2010 Bodybuilding Diet : Part 3

Again I am on the rower, checking the time thinking every time, that must be another 5 minutes, it never is though. Time seems to slow down once I sit my bum on the rower after a workout, but I know in the long run it will get me in shape so I guess it is alright really. It feels like an hour I have been rowing but when I look up to check the time, there’s only 8 minutes gone. Rod sits on the next rower and says five words I’ve been waiting to hear for 4 weeks “Have a cheat meal tonight !”. I suddenly perk up “Yeah, really…… anything I want……. Anything”. I almost think it’s a dream and too good to be true that I can have a cheat meal. Soon as those 15 minutes of rowing were over I jumped up and text-ed my mates “I am aloud a cheat meal, what are you doing right now?”. I would have gone for a meal by myself if I hadn’t had a reply, a cheat meal after 4 weeks is pure bliss. (Oh I had a burger and chips).

So if you read part two, you will know that I would have made the weight that’s why I was allowed the fantastic cheat meal. However I knew this meant that a new stage of the diet would begin. I passed over my food diary as I walked over to the rower to begin another long drawn out 15 minutes of rowing. About ten minutes into the rowing he walked over to me with my diary in hand “I don’t want to know yet, tell me in five minutes” I said in between gasps for air. So I finally got a look at my new diet and low and behold exactly what I thought, a lot of food had gone (Not that I was eating mounds of it anyway). Basically it had been changed to a low carbohydrate, high fat and high protein diet.

I have been on the new phase of the diet now for nearly three weeks and I lost another 9 pounds, bringing me down to 14stone 7 pounds. So it is defiantly working and the best thing is my energy levels are still high, I don’t feel like a wondering corpse quite yet, I have still got that to look forward to. I knew I had dropped some weight because the jeans that I could just get into are nice and baggy now and those tight fitting t-shirts I would squeeze into to go out on a Saturday night now have a lot of room in them. Overall everything is going to plan, the weight is dropping off, new lines and areas of definition are trying to peek out and I am still lifting relatively heavy (especially compared to my last diet, a kitten could have out squatted me !).

However there are a few things playing on my mind: – 1. Will I ever get to eat a pizza ever again? 2. Will I be ready and good enough in time? 3. Will I be able to afford the competition? 4. Will I be big enough or like a thin chicken ? So it is fair to say the mind games have started, these questions are being played on a loop in my head constantly worrying me. When I look in the mirror, I don’t think your doing well Ian its coming off and your getting cut, which is the case. My eyes are looking at where all the fat is and where veins should be popping out by now. People have began commenting on the fact I have lost weight and give me a dazed look when I say I have got another stone + to loose then I will be ready. The way I look now I’d be happy to go on the beach but not on stage, even if you paid me! I always think bodybuilding is a sport of highs and lows, and I am currently suffering from peaks and troughs like no bodies business. I will train, pump up and pose in the gym, with Rod shouting instructions to me usually with a group of regulars behind discussing my progress and deciding how honest they will be when they say how I am doing (the human race in general are very polite, I can’t recall seeing anyone in the gym take their top off and be told they are 3 stone out of shape even if it is true. They will just hear the words “looking good buddy”). So after posing and a few compliments I will be flying high on the journey home thinking I might do alright, then I get home lose the pump look in the mirror and fall straight back down the Grand Canyon and think I am awful and I am wasting my time, effort and money.

This thinking could be applied to any type of weight training or bodybuilding not just competition period, I always have to remind myself that it is a long process and take years and I should never lose sight of my goal, no matter how long it takes me to get their it does not matter, the fact is I WILL GET THERE! This year I will improve on 2009s physique and so on and so on, with bodybuilding the goal posts are always moving, which I don’t think is a bad thing as a good bodybuilder will always strive to be better, the only downfall is unlike other sports there is never going to be a clear finishing line or checked flag.

Four weeks out.

In regards to cardio, the cardio sessions are wearing a little thin now. I am not the best CV enthusiast at the best of times but I am starting to recent walking out the door twice a day for that 45 minute power walk. I hate it a little more and more as the door shuts behind me as I step out.(Even more so if the heavens have opened up !) However I know it’s got to be done so I just get on with it (Oh and I set a new personal record the other night when I left the house at 3:00 am to start my walk, it is fair to say I will not be doing that again). I have also added in 30 minutes of posing practice everyday to the regime, as I am not going to over look it this time around, and I have a feeling good posing and a strong posing routine could be my saving grace. I had forgotten how hard, tiring and painful posing was.

Now I have just got to finalise which music I am going to use and come up with the routine I will use on stage. It is time to buckle down and put only the show in my head, and give it my all for the remaining five weeks. With any luck by the time I write part four, I will be nearing 14 stone and have a finished posing routine that has been rehearsed countless of times. (Oh and have paid a visit to pizza hut, but I don’t think that will happen with Rod watching!). As always any questions drop me an email at ian@massprotein.co.uk

2010 Bodybuilding Diet : Part 4

As I sit here writing, I am just under three weeks out till the show, the entry form was posted yesterday and the tans have been booked. Just like when the space shuttle starts its engines, we are a go for launch and the countdown has begun. Since the last blog, I have had a few changes in my diet, last week I lost 9 pounds. I went from 14 stone 7 lbs to 13 stone 12 lbs, I had not changed my diet nor done anything different, a lot of weight just packed up its bags and left. So after I posed at this weight, Rod wrote me out a new diet, it was bliss to my ears, not only did the cardio drop and protein go up but I also had milk pass through my mouthfor the first time in countless weeks. So I carried on with my new diet over the weekend. Monday which signifies chest day rolled around quickly and it was time to train and weigh in again. Rod was stuck in a city somewhere so I was informed to text him my weight as soon as I knew. So I stepped onto the scales with a twenty pence piece in hand. Naturally as I weighed in at 13 stone 12lbs my eye focus on that area, only to watch the needle go straight past and stop at 14stone 5lbs, in disbelief and confusion I jump off and grab another twenty pence and threw my shoes and top off. My thinking was that the scales were off and I may have stepped on it wrongly (I am not even sure if that is possible), the shoes and top only saved me 2 pounds as it stopped dead at 14 stone 3lbs. I go into a panic, and ring Rod straight away, at this point my world was coming to an end, I have spent the last 2 months watching that needle go down….. Not up.

“I am 14.3 !” I said to the reply of “14.3 that’s good I was hoping for 14.1. but 14.3 is even better (at this point I think my trainer as lost the plot and it’s time to get off the titanic , I can see the ice berg). It’s all good bud, you lost too much weight last week and your face looked like a skeleton, you would have gone catabolic ( this means your body starts breaking your muscle down for an energy source, this is bodybuilding hell). Drop the fat and milk, oh and increase cardio back up”. So I did’nt quite go into cardiac arrest but I was close to it. I asked next time just to warn me so I don’t have another panic attack. So I carried on with my workout with a settled mindset, plus I had a nice motivational moment when I lifted the same dumbbells I always lift and they went up with out crashing into my face, so yet again to my surprise the strength is still there.

Everything is coming together, I’v been constantly practicing my posing and my routine, every time trying to remember my best angles as there is no mirror on stage to correct yourself. I have had a lot of people telling me I have lost a lot of weight, I don’t look well and I am tired so I know I am getting close.

I am around three weeks out now and on the home straight, I have just got to hope everything goes to plan and there are no bumps on the way. As always if there are any questions email me at ian@massprotein.co.uk