It's go time - 11 Weeks

So here's where the process gets to be fun. I'm 11 weeks out. My waist is down to 29.5 inches and I had to buy three new pairs of pants. My diet is now two weeks of low cals/carbs/fat and one week of normal intake. I weighed myself at 173 at the end of the day today, which means I'm probably hovering under 170...I haven't seen that number in 4 years...head trip for sure. Those ab veins are fun to look at though. Putting together complete sentences on day three of zero carbs at 10 pm is a challenge...good night.

4 months til go time

So it's been 2 months since my last post and here's why. I'm just not that interesting. When I first started dieting for competition I thought it was extremely difficult and really was supposed to take a huge toll on the body. Don't get me wrong, at 4 months out I still have a long way to go, but I have to say this journey has been much easier so far. About 5 years ago a co-worker said to me "a calorie is a calorie" and as long as my protein was on point I could get away with some "non bodybuilder foods." Things that I like such as white rice and bread, occasional sweet or some fried calamari and of course my most favorite cheat item...wine and beer.

Now let's not get too crazy...I only have bread maybe once a week. I've SAMPLED a fried food here and there and when I drink it's usually no more than 3 drinks. Also, I definitely make sure I keep my diet really tight leading up to any type of eating/drinking event. Also, if I eat something bad I won't drink or vice versa. Finally when I do cheat I generally keep it within my 2,500 calorie budget, make sure I eat my protein and will definitely eat less and work out more the next day.

That being said here's the progress report. As of 12/21 my weight is 174 pounds this was coming off a week away for work (which means I eat out every day, every meal!!!). My tight waist measurement is 30 inches!!! This is the leanest I've been since 2006 and the last time I was this lean I was 12 pounds lighter.

Diet is two weeks of 2,500 calories, 300 grams of protein and low fat. Then I'll do a "diet" week where I have 3 to 4 zero carb days. The goal is to trick my body to shed fat, but not be low carb all the time to keep my metabolism high. Also, at this rate I may only have to hard contest diet for 3 to 4 weeks or less!!! I have to say that even though I'll have some cheat food for Christmas, New Years, Superbowl and my birthday I'm already thinking about the week after the show. I know that I will enjoy some pizza, cookies, a dessert item from Common Grounds in Branford, a danish from Panera Bread, definitely some cupcakes from my friend Brenda's bakery Sugar (Main St. East Haven) and many many more food items. Until April 25th though it's all about controlled cheating...no pig outs for me...

6 months to go

So it's been a while since I've posted something on here. With good reason. Basically yesterday was 6 months to the day until I get back on stage. Frankly I don't think it's very interesting to update this even weekly when a lot of my goals right now are to just maintain my current weight and slowly lose some body fat. Contest diets are interesting like that, you really don't have to go all out until maybe 12 to 16 weeks before the competition. So right now, I'm counting calories, working out hard and doing a little cardio. I'm still enjoying a drink or two, eating bread and the occasional cheat food.

The good news is that I'm currently at 181 lbs and my body fat is starting to get low. The clothes are looser, the veins in my arms and lower abs are starting to become more pronounced and my face is getting thinner. I'm starting to cycle my carbs just a little bit on a two week high one week low type of schedule. Nothing too difficult yet, but time is ticking.

Meaurment Day 9/12

Well I gained back 3 of the 4 lbs. The good thing is that all of my upper body measurements increased significantly. The good thing is that when I was 182 my arms, chest, and shoulders were all smaller with the same waist. Now I'm 181, waist is still 30.75 but the upper body has increased .25 inches or more. The short of it is that I'm trending in the right direction.

Calories are lower this week at 2,500 and a nice curveball has been thrown in ala traveling for work. I'll be heading to Baltimore and eating what's given to me. Luckily my company was started by the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, meaning that it's made up of athletic folks and usually lunches are some type of leaner meat and there's always fruit, yogurt and I'll bring some protein. The hotel gym sucks so I'll just be trying to maintain strength by doing the same amount of exercises, just using the machine they have...we shall see.

Meaurment Day

Holy Shit I lost 4 pounds!!! I think this is the result of two weeks ago having two days of zero carbs and almost zero fat. What's great is that my strength is either the same or up still and I'm not feeling the effects of being a hair smaller. I did also undereat a couple of days because life on the road has been hectic. I'm definitely going to do a better job of keeping food with me at all times. Unfortunately when eating out for lunch no less than twice and sometimes up to 5 times a week my options are limited. The good news is that you can generally find some slab of meat and sides at any restaurant. The bad news is that my protein requirement is high and usually the cheap starchy sides override the more expensive cut of meat. Also, if I order a salad usually the average meat portion is 3 to 4 oz. NOT ENOUGH!!! So I will be carrying around protein powder from now on. As my competition draws closer I'm sure I'll be carting around pre cooked rice and sweet potatoes as well in a cooler. It's been a while since I've done that, but I have a plan. Basically I will order a salad with chicken during lunch, explain to the client that I eat light because I don't want to crash mid day and then after lunch is over hit my cooler in the car and chow on whatever extra food I'll need to hit my nutritional intake. Hey at least half my meal will be free!

Anyway, my waist is now down to 30.5 inches which is an all time low outside of competition. I'm probably only 10 lbs from contest shape and I feel great! It's nice seeing abs again! We finally unpacked our camera too so pictures to come.

The week is almost over

Waking up is getting tough...I have this nice new house with a nice huge bedroom...great right? WRONG!!! I'm so damn comfortable and it's so dark in the morning that waking up to go and work out is just plain hard! Of course the idiot that lived here before me decided that all she needed in her master bedroom addition was a french door. I guess windows are overrated! Well because of this it gets pitch black in my room at night making it even harder than normal to wake at 4:45 for my workout...AARRGGHH.

So I felt a bit tired today for my back workout. I managed to muscle my way through it of course. I've been using a preworkout supplement for energy that last few months and I'm not a huge proponent of supps, but this stuff is decent. Needless to say I'm out and won't get another can until Saturday, maybe it's mental maybe not...either way I'm tired. We'll see what the Saturday measurements bring. Still pushing for 2750 calories and 250 grams of protein.

Being less fat is good!

Bad news is that my waist stayed the same along with my weight...good news is that I lost some fat elseware and my upper body is really tightening up! My upper abs are really starting to get a nice deep separation and lowers are getting better and better each week.

I'm going to cut out bread this week just to see how I react to it. I haven't done that since my last contest and even though I have over 230 days til comp. time, I more want to experiment to see if it makes a difference. I'll still eat plenty of carbs, just from rice, potatoes, veggies, oats and beans. I'm just trying to eat only things that come from the ground OR are less processed. One thing I've learned from dieting is that most carbs are processed and/or refined. You can't really escape it... I still have to unpack my camera so no pictures yet. The unfortunate part of pictures is that they don't lie...I think I look good, but a photo really is able to find all the minor things that people overlook, this causes second place finishes. Unacceptable!