Dat Bodybuilding Lifestyle

There is a reason this isn’t in the GAL

I live my life as if I’m getting ready for something important.
When I’m not at all…

Early nights
Cook in bulk
Cooler with food if I’m going to be gone more than just a few hours
Very few visits out or to the bar
Some days I go to the gym twice a day

The result is me living like a hermit.

How do you guys make time for other people, girls, friends?

How do you explain to a girl that half way through your date you need to slam a chicken breast with some rice and raw broccoli or that you can’t go out to eat because your cutting and you like to weigh and calculate every single calorie?

Sober things you guys like to do for fun that don’t impede your bb goals?

I like to fit my body building around my life, not my life around my bodybuilding.

I’ll take the Mrs out on weekends when im cutting. I’ll just choose food i can eat. If i’m going out for a long period of time i’ll either take something in a shaker, or just grab a wrap or something. I go out with my friends to bars and have a few drinks plus some water or diet Coke (save the heavy nights for an occasion ;-).

The only real pain is the gym as i tend to go on the weekend which cuts into me doing other things. The Mrs does get the hump sometimes but its not like she would stop me as she knows what i’m about. So she just rolls her eyes and i’m off!

If i had the choice of gaining 5lbs of muscle a year and spending time with the Mrs and friends having a few drinks, or gaining 15lbs and sitting in every night eating chicken and broccoli? I’d choose having a life!

interesting questions. I think the biggest asset to having a normal social life is strategic use of cheat meals. If you’re out on a date, have something a normal person would eat, then for the rest of the week eat according to your diet again.

Same goes with if you are with your pals and they decide they want to order pizza. Get involved with the pizza, life’s too short, but get back on the diet immediately after. I think unless you are getting up on stage in the future then there’s no need to be completely ascetic.

I sometimes wonder why I put myself through all the diet and training too, I think the fact of it is I prefer the healthy hermit lifestyle to back when I used to go out drinking 4 nights a week.

As for it not interfering with your time with your girl, that’s easy! Find a girl who lifts :slight_smile:

Being a good cook helps too, that way you can cook your friends/girlfriends/family members healthy, bodybuilder friendly food and they won’t even know. They’ll be too preoccupied with how delicious it is.

I’ve had to deal with this from the first day I got serious about lifting. Dorming in college? Lol forget about sleep and not drinking, that was damn near impossible. There were a couple of times I forced myself to the gym with the worst hangovers I’ve ever had just to fit in lifting for that week.

I think we all wonder if this is all worth it in the end, at this point in time I also have no real desire to step on stage anytime soon, so I do this purely for me and the enjoyment of it. I just don’t let it stop my life. You have to love this, it’s definitely not for everybody but I’ve been addicted to this for the past couple of years with no end in sight.

Once you get into the habit of things though, prepping food, going to bed early, or deciding to drink seltzer water with a lime all night and calling it vodka sprite really doesn’t phase you after a while.

I’ll admit though, these days I find myself steering away from the “clean foods” and just enjoying being out more often.

More power to you, I never saw the point if I wasn’t going to compete. That being said I believe the best way is to surround yourself with like minded people. Eventually your path will lead to that but it’ll be a much bumpier ride if you don’t start off that way.

In terms of finding them, if you’re not going to compete at least go to shows, start talking to more people at the gym, hang out in supplement shops. I’ve hung out in bars and it’s mostly the same type of socializing except instead of drunken fights it’s protein fart giggles, and women have conversations about how many calories in air vegetable chips vs ewho got shitfaced last week.

The only difference I have seen is as it gets later drunk people get more bold.

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
I think the biggest asset to having a normal social life is strategic use of cheat meals. If you’re out on a date, have something a normal person would eat, then for the rest of the week eat according to your diet again.

Same goes with if you are with your pals and they decide they want to order pizza. Get involved with the pizza, life’s too short, but get back on the diet immediately after. I think unless you are getting up on stage in the future then there’s no need to be completely ascetic.[/quote]

Second the above. Unless you are preparing to get on stage then why suffer? Eat the pizza, drink the beer and then eat as normal the rest of the week. A couple of beers and some junk food with friends once a week really isn’t the end of the world. If you do it every other night then you might start to struggle. As rds says i quite like the healthy quiet life after a youth on the North London tiles!

great thread, im still trying to find this balance, looking foreward to hearing what some competitors have to say.

I respect people who can achieve the level of commitment outlined in the OP. I would go insane trying to keep my life and diet that regimented, even if I was aiming to step on stage. Perhaps this is why I am more drawn to powerlifting? Haha.

The resturant thing is easy

If you can cook…like really get down in the kitchen she wont ever want to go out to dine. There are lots of benefits to this when it comes to women

Naked cooking is my favorite.

Dont talk about your diet. No one cares but you.

Drop some amino acid caps instead of food when youre out entertaining friends.

Sober hobbies?

Music and visual arts…acting
Djing is cool…can go out once or twice a month and have fun without drinking…cool part is a good mix will keep you busy and in the house for weeks anyway.

Gotta want to live man. No need to be a hermit.

It’s all about mindset. Understand that one bad meal doesn’t break a good physique and one good meal doesn’t get you back on track, it’s about flow and momentum. Are you moving towards your goal? Can you afford to take a cheat meal? More often than not the answer to that will be “yes” as long as the rest of your training is fine and you’re not sneaking kit kats at 2am

[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
The resturant thing is easy

If you can cook…like really get down in the kitchen she wont ever want to go out to dine. There are lots of benefits to this when it comes to women

Naked cooking is my favorite.

Dont talk about your diet. No one cares but you.

Drop some amino acid caps instead of food when youre out entertaining friends.

