I’m in a deficit. The scale barely moved. And I’ve never felt better.
Let me be real with you about what April looks like over here.
Spring track just started for my kids. Practices are at night. We’re traveling most weekends in May — Maryland twice. Work is full. My 13-year-old and my 11-year-old keep my calendar spinning, and honestly? I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.
But here’s the thing I’ve had to come to terms with. And I want you to hear it too:
Life is always going to be busy.
Every season brings something. If it’s not track, it’s soccer. If it’s not travel, it’s a birthday. If it’s not work, it’s a school project that’s due tomorrow and somehow nobody mentioned it until bedtime. There is no quiet month coming. There is no perfect time.
So when I decided last week to come out of maintenance and start a cut, some people raised an eyebrow. “Grace, now? With everything going on?”
Yes. Now. Especially now.
Why I’m cutting in the middle of the chaos
For the last 8 months, I’ve been in maintenance. Focused on building muscle. I wanted to put in the work, eat enough to grow, get stronger. And I’m proud of what my body looks like now. But I was ready for the next step — shred some fat and reveal what I’ve built underneath.
So I sat down and set my own macros:
1,650 calories
125g protein
160g carbs
56g fat
You might think I’m crazy for picking this season to cut. But I want to tell you why I actually love it:
A deficit forces me to stay locked in.
When my life is loud, my nutrition has to be the one thing I control. I can’t predict traffic on the way to a track meet. I can’t control whether my daughter’s event runs two hours over. I can’t control the weather at the hotel or the menu at the restaurant. But I can control what goes into my body. And when I’m dialed in on my macros, everything else feels more manageable — not less.
My structure is my anchor. That’s the honest truth.
About that scale…
Let me be honest with you. The scale has barely moved.
Two weeks in, the math would say I should be seeing a 2- to 3-pound drop if everything was neat and tidy. But bodies are not neat and tidy. And the scale lies sometimes.
Here’s what I am seeing:
- My muscles are showing through more than they were
- My energy is up, not down (yes, in a deficit — it’s possible when your foundation is right)
- My skin is glowing
- I’m sleeping better
- My strength in the gym hasn’t dropped
The scale will catch up when it catches up. I’m not worried about it. I’m focused on hitting my numbers every single day and letting my body do what it’s going to do on its own timeline.
If you’re in a cut and the scale isn’t moving, I want you to zoom out. The scale is one data point. Your clothes, your energy, your sleep, your skin, your strength, your mood — those are data, too. And most of the time, they matter more.
My tiny win this week
I want to share something small, because I think the small wins matter.
I’ve always struggled with steps. Always. I see women hitting 15,000 a day and I feel like I’m behind the whole class. But two weeks in a row now, I’ve hit 8,000 steps — and for me, that’s huge.
I’m not where someone else is. I’m where I am. And I’m moving forward.
That’s the reminder I want you to take with you today. Don’t measure your progress by someone else’s highlight reel. Measure it by where you were last week.
How I’m staying on track when we travel
Here’s the real test of any cut: the weekends. Especially the ones away from home.
When we travel — and right now, we travel a lot — I don’t wing it. I plan. Planning is how a working mom shreds fat while living a full life. Let me show you exactly what goes into my cooler and my overnight bag:
- Overnight oats — made the night before, in mason jars, grab-and-go
- Hard boiled eggs — I batch these on Sunday
- Cut-up fruit — portioned in containers so I’m not fighting with packaging in the hotel room
- Lunch meat — turkey, chicken salad, easy protein I can throw together anywhere
- Dave’s Killer Bread — protein, fiber, real ingredients. My travel go-to
- Protein shakes — the insurance policy when the day gets away from me
That’s breakfast and lunch handled, no matter where we are.
When we eat out for dinner? I do what I tell my clients to do: order the ideal meal.
Lean protein. A carb. Veggies. Skip the appetizer I don’t actually care about. Enjoy what I order. Move on.
It’s not complicated. It’s just consistent.
What I want you to hear
You don’t have to wait for the slow season. You don’t have to wait for summer. You don’t have to wait for the kids to go back to school or for the calendar to clear up.
It’s not going to clear up.
You can cut in April. You can cut in May. You can cut in the middle of spring track, summer camp, holiday travel, back-to-school chaos. Macros don’t need a quiet life. They work in a loud one. That’s the whole point.
And because I know the hardest part of all of this is figuring out what to actually eat when your week is packed — I want to send you something below that’ll make it way easier.
You’re not behind. You’re right on time.
