11/23/2011 – Wednesday

Tomorrow is the big day for my diet test. I am seriously debating if I can afford to have a slice of pie after dinner. If I do it will have to be early enough in the day where my body can process it. I am going to stick to the sweet potatoes, white meat turkey, and a few of other complex carbs.

I’m not going to post my diet today since it was much the same as past days. Major changes will be upcoming in my diet. My focus is carb timing, meal timing. Most people think if I want to bulk up, just eat allot of food and if I want to cut just eat less. There is so much more to it than that. There are allot of cutting diet rules that I am learning as it go. As long as I can come into this show as close as possible to peak show condition I will be happy.

I usually don’t crave sugary snacks but this last week has been torture. Stores are packed to the hilt with all kinds of pies, and treats. It has been a true test of my dedication to resist the urge to eat some of them. I will post tomorrow how my diet went and if I was able to keep it under control.

11/16/2011 – Wednesday

Really trying to focus on my diet. When I was bulking I really didn’t do much diet research, I regret that now. The knowledge that I have now in regards to carb timing, foods that are better to eat certain times of the day. Has really helped me see some results, I have increased energy in the gym, and out of the gym. My vascularity is way up, you can begin to see the “road map” beginning to show up. My muscle seperation is beginning to come through, which is something I have never seen in myself before. Something that is truly amazing to me is that even though I am in a contest diet and I can see changes in my phyique I am not dropping weight on the scale.

7AM – Protein shake (tomorrow going to mix in some oatmeal) added carbs

9AM – Cardio Session

10AM – Breakfast – 1cup Oatmeal, 6egg whites, 1whole egg, 2 strips turkey bacon

12 – Protein Shake

1:30 – Tilapia, 1 med. sweet potato

2:30 – 3:30 – Workout

3:45 – After workout Protein Shake

5:30 – Cardio Session 2

6:30 – Chicken Breast, either brown rice or sweet potato

9:00 – Chicken Breast (keep carbs low before bed)

11/16/2011 – Biceps and Abs

One way you can tell if you had a good workout is when you can’t move that bodypart. My biceps are killing me, I included a couple of single arm workouts to really get the pump going. My focus here is to stay injury free, by lowering weights and flexing the muscle at each rep you get an amazing workout without the risk of tearing something.

Biceps – Warm up- Cable Ez Bar Curl – 1set at 15reps at 40lbs

Preacher Curl – 4sets of 10reps at 60lbs

Concentration Curl – 4sets of 10reps at 30lbs

Hammer Curl – 4sets of 10reps at 30lbs

Reverse Curl – 4sets of 10reps at 36lbs

Single Arm Preacher Curl – 4sets of 12reos at 36lbs

Abs – Cruches 4 sets to failure also worked obliques.

Leg Raises – 4sets to failure

 

11/14/2011 – Monday

I am enjoying this new diet more and more. Learning allot as I go, its amazing that simple diet change make a huge difference in my phyisque.  One unexpected thing for me is that I really like tilapia, I thought I would gag the entire time.

7Am – Protein Shake

9AM – 9:30 Cardio Session #1

10AM – Breakfast – 1cup Oatmeal, 5 egg whites 1 whole egg, 4 slices turkey bacon

12 – Protein Shake

1:30 – Lunch – – 1.5 cups sweet potato, 10 oz ground turkey 97% lean mixed together  (this is really good)

2:30 – 3:30 Workout

3:45 – Protein Shake

5:00 – Sweet Potato, Ground Turkey – will update after time passes

7:00 – Tilapia with Sweet Potato

9:00- Final Shake for the night

I want to limit my intake of protein shakes to 3, but today was a little off. I will correct and fix tomorrow. People are starting to tell me I look “bigger” and more vascular, which is cool. It means my diet is working.

 

11/12/2011 – Saturday – Cardio Only

Today was a test of dedication – during the past 2 years I did not do any cardio at all, this was a mistake. After the contest is over I will drop my cardio to 1-2 sessions a week. So today was the ultimate test not only is it the weekend (so I dont workout) but it was raining. I got up went out and did my run! It felt like the best one so far.

Some diet changes-

1. Dropping the bowl of cereal and replacing it with a shake

2. Dropping white rice and replacing it with brown rice

3. Including red bell peppers in 3 of my meals

4. Tried tilapia it was ok, I think I over cooked it by allot so it was like leather. I will be adding that it with more of my meals, I didn’t realize that when I eat 12 oz of turkey it contains 32 grams of fat. That is not what I need right now.

