Progress Update

Its been about 3 months now since starting with my coach Summer Bernard from Team peach, therefore I wanted to share with you all my progress and my off season body. Off season to me means time to grow and build muscle ready for my comp to come in October IFBB and November Amateur Olympia.

So at the moment Summer’s plan for me is to work on building muscle and increasing my macros so by the time comp prep comes around I have a lot of macros to play with. Which means now I can maintain my weight but slowly increase my daily intake of macros this way I won’t run out of space to make cuts when it comes to crunch timeJ

I’m a very focused person and have stuck to my plan extremely well.. I’ve been spot on with it all since I’ve started with very minimal days off plan. so I am really finding Macros is working for me extremely well, with not much intent to binge at all. I’ve gone weeks without feeling the need of a big treat meal so this is definitely a big thing for me. Although Easter I definitely relaxed on diet and didn’t track but I did train super hard  J

Now for my photos I feel this to me is a healthy body. I feel good, I don’t feel deprived and I have the strength and energy to increase my muscle mass. I definitely don’t feel I look my best but at the same time I don’t not like how I look. I think we all want to look a little leaner and improve in certain areas but it’s all in time. At the moment I’m eating a lot of food to what I’m use too - good thing of course. What I struggle with at the moment is wanting to look a little leaner but I know in order for me to be a fierce competitor I need to make some serious changes and improve my muscle size first and maintaining this weight is what’s needed. Healthy and happy J

In regards to my progress pics. I’m actually not one for selfies.. I never take any. And it frustrates me and I’m sure summer as I swear there’s always a reason for me to not send my progress pics. Not intentionally of course but I just never take selfies. It’s hard for me to get good comparison pics as I don’t have a full length mirror at home. I also have a lot of thoughts that run through my mind when I am about to take my progress pics - I don’t feel my skinniest today, I don’t have a tan on, I have just eaten so can’t take it now, I feel bloated, the lighting isn’t right, I can’t get my pose right I seriously think of all of this before I take my photo and let me tell you this isn’t a quick selfie this is probably my 30^th pic.. I want it to be perfect. I know I shouldn’t be like that but I can’t help it, so in future I’m going to just take it even when I don’t feel my best and send them to Summer. Even my not so good shots so she gets the right idea.. photo’s can be so deceiving.
It’s a shame I don’t have the same background, outfit and poses to compare perfectly but this is as good as I could get and any progress photo is better than none.

So for these past 3 months I have been training heavy to increase my size.
My photos attached don’t have filters on, haven’t been edited only cropped, I have eaten beforehand but not trained so no pump going on here haha.
 I feel I have increased my shoulders size quite noticeably and of course my arms are a lot more toned and defined. Even surprised with my stomach, which I feel has gotten flatter. I’ve always struggled with getting a flat stomach so for me this is a big thing and I like that there is a slight definition with my abs too. yay – we can’t have everything so this is one thing that I feel is my weakness.
My glute’s are a lot peachier too and noticeable more tonedJ
I’m useless at doing a back pose I haven’t learnt how to tense my back muscles so excuse the non existence there. I do have a great back I just don’t know how to show it lol.
but there’s a few changes and I’m sure you will all notice different ones on me too. I think from now until my next progress pics it’ll be even better.. I have my fiancé in with me at the gym now so that way he will help spot me when I go heavy. That way I can always push myself a lot more knowing he’s there to help push me.

This pic taken January 2015 (nike shorts & crop)

These pics taken April 2015 (black bikini)

 Overall a great 3months with team peach and my coach Summer Bernard.

Next phase is for me to get through my Bali holiday without my usual over the top binges like my last two trips.. I believe I’ve come a long way since then so I hope I don’t fall back into old habits.. Wish me luck!!! Bali on Tuesday eeppp!

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Team Peach

 As some of you may know I am now a part of TEAM PEACH where Summer Bernard IFBB PRO has taken me under her wing and is coaching me on training and nutrition.

There is so many different ways to eat and train out there that I felt I wanted to explore more about different training techniques and eating approaches.

I loved my previous nutritionist Sinead and trainer Seaneen so much and would still recommend them to this day. So this transition was more about me growing and learning new things. Like I said there’s so many varieties for eating and training and I feel its important to me to see what else is out there and keep an open mind. I love trying and learning new things and I felt it was time to be a part of something new and see what else works well for me.

I decided to contact Summer as I watched many of her video blogs and one stuck with me after I watched it that made me really feel like I knew I would  be in the best hands .. (Video attached below) You need to be able to really understand the background of your coach to make sure it’s what’s suited to you and when I watched her video it struck a chord with me so I decided to research more about Summer's training and nutrition approach.

