Recap

Before this week, I anticipated that a LOT of what I would discuss this week would revolve around how HARD this week was.

Leading up to week 9, the diet had been pretty rough. With another calorie drop (macros & meals in the Nutrition section) on top of that, I figured things were going to be a drag.

Somehow, my waist got even smaller that it was last week

Surprisingly, this ended up being one of my EASIEST weeks all prep. I was so shocked on how I felt subjectively, given my food intake, that I had to go back and double check my macros to make sure I wasn’t mistracking anything.

Anyways, I made a lot of notes as to WHY I think that was the case.

WHY DID THIS WEEK FEEL EASIER?

My theories:

Acceptance: I talked about this in Week 7 (here). But “accepting” the suck and just embracing that things would be difficult definitely helped with just not caring that things would be bad.
Caffeine Periodization: For this week, I gave myself the freedom to drink whatever caffeine intake I wanted for that day.
- It ended up being on average higher than normal, but not THAT high, even for me. Being on such a low dosage for a longer period of time, the extra bump this week made training fun & cathartic, hunger a non-issue, and focus/mood relatively intact.
Sunlight: I’ve made it a priority to try and get sun exposure before lunch or at least during the day in general.
- I do this by either going on a short walk in the morning or around lunch time outside my campus at work. Reasoning is to help me get more in tune with my body's biological clock. I’ve found that with the nice weather the last week and a half, I have been sleeping very well and have been having no issues.
Being around people: Something I talked about last week that has had a big impact is just being around people more. For me this weekend, I was able to visit home and get away from the monotony of prepping at my apartment by myself. I found this distracted me from thinking about food and just put me in an overall better mood.
Low Food Reward/Routine: My current meal plan (which I cover in the Nutrition section) is another reason why I’ve felt so good lately. I’ve ate the same thing for 7 straight days to end this dieting phase and it has:
- taken the guesswork out of stressing about what I’m eating
- relaxed me knowing I was in control of my own meals, even while visiting home
- made me think about food less knowing none of my meals were all that special.
Iodized Salt: Lastly, although I had been salting my foods in the past, i switched to iodized salt. Additionally, I have been measuring my servings of salt to track and control them for more data for my coach.
- Iodine is an essential micronutrient and plays a role in the production of thyroid hormone. I honestly can’t say how much of an impact this has had on top of all the other things.
- BUT it is important to note that the day after I made the switch was when I started feeling a LOT better day to day (even before the calorie drop).
Music: Although small, it helps when you have great music to get you through your workouts or just the day in general!

Nutrition

I had one more week in a deficit before Steve and I were going to trial a Mock Peak Week. Because we had a planned break coming, we wanted to push it one more time just to ensure progress was still being made.

Cutting calories in an already diet fatigued state is hard to do. My Macros for this week were the following:

My Week 9 Macros that I hit on both Training and Rest Days.

Therefore, it was time to literally eat the same thing every day. I had already been doing this for the most part, but this was the extreme sense where every day was more or else the same.

Current Meal Plan:

Here is my Meal Plan that I am using every day. It is also going to be my trial to eat the same foods for when I peak for my shows:

Insight behind the decisions:

Reasonings:

