Monday, September 15, 2014

26 days out

I'm feeling really good. This is the end--the final push. My calories dip a little more and cardio increases. I'm really back and forth with my physique and my posing needs work... but overall I'm excited to walk into this show SO much healthier and happier mentally and physically.

IIFYM works my friends. I'm still eating everything I want, but I've started to limit the candy :) I'll "clean" things up on Saturday once I'm officially 3 weeks out. I want to have pretty consistent sodium levels so that I can manipulate them and water load come peak week.

8 Weeks ago vs. today.


Saturday, September 6, 2014

5 weeks out!

I can't believe we are only 5 weeks out from the show. It's been a long 14 weeks of cutting so far. I started at around 144.8 lbs after my bulk (I'm 5'10") and I'm sitting at around 137.6 now. So that's an average of a little more that 0.5lb/week which is EXACTLY what I wanted to do. Last time I cut way too quickly... I lost over a pound a week for 10 weeks and then stopped doing cardio so I wouldn't lose any more. Now I am just picking up on my cardio again :)

I love IIFYM. I love being able to eat ice cream and Oreos and cookie butter and candy every day. I had my last refeed on Tuesday. FOUR Psycho donuts... originally Kyle was gonna split them with me but he only had like half of one. So, yeah. That was amazing.

I've been playing that mental game with myself. I know I'm leaning out. But I know when we get closer to the show I'm gonna be WAY leaner--or so it will seem. I still have plenty of time to shred down 2% more body fat (I'd like to walk on stage at around 15). In any case, some days I feel disheartened. Some days I'm like "I just wanna eat 2500 calories again." Some days I'm like "I wanna sleep in and not ever do cardio." But for now I know I have to keep grinding. For most people, after 14 weeks they would have competed already. But I knew I wanted to do a slow and steady 19-20 week cut. It's helped me so much mentally.

I'll likely have to cut calories maybe one more time and then the final couple weeks I will bring my sodium and "fun foods" down considerably. Dairy and cheese make me bloat so that will be gone about 2 weeks out. Broccoli and asparagus do the same so my final weeks of carbs will include more Ube potatoes, carrots, and green beans. I won't ever eat "clean" but I will start to reduce the processed foods so that there is less fluctuation in my sodium / bloat day to day. Here is what a typical "bro food" meal looks like for me:



Okay, here are some pictures.