How Do You Like Me Now

I have been preparing for this summer's competitions now for exactly 20 long weeks, so I thought it was time to take a moment and reflect on the past 5 months.

If you have been following the blog from the very beginning on, you might remember that I started this "journey" "officially" on March 4th 2012 and faced quite a bit of adversity and some obstacles along the way.
A couple of business trips, a vacation in Germany, an extended weekend in Jamaica, working odd hours, and stress were minor or major interruptions of my contest preparation but eventually could not stop me. 

While March 4th marks the beginning of my low-carb diet and altered workout schedule, the actual work started way before that, to be precise, after last year's Summer, when I started lifting heavy again and changed up my diet by adding more carbs and calories. I gained a lot of muscle mass and strength during this "off-season" period, but also a  little bit of extra weight around my hips. 

I began my contest preparation that Monday with a body weight of 291 lbs. and a caliper measured body fat content of 7%.

140 workouts, approximately 5,600 minutes of cardio and roughly around 270 lbs. of dry chicken breast later, I weighted in this morning at 258.2 lbs. with 4.5% body fat. At my last competition I was even down to 251.2 lbs. 

In retrospect, I wish I could have maintained more lean muscle mass, but that is all part of the learning process and will definitely influence next year's preparation plan and timeline. 

Following a strict diet and workout regiment for such a long time took quite some dedication and willpower, but looking at the results, I have to say that all those 5 am workouts were definitely worth it.

It is amazing to see how my body transformed within this time period and comparing my current pictures with previous ones motivates me for the next 5 weeks. 

Even though my spirits are still high, I have to admit that after 140 days of contest preparation I am kind of looking forward to the end of my last competition on August 25th, so I can finally "eat again". 

Don't get me wrong, I am not planning on letting myself go and "pigging out", I actually already have an "off-season" meal plan and workout plan made up to hit the ground running, but I will definitely enjoy a couple of "free windows" in my diet and one or ten pieces of candy. 

My goal this winter is to gain 20 lbs. of lean muscle mass so I can compete at around 270/275 lbs. next year. Since this will require a substantial amount of extra carbs and less cardio, I guess I won't be posting any shirtless pictures of me then for a while. So enjoy them while you can. ;-)

While it is already kind of amazing to see the transformation of my body within the last 20 weeks, I love to go even further back and compare my current physique with the pictures I took when I initially started working out more serious again, back in February of 2011. 

Not to sound too cocky, but I would say this "kid" has made quite some progress in the past 1.5 years.

Cleaning up my desk at work I also found one of my very first meal plans from last year and wanted to share it here. 

Back then, I just searched for "bodybuilder meal plan" on Google and this was one of the first results that popped up. Without any real understanding of nutrition or even my daily caloric requirements I just copied it and used it for a couple of months. 

Now that I have a better understanding of the subject I look at it and laugh when I see that my calorie intake was only around 2,500. Doing the proper math, I should have been at 4,200. Guess that's what happen when you "just do something" instead of fully understanding what and why you are actually doing it.  

Well enough reminiscing about "ye olde tymes" and back to focusing on the future.

My next competition, the 2012 Delaware Championship, is only three weeks away, so it is time to enhance my metabolic functions again by adding 1,500mg of vitamin B6 and 4,500mg of vitamin C to my daily supplement intake. Besides playing an important role in metabolic functions, they are also intended to help achieving water depletion. 

Being the second contest preparation within a couple of weeks it kind of feels like groundhog day with the exception that I am less nervous, more confident in doing what I am doing, and that I have a better understanding of how my body will react.

140 days down, 34 more to go.

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins... not through strength, but through persistence."