Unfortunately, as you know, feeling like crap is part of the deal sometimes. I’ve found upping my veggie intake helps a lot, out of the 6 meals a day, 4 of them have veggies. I usually do 4oz asparagus/broccoli/sauerkraut combo, plus a big handful of spinach with each one.
The carbs/fats/protein ratio is also something to play with. Even when carbs aren’t too low, the blood sugar fluctuations and light headedness can kick in, especially depending on the carb sources. Faster digesting carb sources may spike blood sugar more, leading to a bigger crash later. Even when I had slow carbs for breakfast, like when I was eating egg whites with 2 pieces of ezekiel toast, I’d still completely crash an hour after. I’ve found upping fats, and especially having some fats with each meal, helps quite a bit, even just a little, like a couple of Flameout with each meal, or modifying some things to have like one egg with the egg whites, rather than just egg whites. The fats really help keep things stable, at least for me.
Keep killing it man can’t wait to see your finished product!
Another culinary accident, after my pre-workout cake discovery this morning, I tried microwaving some protein pudding. Came out firm, but not hard, like a little cupcake. Tastiest no-carb 250cal ever.
-1.5TBSP almond butter
-1 Scoop Vanilla Metabolic Drive
-mix with a little hot water and microwave
-Top with some chocolate Metabolic Drive icing
If I had room in my macros I’d add an egg and make the recipe according to the website:
Man I never thought a slice and a half of ezekiel bread could taste so good and make me so happy. After 3 grinding low days, a well earned medium day today. 1800 cals and 120g carbs. Meals are all the same, except for the addition of the toast with breakfast, extra cream of rice in my pre workout meal and a serving of cream of rice with my post workout meal.
People, if you’ve got carbs in your life, don’t take them for granted. Don’t wait until you’re cutting and they’re gone to really appreciate them. If you’ve got carbs today, you look them straight in the grains and say, “Thank you carbs, thank you for making me so happy every day, even though I don’t even realize it.”
Oh you’re welcome bro and thank you for all the encouragement…it helps more than you know probably.
I think I’ll have to do more veggies. I’ve been doing more fats and my carb sources have mostly been sweet potatoes but I’m still having these huge fluctuations from time to time. I can’t pass out in the hospital when I’m supposed to be helping folks! (lol).
I have been doing steam-able bags of veggies, mostly because we dont have a dishwasher and I get so tired of washing dishes…which results in not enough veggies being cooked, but I made a trip to Sam’s club for YUGEEEE bags so that should help.
I also love how you’re developing your culinary skills with your body haha. Working from home probably gives one a little more time to have fun with that stuff.
Sadly my medium day is almost at an end, it was fun while it lasted. It’s amazing what 130g carbs and a little over 1800 cals can do when you’ve been at less than 50g carbs and 1600 cals for three days. These medium days every 4 days are really important as I’m at the tail end of the prep and have been dieting for over 6 months, they give the body just enough of a nudge to say “hey, you’re not starving” while still allowing me to make progress. Especially at the end of a prep, it’s really important to ride the line of digging as deep as possible without digging too deep. More cardio and less calories does not always equal getting more shredded. The key is to find how much you can get away with without your body shutting down and fighting back.
Right now, I’m confident in our plan and all I can do is ride it out these next couple weeks until peak week. We’ve planned my off season and prep meticulously, I’ve been incredibly consistent and have done my best every day. We’ve paced and programmed perfectly as possible to allow me to bring my best in a few weeks. At this point, we can’t dig any further, adding more cardio and lowering cals more isn’t going to help. So, I’m gonna keep giving my best every day until it’s done, and I’m confident I will have a great package to present on stage. Hopefully I can nab another pro card, which would be quite an end to this crazy two year journey, but if not, I’ll know I did my best and whoever takes it deserves it just as much.
Looking a little tighter/more filled out after the carbs today, not a ton of carbs so not a drastic difference, but enough to let me see some progress. When glycogen stores are totally depleted, it can really be kind of depressing looking at yourself saying, “where the hell did my muscle go?!” Aside from the physical and hormonal benefit of the medium days to bump carbs/cals and keep progressing moving, mentally they’re just as important. Even though I’m confident I haven’t lost any LBM during the prep, sometimes it sure looks like it when there’s no glycogen to fill out the muscle tissue. I am way more defined than I was for the first show four weeks ago, so I’m really hoping with another two weeks of grinding, a tan and full carb load it’ll all come together.
