@studhammer I will do that. This weekend I’ll remove the hair and re-evaluate. It may be my mind playing tricks I dont know but today I feel fat as hell, bloated.
@The_Mighty_Stu Unfortunately the next show is a month from this show and in between I have a holiday (which was supposed to be a break after the prep) so I know I will not be dieting while away. It’s pretty much this show or next year. And you’re right, it would be an absolute shame to have gone through these grueling last few weeks and end up with nothing, but then again also not wanting to get embarrassed on stage.
Well, here’s a quote I’ve heard attributed to Steve Weinberger said to an athlete right before a contest he planned on doing all year… “That’s okay if you don’t do this one, or if you mess up, you only have to wait another 364 days to enter the next one.”
Obviously I can’t tell you what to do, but I’ve had clients go on vacation during preps, leave the country and bring most of their food with them, even gave Brad (@BrickHead) an emergency plan when his wife dragged him on a weekend getaway mid-prep (and he stuck to the plan, came back winning his class, the overall, and his Procard!)
So I decided to quit whining like a bitch and control whats in my power, which is to try get as peeled as possible in 2 weeks. I thought there’s no point crying over the fact that I didn’t start prep early enough, that time is gone but what I can do now is give it my all and say I tried.
So I’m powering through, cardio is up to 1.5 hours a day and calories down to 1450, alternating between 70g/day and 150g/day on training days. Down 4lbs already. @studhammer
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I’m at a stage now where the mental fluctuations are almost hourly, “Im going to compete”… “Im not going to compete”… “Wow I look amazing, I think I can win this”… “Wtf do you even go to the gym?”.
Trying my best to stay focused, yesterday I did almost 2 hours of cardio and an hour of weights and went slightly hypo so I did a carb load, which ended up being a carb inhalation outside of my macros, by quite a bit. It was all clean foods however, I was bloated by the end of it but today I am compensating by decreasing calories and carbs and sticking to my 1.5 hours of cardio. Lower abs are really starting to come in.
I get so envious of how good bodybuilders look when they’re weeks out from a contest, but then I read about how they feel and what they’re doing to actually be that way and it’s a fantastic antidote to any green feelings that may be lingering. Couldn’t do it.
So the show was last weekend, unfortunately I could not do it.
I’ll explain the events that took place. So I did a carb refeed a week before the show and the plan was to drop to zero carbs up until the night before the show.
During this refeed, I made burgers using patties composed of “Seitan”. Naturally, I thought this was a soya based product much like tofu and tempeh, however shortly after eating said burgers I started developing hives all over my body.
Within a couple of hours, my resting heart rate shot up to 120bpm laying in bed with the fan on sweating profusely. A few hours later, I lost my eyesight and ended up in the ER. I was given anti-histamines and bloods were taken.
The day after, I woke up with the most painful hemorrhoids I have ever experienced (I don’t get them usually), unable to sit, stand or lay down which kept me out the gym for 4 days and lost 5lbs.
Seitan it turns out is made from pure gluten. I suffer from mild celiac disease where I can tolerate small portions of gluten such as 1 or 2 slices of bread a week, but being made purely from gluten and consuming a large amount of it in one sitting, doctors said I suffered a mild anaphylactic shock.
What an eventful week, I can say now however I am on the mend, the only thing still to recover fully is the resting heart rate, which has now come down to around 85/90, normally I’m slightly lower so still not 100%.
I did get into pretty good shape and I will post some pictures up of my condition before this episode.
Moving forward, I have held onto some conditioning although I will admit my diet has been very loose, the next show will be towards the end of the year.
