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  "description": "Thank you for all the responses on my last post, where I told the story of how I got into strength training and got in the best shape of my life this year.\n\nThe beauty of having musclesThis is the story of how and why I decided to pursue a muscular physique as a woman in my thirties. Most of it was sort of unplanned, but the start of it all has a very common reason: back pain. It’s 2018 (I’m 32 years old), and the DeskMaaike Brinkhof's blogMaaike Brinkhof\n\nThere was a certain response that I rec",
  "path": "/your-abnormal-is-my-normal/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-13T14:21:04.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.maaikebrinkhof.nl",
  "tags": [
    "The beauty of having musclesThis is the story of how and why I decided to pursue a muscular physique as a woman in my thirties. Most of it was sort of unplanned, but the start of it all has a very common reason: back pain. It’s 2018 (I’m 32 years old), and the DeskMaaike Brinkhof's blogMaaike Brinkhof"
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  "textContent": "Thank you for all the responses on my last post, where I told the story of how I got into strength training and got in the best shape of my life this year.\n\nThe beauty of having musclesThis is the story of how and why I decided to pursue a muscular physique as a woman in my thirties. Most of it was sort of unplanned, but the start of it all has a very common reason: back pain. It’s 2018 (I’m 32 years old), and the DeskMaaike Brinkhof's blogMaaike Brinkhof\n\nThere was a certain response that I received quite a lot, and I want to zoom in on that.\n\nThe gist of it can be summed up as follows: \"I could never do that.\"\n\nPeople were talking about my dedication to exercise and the strict diet that I followed to achieve the results that I did.\n\nAnd here's the funny thing: this cutting phase was easy, I barely had to change anything about my lifestyle.\n\nTraining? Stayed the same: 4x per week, which has been my habit since 2020 (I had a gym at home, so the Rona didn't stop me).\n\nNutrition? The meals I ate were the same, only the amount of food I could eat changed.\n\nFor example: my usual breakfast (oatmeal, 1 scoop of whey, milk/water, almonds, fruit) was exactly the same during the cutting phase, but instead of 80-90 grams of oats I ate 40 grams. And I was more careful with how much fruit I added. All this to drop the calories to stick to my temporarily lower kcal budget.\n\nDo this for each meal, and voila, you are eating in a caloric deficit, meaning you will lose weight. Add \"training hard enough\" in the mix and you can be almost entirely sure that you lose bodyfat and not muscle mass when your weight drops.\n\nOther than eating my normal meals with different amounts, I made sure I ate more veggies than normal to keep my stomach busy, and I really did not snack at all. When you eat only meals (which was already my habit), even in a cutting phase the meals can be decently sized.\n\nFor a long time I could eat 4 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, pre-bed at 9PM. When this rhythm stopped working I simply dropped the pre-bed meal and the fat loss continued.\n\nDo you now see why the cutting phase was so simple?\n\nThis way of life is my normal. It isn't called lifestyle for no reason.\n\nYour abnormal is my normal.\n\nAnd what is considered normal is truly wild to me!\n\n  * eating a shitty diet\n  * knowing almost nothing about nutrition, or wildy untrue things about nutrition\n  * being nearly completely sedentary\n  * having low muscle mass\n  * drinking alcohol in problematic amounts\n  * not exercising at all\n  * having back pain, neck pain, all sorts of pains as a result of the sedentary lifestyle\n\n\n\nToo many people blame things on \"getting older\" while ignoring what they don't do. There is a different path.\n\nAnd don't come at me with \"I am too busy\" to choose a different path. Please. Aren't we all? This isn't a factor that sets you apart from everybody else.\n\nTime passes, regardless.\n\nYou have to eat, regardless.\n\nYour body exists, regardless, little aches and all.\n\nThe truly wild thing to me is that, even if you _truly_ don't have time to exercise, you gotta eat. Why not eat healthier then? What's stopping you? What's the reason you eat like a toddler?\n\nI have a list of like 10-15 meals that I enjoy, and that are healthy. I cycle through this list endlessly. Solved.\n\nMeal prep is hard? It doesn't have to be. Figure out a meal you like that is easily made with components (this is often a pasta or rice meal with veggies and a good protein source). Create a huge batch of this meal, put it in smaller containers, take it with you to the office. Bam, you have a good lunch.\n\nNo, the truly dividing and deciding factor is: will. You have to _want_ it. There has to be a why. I can't make you, nobody can make you.\n\nSociety is full of temptations when it comes to food. In too many countries, the car is the default mode of transport, making you miss out on gym of life activities such as walking or cycling.\n\nYes, the cards _are_ stacked against you. It isn't your fault that you are where you are now.\n\nYet, the only one who can change it for you, is you. What is abnormal for you now can become your normal. You can change.\n\nHowever, when you start out by telling yourself that you can't do it, you have lost before you have even started.",
  "title": "Your abnormal is my normal",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-13T14:21:05.007Z"
}