Sober hobbies?

Music and visual arts…acting
Djing is cool…can go out once or twice a month and have fun without drinking…cool part is a good mix will keep you busy and in the house for weeks anyway.

Gotta want to live man. No need to be a hermit.[/quote]

I always enjoy your once monthly serious post.

get super jacked and lean and get great insulin sensitivity, then you can have carbs etc on a more regular basis and it wont hurt your physique much if at all.

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
interesting questions. I think the biggest asset to having a normal social life is strategic use of cheat meals. If you’re out on a date, have something a normal person would eat, then for the rest of the week eat according to your diet again.

Same goes with if you are with your pals and they decide they want to order pizza. Get involved with the pizza, life’s too short, but get back on the diet immediately after. I think unless you are getting up on stage in the future then there’s no need to be completely ascetic.

I sometimes wonder why I put myself through all the diet and training too, I think the fact of it is I prefer the healthy hermit lifestyle to back when I used to go out drinking 4 nights a week.

As for it not interfering with your time with your girl, that’s easy! Find a girl who lifts :slight_smile:

Being a good cook helps too, that way you can cook your friends/girlfriends/family members healthy, bodybuilder friendly food and they won’t even know. They’ll be too preoccupied with how delicious it is.[/quote]

I agree with the strategic cheat meals. Eat on your diet 99% of the time during normal days. When social situations arise, relax a little and have fun. Have a few drinks (nothing too crazy) or order a burger and fries when you go out.

True bodybuilders can cook. Bitches love a guy that can cook.

Struggling with this balance as a husband, step dad and FT computer engineer.

My motivation to eat clean though is not just physique based, but to also counter the family history of heart disease and diabetes. I can only do that making my own meals and being a tool carrying tupperware. Which means not going out much.

Paleo is a lifestyle. An option would be to make new friends with the same interests, but I’m going racial here…black folks typically don’t get that extreme when it comes to eating. Soul food would never be given up.

But Dan John had a beautiful article tough vs reasonable. Basically both your diet and workouts can’t be tough all the time. Most of the time they need to just be reasonable. Might need to heed this advice myself.

[quote]Consul wrote:

[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
The resturant thing is easy

If you can cook…like really get down in the kitchen she wont ever want to go out to dine. There are lots of benefits to this when it comes to women

Naked cooking is my favorite.

Dont talk about your diet. No one cares but you.

Drop some amino acid caps instead of food when youre out entertaining friends.

Sober hobbies?

Music and visual arts…acting
Djing is cool…can go out once or twice a month and have fun without drinking…cool part is a good mix will keep you busy and in the house for weeks anyway.

Gotta want to live man. No need to be a hermit.[/quote]

I always enjoy your once monthly serious post.
[/quote]

In 2013 i promise 2 serious posts a month.

It’s pretty simple really. My friends aren’t big fans of drinking. We have have a beer here and there but few of my friends drink to get drunk. I was upfront with my gf about what I do and how my time is allocated, she knows I don’t drink, she knows I hate clubs, she knows my idea of a good time is going wallclimbing, hiking, snowboarding and so on, she knows diet is very important to me and she hasn’t complained once about my dietary habits. This is also my friends’ idea of a good time, which is why we are friends.

My girlfriend enjoys those things as she also does not drink and likes most the activities I’ve listed. She does like to go out dancing sometimes (this usually means a late night out) and we compromise by doing it once a month or so (I am ok staying up late once a month).

The above can be summarized by simply saying surround yourself with like minded people.

I did the same thing for quite some time, and I can tell you that by and large it is unnecessary unless you actually ARE competing. I’m not saying to miss a gym session, but if you miss 1 or 2 gym sessions a year… Do you honestly think you will look ANY different at the end? How about in 10 years? “If only I went to the gym on November 14th 2010… I’d have the body I want”

The eating is a bit harder because you have to do it all day, every day. A well placed “cheat meal” can actually help your progress, so going out with a girl or hanging out with your friends one meal a week should not be viewed as a negative. Too many successful diets now incorporate, nay… Mandate, gut busting cheat days and meals for anyone to be worried about a single dietary transgression.

Read Ct Rock’s post again, it has many gems.

I love this lifestyle because it provides routine and structure and I do a lot better living like this than I did before, I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to eat and when because it’s the same everyday apart from non-training days.

I know most people can’t live like this as they probably find it repetitive and boring

That being said I won’t stress out if I miss a meal or a training session. Like Lonnie said looking at the big picture it won’t make much difference, as long as I’m on target 90-95% of the time.

If prepping for a contest however I would be more disciplined

I will add that I’m married and childless with a not-very-demanding job. Maintaining this kind of lifestyle single and/or with kids and working loads of hours would be a different story

I was thinking about this a lot as well. Im still in school (at one of the biggest party schools in the country, mind you) so I have to do a good amount of planning. I think the biggest thing is staying consistent, while planning your few days off. Last week was my finals week, and you can bet I had a massive cooler filled with chicken, rice, broccoli, steak and other foods every time i went to the library.

And yes my friends would make fun of me, but i look better than about 90% of them so i couldnt give a shit. During a normal week I will eat extremely clean, everything on schedule (mainly because it makes it easier for me). I basically plan to eat this way, then do whatever I want on the weekend. Yes, i go out every friday and saturday… but I’m also in college, so I would like to enjoy the 4 years i am here while it lasts. Although, i have had the occasional yuke session working out hungover on the weekends, but hey, worth it.

I can also cook pretty well for a college student, which impresses most girls.

I think it all comes down to what makes you happiest. Have fun, enjoy what youre doing… but dont let it take over. Balance is key.