment. I feel although my muscles seem to be growing, I'm putting on a little bit of bad weight as well.

 Some very wise people have told me it might be a good idea to have a "refeed" and bump my calories up for a little bit to give my metabolism a bit of a kick start again. I trust what they say, and it does make sense, so I'll have a bit of a think about it and look at what I could add to my current diet to make it a little more calorie dense.

It's going to be an interesting mind shift considering how strict I've been, and I know I might struggle with the idea a little bit at first. However, I'm pretty good at doing what I'm told and I know the benefit will be even greater in the long run, so I just have to do what's best!