Bodybuilding Prep

Yo.

So as most of you know, Becci and I are doing a Bodybuilding competition in June. Don’t laugh (at me, Becci looks great), it’s a goal and hopefully it will be all good come the 29th June. I am of course nervous and way out of my depth physique wise, but, I don’t want to bang on about that.

What I do want to talk about, is the dieting down side of things.

Many of you may, or may not know what a bodybuilding competition involves. I’ll explain what my perception of the whole process is.

You pick the show, however many weeks away, and you schedule your nutrition and training to perfection so that you drop body fat and/or weight each week until the show arrives. The way you do this, is to do simply 2 things.

1. Reduce calories at each weigh in/measurement date

2. Increase exercise/energy expenditure at each weigh in/measurement date.

By doing this you should keep progressing, and if you do it right, you should time it correctly for the show in however many weeks time.

Clearly, there’s a bit more to it than that, you should be working out your protein, fat and carbohydrate intake daily and total calories, how many you ingest and expend through exercise and living, how many calories you burn through each exercise session, and how much muscle you can realistically hold on to by changing the energy in/energy out.

There’s also the final week prep, which, is complicated as hell, with all sorts of techniques you can use to get the water out of your body, to get that absolute shrink-wrapped effect, not removing too much glycogen from the muscles in case you look flat etc etc.

Food

Anyway, that’s enough of the obvious stuff Dan, get on with it.

So, now I’ve explained the show process the way I see it, I’ll go through the whole nutrition process, bare with me, there is a point to all this as long as I remain focused on the goal of my post, we will get there. (Sometimes I go totally off track and forget what I am meant to be posting about ha).

Dieting for a show. Now those of you who have done a show will be laughing in my face after this, but, its all about opinions.

I see a lot of people on my Facebook/Twitter/Instagram feeds all displaying what they are eating, prepping for shows, getting themselves as lean as possible. What do I see? I see the following:

Grilled meat.

Vegetables.

Mostly plain and looking like it needs an injection of fun.

I can tell you what, until the final few weeks, I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO EAT THAT WAY.

I am telling you, we are getting leaner and leaner each week, by just getting our macros right, and eating NICE & INTERESTING FOOD.

I say FUCK the grilled chicken breast, steamed fish and broccoli bollocks.

I want to stay sane.

Honestly speaking however, we keep it varied as possible. So, we do eat some basic foods such as Nando’s sauce on brown rice with chicken and greens. But it tastes pretty good, and I am one fussy mo-fo.

I am of course going to change this later on and dial it in closer to the comp.

Below is our cupboard!

So here is what I have been eating this week (not all of my meals, but some):

Thai Green Curry, with Rice Noodle Ribbons

Mexican Chicken

Spanish Chicken/Rice & Chorizo

Beef Stew and New Potatoes

These are just some of the meals we eat.

Clearly, when we get closer to the show, we will dial it in and be more rigid, as the rest of the people in the competition will have been for a lot longer. I however, wish to change other variables, like, bring my calories and manipulate them to where I want to be and increase cardio activity (mountain biking on monday yay) to burn more fat.

It’s working. I’ve dropped 9% body fat, in 9 weeks and have lost only 2kg in weight. 

The Takehome message I am trying to give out here, is that if you are thinking that eating “clean” means eating boring grilled and steamed crap all the time, think again.

Be imaginative, use initiative and put some sodding effort in to food. If you get your calories, nutrients and macros right, you can have freedom.

I want to enjoy food, not think of it as a chore.

Here are the recipes for some of the above foods as a lot of people requested.

Chicken with spring greens & mustard potatoes