 After learning all about summer and meeting with her to discuss my needs and wants out of training & nutrition I decided straight away that I wanted to be a part of Team Peach. Everything she was about was exactly what wanted in a coach.

I’ve now been with Summer for a couple of months and so far I’m really loving the plan she has given me and it has proven to work well with my body. I do believe in trying different things to see what works for you.. I would never criticize or question anyone’s training or nutrition as what works for me may not work for others but it’s all about trial and error and a learning experience. I’ve again gained more knowledge with Summer’s plan and I’m finding this is really working for me. I enjoy training and I have noticed great change within the short time I’ve been with her.

Nutrition is also very different. Summers approach is flexible dieting,. Which is counting your Macros (IIFYM.) A lot of you know from previous blog posts that I was a terrible binge eater. So I would eat clean all week and then one night I would go very over the top and eat everything in sight.
With Summer's plan I eat according to my macros. I am given a target of how much fat carbs and protein to eat for the day and I must hit that exactly. So it’s a lot of planning and weighing things out – pretty much to the gram but this means I can be flexible with the type of food I eat.  I know this not may suit everyone but it works for me and I’m happy to do it. I do recommended this for comp prep I must say.. Maybe not every day people but still it just shows you can eat what you want in moderation. Sometimes I even guestimate so if I knew I was going out for dinner that night I would keep my meals quite low in calories and save some extra for dinner. So I feel this for me is still being flexible and not over indulging at dinner. Some of you may ask why do I do that and are thinking why don’t I just relax and eat whatever - but for me I like to know that I can have this food without feeling so guilty. it’s always a mind game with me as if I do eat bad I end up feeling really guilty about it, and sometimes If I don’t track how I’m going I just throw it all out the window and eat whatever – which still happens now but I’m trying hard to reduce how often because when I do that I end up feeling sick for days and extremely bloated. Even those moment when people offer me to have some chocolate or lollies or something and I constantly say no but what they don’t know is that I’m not saying no because ‘I’m on a diet’ I say no because I know me and I know if I have one I’ll eat the whole freekin packet so for me it’s best to say no thank you and avoid that situation of eating it all.

I am fairly new to macros so I don’t know everything and won’t be able to answer all the questions as I’m still learning myself but for me macros has let me enjoy the foods I am craving and I get a lot of variety which i love. I don’t find I am binge eating like I use too.. This would be because I have a great balance with my food now.. I definitely eat healthy but some days I really crave that ice-cream so I would make sure I leave room in my macros to allow me some for that day. My meals are different every day and I can enjoy some delicious meals every single day. I always make sure I have meals that I look forward to eating. So this way I don’t feel deprived of anything, therefore it doesn’t create that need for me to binge.

I’m sure most people would be surprised with the amount of food I eat if I were to show or tell you, and this is from building up my metabolism so that I can maintain a healthy body year round with a great amount of calories so I’m never going under the required daily intake. Summer really looks after us as she’s been through a tough time herself when she first started competing with being on low calorie diets with hours of cardio so with Summer's bad experience she has turned it into a positive and learnt from her experience and is now making sure it doesn’t happen to us girls..

For those considering competing or those who have competed and want to try a different approach if you really struggled with your last one I highly recommend Summer's approach for it.. One thing I love about competing is also the support network. My last prep I had a great relationship with my trainer and nutritionist – that’s what you want a good support network. I was thrilled to know that this also is the same with Summer.. I love the group of girls Summer has on board with Team Peach I can’t even explain how supportive and insightful they all are. We help each other along so well. This makes competing so worth it – the people you meet along the way.

If there is anyone considering a new trainer or nutritionist I would be happy to chat to you more in depth about it and that way we can see if it’ll work for you. Or you can contact summer directly to get a proper over view on what she’s all about. Don’t ever hesitate if you’re considering a change make it happen.

So after saying all this I’m very excited to announce I will be working towards competing in October along with Team Peach coach Summer Bernard. After watching the Arnolds I feel have a long way to go as those girls are outstanding but I trust in myself and my coach to get me to the high standard that both I want and IFBB federation want. I have so much determination that I know October comp I’m going to come at it fighting! I know I’m going to be a fierce competitor and I’m excited for a new journey to the stage.
Would love everyone’s support along the way and of course to those girls wanting to compete in October too ill be there for you and supporting you right back. I will forever encourage and help anyone out that needs support along the way.
And for any of you who do IIFYM then you can follow me  on the app 'My Fitness Pal' and check out the meals I'm eating daily that way we can get different meal ideas :)  Courtney_piercy


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FACEBOOK – www.facebook.com/summer.bernard
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INSTAGRAM - @team_peach_

youtube.com

Search for Summer Bernard IFBB pro for all her video blogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cyw_gcedzA