Supplements:
- 1g Fish Oil just for Omega-3 Fatty acids and I haven’t been eating fatty fish.
- 2000 IU Vitamin D: The “Sunshine Vitamin”, Vitamin D is a vitamin you body can produce endogenously (from yourself) and can be contained in some foods. It is “conditionally” essential and if you don’t get sunlight (which can be harder for me working a desk job with no windows), recommendations are to get 2000 IU a day from supplements.
- 5g Creatine Monohydrate: One of the most studied and proven supplements to have a benefit on strength and muscle building.
Pre-workout:
- 1 monster: Pick-me up before my workout. On harder weeks, like this one, I’ll add a small serving of pre-workout to get an extra 50-100mg of caffeine.
  - handful of cereal: I only do this on training days during the week. Only minor, but it's a little influx of ~15g carbs before my workout that can digest quickly and partially help with blood sugar levels. Weekends are a lot better when I can eat my BF before lifting.
Breakfast:
- Sweet potato and egg whites. This has been a staple in my diet for years. Sweet Potatoes are a big source of my daily potassium intake, which works with sodium and chloride to maintain proper fluid balance in the body. Meal is lower in fats because I have either just trained or am about to train.
Lunch:
- Chicken, rice, avocado and peppers: I like to start including more fats in this meal to help slow digestion and help provide more consistent energy levels.
- Peppers and spinach for food volume and micronutrients such as: Vitamin A, K, C and Potassium.
Greek Yogurt and berries:
- I started using plain greek yogurt just so it doesn’t give me as much of a sugar rush when I eat this meal around 3pm.
- I like to keep in some berries for food volume, taste and dietary flavonoids.
Dinner:
- 93/7 beef for Iron and fats to again slow digestion away from the training window.
- Rice noodles because they are something that is easy and practical to make no matter where I go. Therefore, this has been a staple in my diet that could also transition over for peaking weeks.
- Brussel sprouts and onions for more food volume. This is something I will end up reducing when going on higher calories or carbs.
Casein pudding:
- Something to eat before bed that sits well and makes me sleepy. Another meal that is easy to make and I can bring anywhere if needed.

MINDset

is it okay to be obssessed with a goal?

Bodybuilding is often portrayed as a selfish sport. Rightfully so, it can be at times. You have to be in control of your food, sleep, stress and training. There are times where a bodybuilder will WANT to skip out on things out of convenience to themselves and their aspirations.

I believe there is a spectrum of being selfish to caring about your goals/taking care of yourself. It's hard to draw a line in the sand and say when you’ve gone too far.

Another question to be is asked is “is it okay to be obsessed with your goal?”

Think about what bodybuilders may have to do to present their best physique on stage:

Track macros nearly every day for months on end, hitting a range that is within probably 5% of target numbers.
Never miss training sessions and go to the gym up to six times a week.
On top of time spent in the gym, there’s hours spent doing cardio and going on walks to increase step count.
Rarely missing a good night of sleep
Not drinking or going out for months on end while in prep
Posing practice for long periods of time through the weeks.
Skipping out on meals or events all together so you can stay on track.

Truthfully, I think about my prep/diet all day long. I mean, most of my day ends up revolving around it. Now would I consider myself obsessed? Perhaps, but is this a bad thing?

I think to do anything you’ve never done before and something not many people have done before, you have to have some level of obsession. Normal people don’t do the things listed above without going insane. There is an aspect that you must be willing to do whatever it takes to reach your outcome.

The problem is, when there is no off switch to this mentality. Yes, I will do a LOT to get to where I want to go, but if push comes to shove with sacrificing:

Relationships, job, family/friends, mental sanity

I’m out.

takeaway

Yes, I’ve turned the dial up on the “obsession meter”, but for good reason. I am documenting this to remind myself and others that months after my diet, I should NOT be as locked in to those same variables. I will still care, but to a lesser extent.
In fact, maybe I’ll look back and be ashamed at some of the sacrifices I’ve made. In the past I KNOW that has been the case for a good amount of my journey. Thinking you HAVE to do certain things to get a certain outcome, when in reality, there’s a spectrum of flexibility.
My takeaway here is that a lot of the best athletes do show characteristics of obsessing over their goal and are quite successful at their sports because of it. But just because they go to that level, probably doesn’t mean I have to as well. For me, I have to remember my priorities and let that lay the framework for how I approach this last phase of prep.

Conclusion

This dieting phase really felt like it went on forever.

Hunger and worry of satiation is gone. I was looking more to the diet break to see the potential changes to my Physique I would be. After putting my foot to the pedal for so long, it was going to be interesting to see what was going to happen when we let up, de-stressed and ate.

Week 10 I am going to go into the Mock Peak week we did. Foods I ate, training, and evaluation process.