Post World champs (9 June 2013)
Cheat week
For those of you who have never entered a Bodybuilding competition, the term ‘Cheat Week’ is used to describe the 7 days after a show when you relinquish all control of your diet and eat all the things you have been denying yourself for the past 16 weeks or more. This is a time of very mixed emotions; on the one hand there is elation at the release of control, on the other there is not inconsiderable guilt at the lack of control!
Then of course there is the physical side. How to deal with all the food you want to eat but your stomach cannot accommodate since it is now only the size of peach! This leads to several days of extreme discomfort because, even though you are full and you know how bad you’re probably going to feel, you still eat more. Additionally, there is also the inability to properly digest the rich, fatty, mostly junk food you are stuffing down your neck - so all in all, both a very uncomfortable time and yet also very satisfying!
So, June 17th cheat week over, 20lbs gained & 16 weeks out from the Universe.
Time to start my prep ...
Prep for the Universe
Because I have been keeping a record of my progress from the start of Oct 2012 right up till the world champs in June 2013, I was able to make an accurate assessment of how far out of condition I could allow myself to get, and still allow sufficient time to regain the condition I achieved for the world champs. The figure was a maximum of 19lbs over my contest weight, which was at the time of the Worlds 14st 1lb. The bad news was, of course, that after cheat week I had already hit my max- so it was back to the diet!
So it begins again: 16 weeks of what I knew was going to be hell.
Mentally, this was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I think if you asked most Bodybuilders how they would feel if someone walked up & asked ‘hey, want to start all this again tomorrow?’ after they’d completed the competitions they had planned & prepared for, ******* would be the likely reply! Very few guys even compete the next year and 18mths off is the norm as it gives the body time to recoup the lost muscle mass that is the inevitable result of hard competition prep.
I am going to jump fwd to 10 weeks out from the Universe show. At this point I had managed to bring my weight back to 15st 3lbs from a max of 15st 6lbs. I was very aware that I had to follow my plan from last time but for reason I was totally fixated on the condition I had been in only a few weeks earlier, and therefore was fretting and second- guessing all my previous planning instead of just settling into a routine and letting the plan work its magic.
I think all the worry also had an effect on my weight loss and the fact that, inevitably, after all my cardio, hard training and restrictive diet I had just become fitter, with the result that I needed to do MORE cardio to get the same fat burning effect! Also, my metabolism had not so much slowed down (as I thought) but had, similarly, just gotten more efficient.
So there I was sticking to my plan as before, but nothing was happening! Following a week of very low carbs (& around 1800cals a day); 1hr 15min fasted cardio in the morning; full day at work; 1hr 30 min heavy training after work & 45 minutes cardio in the evening I found myself with ZERO weight loss. A second week of the same regime resulted in zero weight loss again! It was time to start panicking!
Overall, the general pattern happened like this: 10 weeks out: 15st 3; 9weeks out: 15st 2; 8weeks out: 15st 2; 7weeks out: 15st; 6weeks out: 14st 13; 5 weeks out: 15st.
It was at this point I had had enough and made the decision to drop my daily calories to around. 1300, which meant dropping a complete meal from my plan.
4 weeks out I found myself at 14st 9- at last, we had movement! 3weeks out I was 14st 5lb, and with 2weeks to go I finally hit 14st 1lb.And that, my friend is where I am now!
Only 2 weeks today is the Mr Universe competition, and the culmination of all mine and my family’s, sacrifice this year...
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