I MADE IT!!

Whhhhheeeewwww Hooooo!!!!

So the final week of training was the hardest part knowing that I was so close, but still had to stay sharp! My strategy was spot on and although I've heard not to train the last week, I felt great and I was able to come in lean as hell and full.

Thursday night I went to my trainer's house where he took a final measurement of 28 and 1/8th for my waist, THE SMALLEST IT'S EVER BEEN! We then practiced posing and went through a strategy for Friday and Saturday.

Friday I still kept the carbs and calories low, increased my potassium and lowered my sodium just a little bit. I drank about 1.5 gallons of water right up until 6pm.

Saturday I woke up and lost about 4 pounds and my waist was definitely below 28...crazy. I took a couple of photos which can be found on my facebook page. After my first and only coat of Protan it was breakfast time. I ate two glazed donuts, 4 rice cakes with Nutella and a cup of oatmeal. Up until the show I sipped water and sucked on candy from 10am til I went on at 2pm. I had a scoop of NO2 power about 30 minutes before I got on stage and poof, full hard and ripped!!!

Posing was definitely a challenge and I did get a little tired as the show moved on. After two classes and a lunch similar to breakfast I was ready for the night show. My routine went very well and I got a few cheers! Then during the posedown they lined us up and started to announce the winners....I thought for sure I was getting 3rd or 4th...low and behold I won 2nd place! This after a 4 year break from competing!!! I was and am still so excited and I felt that my hard work really paid off.

The post contest binge was amazing for that night and day after and after gaining 20 lbs and losing 15 of them I'm back on a healthy eating plan slowly increasing calories. I can't WAIT to do it all over again.

7 Days aka Peak Week

So here I am...28.5 inch waist, good legs, solid upper body. Definitely top 3 material depending on who shows up (which is about 105 competitors for anyone who cares). This is the week a lot of people try to do various carb up sodium loads and water depletion. Crazy stuff really...then when they don't win they blame that week rather than lack of condition on why they didn't pull it together.

So here I am...dieting hard still until Thursday night and awaiting the response from my coach on what to do. My conditioning is great, I feel good enough and I can't wait for Saturday morning to hopefully come off stage knowing that I've given it my all these last few months and I am a winner.

2 weeks out

Is is sad that my "cheat meal" is a bowl of green beans and/or lettuce??? Yep that's where I'm at. I have given zero thought to food and essentially am sticking to my plan to get to the stage. Although one thing I did change this past couple of weeks was putting more essential fatty acids in my diet. I'm finding that with the extra omega 3s my mood is better and I feel a lot better overall. Combine that with the fact that I hit a new record at 164 lbs and 28.5 inch waist I'll take it!

So everyone in bodybuilding knows about "peak week" it's where most people eat excessive carbs to "recover" from 12 to 24 weeks of severe dieting. I'll probably not have that luxury. There's a good chance that I'll be dieting hard right up until Wednesday or Thursday. I find that I look best in the morning before I eat. Therefore I'll probably have a mild reintroduction to carbs and try to just hold my condition. I'm starting to feel like I can do well though and my conditioning is great.

Thanks coach Ted!

5 weeks

Holding strong at 166 28.75 inch waist. The upper body is definitely looking good. My coach said that he'll let me know when I look freaky...awesome.

Some things to do in these last few weeks:

Join a tanning salon: UUGGHH! I HATE tanning in a booth. It itches and I just don't like lying there in a pool of sweat...but it gets me nice and dry looking and hey who doesn't look better with a tan.

Pick a color for my trunks. Color is key here because with my skin tone it'll make you look better or just average. I've always gone with a darker blue or green.

Order Dream Tan. This will be new for me as I've always used pro-tan/jan tana. I've seen people in dream tan look really great though so I want to order a bottle early and try it on a small part of my body to see what it'll look like on me.

I'll figure out a posing routine at some point too...not too concerned though and I may just use the first one I did back in 2003.

That's all for now!

6 weeks out

Weight...it's such a bitch. When I first started this blog I weighed 182 and said I felt like I was about 10lbs away...well I'm down to the 170 mark and still have a bit to go. Last week I came in at 166 with a 28.75 inch waist...I think my upper body is really looking good. I have muscle striations in my chest, ab veins that extend up to my lats and my serratus is showing in full force. So knowing all this, how can I think about losing more fat...MY DAMN LEGS! I have been blessed/cursed with a large lower body. The issue is that this is now my 5th contest and yet I still have never had great definition in my legs. Granted I can at least see the separation and they are looking the best they've been, they still are jiggly.

So I'm trying something new...although I like the elliptical, it's just not very challenging anymore. It's great for getting the heart rate up and burning fat. Now this may be more theory than fact and I admit that (I'll leave the studies to my wife), but I'm going to try some sprint workouts and stair climbing. So cardio is a big focus for me this week...not length but type and quality. At 6 weeks out I'm really focused on the little things.

Finally, for pictures I'm going to just post the finished product. I've decided that I'd rather show off the work I've done when I'm done doing it and when I know for certain that I've left nothing on the table. So until April 17th, you have to come to the show to see.

8 weeks out

So after an extreme diet week I weighed in Friday (today) 2/19 at 168.5. Right now the mental aspect of prepping has been creeping up on me. I find myself weighing in every morning and only focusing on losing the belly fat...every week my coach says that I'm looking better and he's not the one to just throw compliments out. One comforting thought is that I was browsing an old training journal from 2006 and saw that 1 week out my waist measurement was 30.5 inches. I remember thinking that I was in pretty good shape then and now today I measured 29! Also when I took the 30.5 that was at my belly button which is typically the smallest part of the waist. Today I measured at my lower abdomen where I store the most bodyfat. Basically at the same weight as 2006 I'm at least a full 1.5 to 2 inches tighter. Typically an inch is 8 to 10 lbs, so folks here's the conclusion...I weigh the same as '06, two pants sizes smaller so if my math is correct which means that I have 10 to 15 pounds more muscle on me for this contest.

So as you can see I'm thinking a little too much about all this but I know that my training is going well and I should come into the show with the best conditioning I've ever had. Tomorrow is my official weigh in so I'll share the results. The big change for the week was that I switched my calories to all solid food and no protein shakes. I think that has definitely helped.

My 3,100 calorie superbowl

Superbowl is probably my favorite party. Every year I get together with my training partners all of whom train for competition or extreme fitness. This means that we all eat like animals for 4 beautiful hours....it was pure bliss.

So here's my list of foods that totals to about 3,000 calories (yes I had to know).

Started with 16 mini nesle crunch bars - 800 calories

4 boneless buffalo wings - 250 calories

12 oz. rough estimate prime rib of beef - 500 calories

1 large brownie - 200 calories

2 slices of giant soft cookie cake - 200 calories

1 jelly donut - 250 calories

1 serving strawberry shortcake (two pillsbury biscuits, vanilla ice cream, strawberries) - 500 calories

Chips, dips, crackers, cheese, guacamole - roughly 400 calories

Total 3,100 calories

I rule :-)

The diet and cardio this week has been INSANE and I weighed in two pounds lighter than last week pre superbowl this morning...I'm thinking the temporary boost in metabolism was a good thing. Good night.