One month on testosterone therapy versus three months In this month’s update on my journey as a transgender bodybuilding trainee, I’m going to talk about my experience with medical transition from female to male and the effects this has had so far on my training, nutrition, and body composition.
At the time of writing, I have been medically transitioning for four months, from March 13th 2020, but I will primarily reflect on the first three months. The aim of the article is to cover:
The purpose of this piece is to share my experience in order to educate transgender and non-transgender individuals alike, and to provide anecdotes and observations on how medical transition can change training, nutrition, and body composition in a transgender person who trains to improve their physique. As a final disclaimer, I want to point out that this is only my experience. I am not a medical professional, so I am not going to offer any form of advice. Anything I share in this article is personal, individualised to me, and meant to inform, not make recommendations. Without further ado, let’s delve into the update.
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Understanding motivation is one of the most important things we can do in our lives, because it has such a bearing on why we do the things we do and whether we enjoy them or not. I have recently posted a poll on my Instagram stories, asking my followers if they were staying on top of exercise.
“No” was the most popular answer. In another poll, I asked “Why?” and offered two options: “No guidance” and “Low motivation”. “Low motivation” received an overwhelming 100% response. What many of us might not realise is that your initial motivation is fuelled by a sense of novelty and inspiration to achieve success. Unfortunately, neither of the two lasts long. Your shiny new training program becomes old news in a couple of weeks. And your long-term goal of losing 50lbs can seem too far away when you step on the scale and you’ve only lost half a pound this week. Once your starting levels of motivation are running low, don’t wait to wake up one day and find them miraculously restored. Spoiler alert: It won’t happen. Instead, become the architect of your own motivation. One way to do this is to accomplish a workout when it’s the very last thing you want to do. This will boost your confidence and thus perpetuate a positive feedback loop of success, followed by a sense of accomplishment and renewed motivation, followed by repeated success. In this article, I will cover my top tips to do exactly that. I am 10lbs heavier in the picture on the right. Useful Links: July 2019 Update | One Month Update | Three Months Update
I haven’t written a “bulk update” since July 2019 because there was nothing new to add. I continued to eat, gain weight at what I considered an appropriate pace, train hard, and learn more about myself as a lifter, which helped me design better and better programs for myself overtime. No one likes to read a story that starts well and ends well, so I figured I would wait until something interesting came along. Well, what came along was a world-wide pandemic and an order from the British government to maintain social distance and stay at home as much as possible. My gym and all others in the UK closed down at the same time as many other fitness facilities across the world. I haven’t done a home workout since September 2018, when I moved from London to Portsmouth, went back to university, and joined a local commercial gym. At the time, I was only three months into serious lifting, so a pair of adjustable dumbbells still posed an adequate challenge to my strength. I am a bit further along my training career now, so, at first, working out at home felt like a problem rather than a solution. How was I going to make progress? Was I going to make progress? How much would I eat? Read on to find out what I chose to do and why. Doctors won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists won’t make you slim. Teachers won’t make you smart. Gurus won’t make you calm. Mentors won’t make you rich. Trainers won’t make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. The end of January marked my fifth month working at a commercial gym. Having had the opportunity to talk to a variety of people, I have also had the chance to discover what confuses them about exercise and nutrition.
The problem is the amount of conflicting information in the media, on social media platforms, or packaged as books and newspaper articles by so-called “experts” who have some sort of self-interested agenda. Bombarded with contrasting messages like “Sugar addiction will kill you”, “Fat is bad”, and “Carbs are the devil”, how are you supposed to know what to do? This article is a small collection of honest messages about training and nutrition designed to help you make sense of the madness. The clock is ticking. Are you becoming the person you want to be? It’s January 1st and you haven’t thought about exercise or nutrition for two weeks.
You have been eating a lot more than usual, drinking a lot more than usual – and I don’t mean water – and sitting around a lot more than usual. Maybe you feel bloated or sluggish and you think it’s time to “get back on track.” How do you do it? In this article, I intend to cover some strategies to incorporate healthy eating and exercise back into your life after a “holiday layoff.” |
Nikias TomasielloWelcome to my blog. I’m an online fitness coach with a passion for bodybuilding, fantasy, and bread. Want to work with me? Check out my services!Archives
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