Like Warm Apple Pie

So this was it. 15 weeks of strict dieting and hard training have lead to this week. The final week before my competition. PEAK WEEK!!!

This week was mainly about recovery, being fresh, and focusing on making sure that my muscles were full and hard, as a result of proper carb loading, sodium manipulation and water depletion. 

Peak week was not about loosing a couple more pounds of fat or making extreme changes to manipulate my body in order to look good on contest day, it was about fine-tuning my protein, carb, fat, water and sodium intake and coordinating it with a series of carb depleting workout.
All the hard work was done and all I had to do was putting the finishing "touches" on and "polish" it.
To do so I had to change up completely my training routine, workout plans, and length of each training session that week. 


Sunday, six days from the show,  I did my usual ab routine and a shortened 30 minute version of my cardio routine in the morning. Instead of changing the incline of the treadmill every 15 minutes, I changed it every 10 minutes and cut the entire cardio workout by a total of 15 minutes.

On Monday I did my first of a total of three carb depletion workouts. The focus on Monday's workout was on chest, shoulders, triceps and abdominals. I did three exercises per muscle part with three sets of 15-20 reps per exercise and kept my rest in between sets at a minimum of around 30 seconds. Before working on my posing, I finished off my workout with another 30 minutes of cardio.

Tuesday I followed the same concept and worked on my back, biceps, calves and abs before cardio and posing. 

Wednesday's training session was a full upper body workout and the last "real" gym time before Saturday's competition. I hit my chest, back, shoulders, arms, calves and abdominals with two exercises of three sets each per muscle group and performed my reps until failure. I superset arms starting with a biceps exercise and finished the morning with the last 30 minute cardio session before the big day.

Thursday and Friday I only went to the gym to work on my mandatory poses and posing routine, as well as evaluate my body's progress with my trainer and adjust my diet accordingly.

Along with changing up my workout routine, I also started last Sunday with my peak week diet and changed the variables of it each day in a subtle way so I would be able to predict and control my peaking as good as possible.
As I stated many times before, proper planning and preparation are essential. This holds true especially for this week. Since the ingredients of the meal plan were changing on a daily basis I bought all of them on Saturday and ended up with 20lbs. of chicken, 5 lbs. of lean ground turkey, 5 lbs. of turkey breast, 4 lbs. of lean beef steak, salad, sweet potatoes, 4 cans of apple pie filling, two jars of strawberry jam, dried pineapple rings, Quaker Oats Granola and 15!!! gallons of spring water after my trip to the grocery store. 

Purchasing spring water in plastic gallons instead of using regular tap water has two advantages. 
First, it helps you making sure that you will drink exactly the amount of water outlined in your meal plan and second, you know exactly what amount of nutrients you are consuming, compared to unfiltered tap water.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was told to drink three gallons of water per day, then drop it to two gallons on Thursday and one gallon on Friday.

While I was able to drink the water over the course of the day on all the other days, the gallon on Friday had to be consumed by noon and I was not allowed to have any water  until the end of the show Saturday evening.  

Following my plan, I slowly reduced my carb intake from previously 350gr per day to only one cup of oatmeal on Sunday and Monday and did not eat any on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, while increasing my protein consumption. I also slightly salted all meals until Wednesday and then cut out all additional sodium for the rest of the week. 

My daily food intake for Sunday and Monday was a meat lover's dream come true.

70 oz. of meats (chicken breast, turkey breast, lean beef & lean ground turkey), 4 cups of vegetables (broccoli & spinach), 1 cup of dry oats and 3 gallons of water

Tuesday I completely cut out all carbs, besides the carbohydrates found in vegetables, and upped my protein intake to an all-time high of 606 grams (72 oz. of meat).

I continued with the carb depletion process the next morning and then began carb loading Wednesday afternoon by adding 6 oz. of sweet potato to each my last two meals of the day.

Thursday was finally the day I was waiting for so long. Time to load up my muscles with carbs and experiencing glycogen supercompensation at its best. 

Besides sweet potatoes and dry oats my third main source of carbohydrates was apple pie filling. Being without any sweets or fruits for the past 15 weeks, the taste of half a can of sweet apple pie filling mixed with half a cup of dry oats was simply amazing once it hit my lips. I literally indulged this simple, yet incredible tasty meal and was more than thrilled when I realized that I would have another one for my meal 3 that day and a full cup of oats with an entire can of pie filling twice on Friday. I guess it's right what they say about the simple things in life.     

Apple Pie Filling + Dry Oats = Almost Orgasmic Taste

Friday I continued the carb loading with a total of 540 grams of carbohydrates and was up for a big surprise in the evening. For the first time in almost five months, I was allowed to have a real hamburger, with a real bun, with real french fries and real ketchup. My inner fat kid was doing back flips. Well at least a fat kid version of them.  

My "victim" Friday night.

Even though I felt somewhat guilty cause I haven't eaten anything "unhealthy" in such a long time, this meal tasted amazing and I had the biggest, most satisfied smile on my face when I ate it. The only thing that would have made it almost heavenly would have been some sort of dessert, but that will have to wait til I am done with my "season".

Saturday I woke up and had one more apple pie/dry oat mix in the morning and a 6 oz. steak with a medium sweet potato right before I left for the show venue.
At the show I continuously snacked on a bag of Quaker Oats Natural Granola mixed with 2 cups of dry oats trying to further pull water out from underneath my skin and ate strawberry jam and dried pineapple rings to provide me with the necessary energy to make it through the exhausting day. 
The entire day of the competition was quite an experience and definitely worth its own post, so more about the show, my impressions of it, and of course about how I did, next week.

Getting ready to peak