It’s hard not to be completely OCD about this right now, it’s all I think about, no matter what. I’ve also been obsessing over food a lot lately, lol, it’s just what happens after you’ve been dieting for 26 weeks. Every couple nights I’ll have a food nightmare where I eat something I’m not supposed to and think I ruined my prep. The other night I had a dream I ate a bowl of ezekiel cereal, EZEKIEL FREAKING CEREAL, one of the cleanest and healthiest foods on Earth, and woke up in a panic for a minute because I thought it really happened.
Speaking of food, my new protein-pudding cupcake is one of my favorite meals now. Added 1/8TSP of baking powder tonight, and also did half peanut butter, half almond butter, and for protein did half chocolate and half vanilla Metabolic Drive. Puffed up nicely and made a surprisingly big cupcake, topped with a little protein frosting.
Back to the low days tomorrow, three more cycles of L-L-L-M, then it’s peak week.
You are absolutely doing work this prep and it shows! Can’t wait to tag team our second show in 2 months! Dude after I finished up cardio this morning I did 10/15 minutes of posing and hated how flat I look also. Definitely way more lines in my physique but god damn am I a pancake! If you need me I will be avoiding mirrors and eating lettuce wraps all days. Screw low carb days, actually screw the day after low carb days because that is when the hangover is real!!! God bless coffee
It’s pretty much impossible to be objective at this point, but I think I’m looking a little tighter each day. My scale weight hasn’t changed, been between 140-142 every day for a couple weeks now, so we’re at the point where pictures and mirror are the only way to gauge progress. Filled out a little yesterday from the carbs that I could see in the gym and after dinner, woke up and they’re gone, so back to being flat as a pancake. But, strength has been solid, Micro-PA still in the mix, I’m confident I haven’t lost any LBM and that a full carb load really tighten things up. I’ve also read that a very common side effect of Yohimbine is water retention. I’ve been taking max dose of Hot Rox since my last show, so I’m hoping once I stop that peak week that’ll be another factor in drying out a bit.
@joshbenjamin and @The_Myth - thank you very much guys! Posing practice should help the quads come in also, Sunday is going to be my last leg day and got a massage booked for next week, so that should all hopefully help them come up a bit.
Really digging hard on these low days, pulled cals a little lower and staying full on my newest kick of big ass salads. 150 cals total - 30g protein
-1/2 bag lettuce
-5oz organic turkey breast
-3TBSP 0 cal dressing
-Lots of Franks Red Hot
-salt, garlic powder
@MoreMuscle & @joshbenjamin - these 0 cal dressings I found at Wegmans, they’re very good! Walden Farms also makes some 0 cal dressings, but these are better IMO.
LONG AND AWESOME POST COMING - 1500 calorie day, 2hrs of cardio
Today was the lowest calorie, most amount of cardio day of the entire prep, and it’s the best I’ve felt in a couple weeks. Could be a combination of knowing I dug hard, but also some nutritional adjustments that while have me at lower cals, are keeping me feeling good. Did my 60 minutes of morning fasted LISS at the gym today, because while the walking outside feels better than incline treadmill at home, I am sure the elliptical with resistance burns more calories than walking, simply for the fact that I keep my heart rate at 120, and there’s no way it gets that high walking. So, I’m going to the gym for my morning cardio these last 10 days.
Now that today is over, there are just 10 days of grinding left. While I’ve been making progress, for me, it’s not fast enough, and with 10 days to go, I want to be sure I’m doing everything I can do bring my best, tightest, most undeniable conditioning possible.
SO, we’re continuing with our L-L-L-M rotation, but low days are now 1500 cals, medium days are 1800 cals. I also added an additional 45min walk mid-day. I feel this is as hard as I can dig while not crossing the line into unhealthy/dangerous territory. So, how is it possible I feel so good? While lowering cals, I raised carbs, so am now getting more than I used to. Also, I’ve been getting a LOT more sodium as a result of my excessive hot sauce use, and believe that’s helping too (more on that later.)
Here’s a complete breakdown of what what I did today, and how my day now looks like for a 1500 cal ass kicking, skin tightening day of awesomeness:
8am -HOT ROX and Rhodiola - to the gym for 60min LISS on the elliptical, HR kept 115-120 to ensure I’m burning all fat and not going too hard.