5. Replacing ground turkey with chicken breast and tilapia

Like I said this is a learning experience for me, changing things as I go is expected at this stage.

11/10/2011 – Thursday

Here is todays diet, I find my self hungry all of the time. I will start tracking weight next week.

 

7 Am – Bowl of Cheerios with skim milk (this will be changed to oatmeal soon)

9:30 – half hour cardio

10:15 – 1 Cup oatmeal, 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 3 strips turkey bacon

1:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey

3:00 – Workout

4:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey (will change to tilapia soon)

5:30 – half hour cardio

6:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey

9:30 – Either a shake or another meal depending on hunger

11/10/2011 – Shoulders/ Calves

Another workout done! A day closer to my contest, time seems to be flying by. I see now why so few people auctually pursue bodybuilding contests, it takes a high level of dedication. There are lots of people that I talk to on the internet and in person that are in great shape, but they would never enter a contest. I always wondered why, you have to be able to control yourself. When you see someone else eating tacos, and you look down at your boring plate of ground turkey and rice. You just have to bear down at eat the meals you laid out.

Besides the workouts, diets, supplements, there is all of the diet research that I am doing. It took me 2 months to decide how I wanted to put my contest diet together. I tracked other peoples progress and took notes, it was nice because I got to see what worked for them and what didn’t. So enough with my mindless ramblings.

Shoulders – I have created allot of my own excercises that I feel target my shoulders. I won’t list those since I don’t have names for them.

Front Dumbbell Raise – 4sets of 10reps at 30lbs

Upright Row – 4sets of 10reps at 80lbs

Seated Row – 4sets of 10reps at 80lbs

Dumbbell Rotations? – 4sets of 10reps at 10lbs (you have to go light here, injury is easy)

Lateral Raises – 4sets of 10reps at 20lbs

Calves – Bodyweight Calf Raises- 4sets of 20reps

Cardio – Completed one session so far today

11/9/2011 – Wednesday

7 Am – Bowl of Cheerios with skim milk (this will be changed to oatmeal soon)

9:30 – half hour cardio

10:15 – 1 Cup oatmeal, 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 3 strips turkey bacon

1:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey

3:00 – Workout

4:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey (will change to tilapia soon)

5:30 – half hour cardio

6:30 – 1-1.5 cups white rice, 8-12oz ground turkey

9:30 – Either a shake or another meal depending on hunger

11/08/2011 – Chest

I seem to always forget to update this site, I keep a constant log of where I am at in my diet, and progress. I just seem to forget to come on here and update it. So today was chest day and also the first day of cardio. I haven’t done any real cardio for 2 years. So with the January contest being just around the corner its time to get it started.

Benchpress – 1warmup and 4 working sets of 10 at 200lbs

Incline Press – 4 working sets of 8 at  185lbs

Butterfly Press – 4 working sets of 10 at 96lbs this is a cable butterfly

Reverse Grip Bench Press – 4 working sets of 10 at 85lbs (this is a hard press to do, you cant use much weight due to strain on shoulders)

Decline Press – 4 working sets of 10 at 105 – I was pretty worn out at this point

At the end I performed 2 sets of butterfly press to failure to work some extra blood into the muscles.

Hamstrings – Reverse leg curls (I don’t know what to call it) 4 sets of 20 at 65lbs

Cardio- 30 mineute run before breakfast, will do a second session before bed tonight

I will also be updating pictures weekly to track the cutting progress.

9/16/11 – Back

Just finished watching the Mr. Olympia pre-judging, all I can say is that I am speechless. Phil Heath brought his “A” game this year, but Jay Cutler looked awesome. Tomorrow will tell who will take the title, I am also interested to know if Jay will continue to compete next year or if he is going to retire. There has been some talk about his retirement.

Today was back day, my weight is at 187 pounds, 13 more pounds left to gain and only a few weeks left before I start my contest preperations. I really hit my back hard today and I am trying to increase width and thickness of my back.

Close Grip Pulldowns – 5sets x 10reps at 196lbs to front

Wide Grip Pulldowns – 5sets x 10reps at 200lbs to back

One Arm Rows – 5sets x 10reps at 50lbs (my dumbells only go to 50lbs time to look for heavier ones)

Shoulder Shrugs – 5sets x 10reps at 175lbs – should have gone heavier here, but I wasn’t paying attention to the weight until after

Calf Raises – 3sets x 15reps at 175lbs

I heard today that one of the Olympians on the stage started out as a bantemweight, I would love to end up on that stage. I may be a little old already I am 31 and I think Phil Heath is 31 and he is already on the stage.  Leave me some comments would love to hear from you.