Contest Prep Changes & Numbers (yes Rach, I'm a copycat)

Met with my posing coach yesterday, it had been 2 weeks since I had seen him because he was out for a week competing at North American Nationals in Ohio. Things were very positive, he could see changes and that I had been working hard and following his directions. He even said I look better now than I did at the last competition. I have been posing everyday either before or after cardio, doing 65 minutes of cardio a day along with lifting 5 days per week. To try and draw as much water out, I am going to up this to 105 mins of cardio/day plus 5 days of lifting this week, and 4 days next week. I have 10 days of hard work in front of me, so that will (hopefully) keep me motivated. Here's how it should look:

9/13 105 mins cardio
9/14 105 mins cardio; Lift Legs
9/15 105 mins cardio; Low carb day - eliminate all carb sources, keep everything else the same
9/16 105 mins cardio; Lift Shoulders
9/17 105 mins cardio; Lift Arms
9/18 105 mins cardio;
9/19 105 mins cardio; Lift Legs
9/20 105 mins cardio; Lift Back
9/21 105 mins cardio; Lift Chest
9/22 105 mins cardio; Lift Arms/Shoulders; Low carb day - eliminate all carb sources, keep
everything else the same
9/23 Off
9/24 Off
9/25 Competition

My night cardio on the 22nd will be the last workout I do before the competition. That should give my body enough time to recouperate so I have energy for the show. Also, on those two days I'll be carbing up (YES!), loading creatine, and dropping water. 1 gallon on the 23rd and 1/2 gallon in the morning on the 24th and only sips after that. I have to do my hair removal and protan the night of the 23rd, another coat of protan the morning of the 24th, and then touch ups before the show (I think that's right, I'll have another post on that next week).

Numbers:
12 - # of days left until the show
7 - # of lifts left
29 - # of cardio sessions left
1,010 - # of minutes of cardio left
15 - # of carbs I'll have on the two Wednesdays before the show (from veggie sources)
4 - hours of sleep I got last night




Just have to get through next Wednesday, I'll give an update much sooner than later.

Bulking Cycle Edit

Going through this new cutting diet, I'm thinking about changes I might want to make to my bulking diet after the show. I want to decrease reliance on shakes (Morning & PWO shake are good, but I want to ditch the day shake and possibly the casein shake at night), and increase whole foods. This will keep me more full during the day (I don't think I'll have a problem with staying full) so I won't go into cheat foods as often, and I think it's just better in general. Also, I'm going to try and keep veggies in 3 of my meals, and have fruit at 3 of my meals. Here's what the new bulking diet will look like:

Morning shake (immediately on waking up):
5oz banana
50g whey
30g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize

1 hr later
6 whole eggs (jumbo)
1.5 cups oats
120g Berries

Mid-morning shake
8oz chicken
450g Sweet Potatoes
160g Broccoli
100g asparagus
30g almonds

Postworkout Shake
50g whey
4oz banana
20g dextrose
20g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize

Lunch
1/2 cup (uncooked) brown rice
1/2 cup beans
8oz ground beef/turkey
1/3 cucumber
100g green beans
1 tomato

Afternoon Snack
32g peanut butter
80g oats
9oz salmon
1/4 cup (uncooked) quinoa
90g apple

Dinner
300g Sweet Potato
85g spinach
8oz steak
160g broccoli
1/2 cup beans
1/2 cup carrots
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
10g chia/flax seeds


Before Bed
50g Casein Shake

Still a work in progress. Up next: Numbers & more contest prep changes for the next 1.5 weeks.

2 Weeks Out

Another long gap in posts...here's what's been happening: a lot of the same. Same diet, same workout schedule, same long hours, same lack of sleep, etc. However, things have been going pretty well all in all. I am down to 181.5 as of this morning, I feel very lean but depleted at the same time. I've been pretty consistent @ ~90g of carbs/day, w/ one day ~110g carbs. My current diet on the 6 days looks like this:

Meal 1:
40g Oats
12 jumbo egg whites

Meal 2:
8-8.5 oz Tilapia
80g broccoli
50g asparagus
16g PB

Meal 3:
135g sweet potato
8-8.5 oz chicken

Meal 4:
8-8.5 oz Tilapia
100g broccoli
50g asparagus
15g almonds

Meal 5:
135g sweet potato
8-8.5 oz chicken

Meal 6:
150g spinach
75g green peppers
6-6.5 oz flounder
5 egg whites
12g PB

Supplement w/ 4g fish oil, 3g CLA, 1 multi, & 1 glucosamine. I take a vit C & a B complex post cardio, and take my normal post lift vitamins with my postworkout shake. On days I lift, I do so before meal 3 and sub 56g whey for chicken. I do my cardio before meals 1 and 5 everyday.

One change for this week: Wednesday I will drop all carb sources so I can prepare for dropping carbs really low the following week Tuesday-Thursday. Other than that, everything will be pretty much the same. The week after, my cardio intensity and duration should decrease, and my lifts will change to full body rather than splits, but I'll worry about that next weekend. For now, I'm going to try and push through this week and make sure I'm in position to dry out well.