10:30am - Meal 1 - 290 cals
-3 farm raised whole eggs
-1 organic chicken sausage
-veggies (consisting of 4oz total of onions, fresh garlic, asparagus and broccoli, plus 2oz spinach), all sautéed in the pan with a ton of Frank’s Red Hot 2 Curcumin, 3 Rez-V, 1000mg Vitamin C, 2000IU D3, 1 Probiotic
1:30pm - Meal 2 - 150 cals
-5oz organic turkey breast
-200g lettuce (little over half a bag)
-0 cal dressing, Frank’s Red Hot, salt, garlic powder
-Diet soda 1000mg Vitamin C
3:00pm - HOT ROX and Rhodiola
-45min fast paced walk around the neighborhood
3:45pm - 6 caps Indigo 3G
4:15pm - Meal 3 (pre-workout - 355 cals)
-42g Cream of Rice
-1 Scoop Metabolic Drive Chocolate
-1TBSP Almond Butter
-I make this the day before, then microwave on high for 3 minutes which makes it into a cake like consistency, topped with a little 0 cal Walden Farms Maple Syrup
4:30pm - 6 caps Micro-PA
5:30pm - Training, drinking a ton of water, followed by 20min LISS
7:30pm - Meal 4 - 310 cals
-5oz organic chicken breast
-veggies (consisting of 4oz total of onions, fresh garlic, asparagus and broccoli, plus 2oz spinach), all sautéed in the pan with a ton of Frank’s Red Hot
-1 slice Ezekiel toast
-1 small apple (I LOVE APPLES, haven’t had one in months, this was pure heaven) 2 Curcumin, 1000mg Vitamin C
10:00pm - Meal 5 - 150 cals
-5oz organic turkey breast
-200g lettuce (little over half a bag)
-0 cal dressing, Frank’s Red Hot, salt, garlic powder
-Diet soda
12:00pm - 3 caps Z-12, 3 caps ZMA
12:30pm - Meal 6 - 230 cals
-3oz flank steak
-1 whole egg
-Microwaved and tossed on a bunch of lettuce OR a small protein muffin, IIFYM bruh!
-1 Scoop Metabolic Drive
-20g Almond Butter
-Mixed together and microwaved on high for a minute 4 Flameout - 45 cals
Sleep for me is terrible on a prep. Fortunately, working from home, I can deal with it, and I’ve found I actually sleep better if I just read or watch TV, and wait until about 1/1:30 to go to bed, and sleep somewhat consistently until 8. So, I’ve paced my meals accordingly with that schedule and it’s been working nicely.
Regarding the sodium comment earlier, about 5 days ago, for some reason, I thought I was getting too much sodium because I salt all my food heavily and use a lot of condiments. I don’t know why I thought I was getting too much or why I thought that was bad, I guess it’s just “common knowledge” not to have too much sodium or something. It’s never been something I worried about. Why now? No idea. So, I cut back fairly significantly. Big mistake. I started feeling more lethargic, moody, strength went down, and after the gym one evening I started getting weird muscle cramps in my hands and couldn’t move my jaw for a minute when I was chewing. Quick googling led me to needing more salt, especially with the low calories and copious amounts of water.
Fast forward a few days to today, I’ve been salting my food again, using lots of hot sauce (sodium city), eating the chicken sausages which are delicious and high in sodium, and I feel so much better. Additionally, strength is back, no cramping, and my muscles, despite being depleted, look and feel much harder. Tonight, I found this article, confirming my suspicions:
Great article by Scott Abel. The short version is athletes, especially low-calorie bodybuilders, need LOTS of sodium for a variety of reasons, and there’s basically no such thing as too much. As long as you’re drinking enough water every day, your body will regulate your sodium and you’ll pee out any excess. I feel significantly better back to my sodium filled ways, and am using more now than I used to with my abundance of Frank’s Red Hot. Love it.
Well, that’s about it for today. 1500 calories, 70g carbs, 2 hours of cardio and I feel good knowing I dug in there hard, and am going to do it again tomorrow. As @The_Mighty_Stu said to me earlier today after sharing the new plan, “if we dug any harder I’d be 6 feet under.”
My re-feed day is the day after tomorrow, which has some exciting new developments, but more on that Friday.
Thank you sir! I most definitely will be. I’m done competing for a while after this, even if the planets align and I’m fortunate enough to take the show, I won’t be doing the pro debut in Boston 4 weeks after. My body and mind are wrecked, and my work is suffering. So, I’m really looking forward to this show, and then living normally again. I’ll be taking at least a year off of competing. I’ve been prioritizing bodybuilding for two years now, even in the off season, so it’s time to shift back to normal. I’ll most definitely still keep up training and being healthy, etc., but the days of low cals, carbs, and bringing my cooler to parties will be over.
After this show, I’m planning on moving to a 4 day split for a couple months at least, for recovery, and to have more time to work. NO CARDIO!
It definitely is, it’s really filling with the abundance of lettuce in there. I alternate between butter lettuce and iceberg, the iceberg gives a good crunch. The diet soda and hot sauce also helps fill me up, it’s become one of my favorite meals. Definitely gonna keep it for the off season, and add some bacon to it!
