Vancouver Island Showdown - Peak Week Full Day of Eating

Today was a rather busy one for me and so the food had to be quick and simple. Sure it's best if you can make everything from whole foods but that takes time and at the end of the day my main concern was what where my total calories and macros for the day and for the most part I hit these goals.

I got a ton of exercise in today which put me in at least a 2000 calorie deficit which will help me get that last little bit of fat off before show day at the Vancouver Island Showdown on Saturday. I got in at least 7 miles of walking, a 1.5 hour weight training workout and over an hour of posing time.

Below is a screenshot of what my day looked like in MyFitnessPal...

Vancouver Island Showdown - 5 Days Out

Peak Week is here and we are in the final stretch with only 5 days out to the Vancouver Island Showdown! This is what all the hard work has been for and now I just need to tuff out the last few days of lots of training and not so much eating. It's do or die and I don't want any regrets or to leave anything on the table. I have stayed exactly to my program and in the end I should be exactly where I need to be in 5 days.

At this point in time my mind will start playing games with me, did I do enough, am I ready, am I lean enough, big enough... Some days are better than others but at this point there is not much more I can do so I hope the magic of peak week will prevail and it will all come together.

Over the next few days right up until Thursday evening it will be low calorie, low fat and low carb eating under 2000 calories per day and trying to burn as much as 4000 calories total via workouts, walks and posing, this should result in about another 3 pounds of body fat stripped from my body, those last little bits that make all the difference on stage and could mean 1st place or 3 place.

Starting Thursday evening it's time to start carbing back up by dropping protein and eating almost entirely carbs, this will fill me in for show day adding about 5-7 pounds of glycogen and water directly in the muscle. I am still in the mid to high 190's so I expect to walk on stage right around 200 pounds, this will be the heaviest I have been so far on stage and I hope to do it in as good if not better condition than past shows. At least that is the goal!

Even though this week is mentally and physically very hard, I also find it super exciting and look forward to each day to see the changes that take place in my body over peak week, I can hardly wait to see what Saturday will bring!

Should I Switch to a Wear OS Smart Watch Like the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS

I have been using a Garmin Fenix 5X for almost a year now and I have to say it has been one of the most dependable and reliable Smart Fitness Watches I have used so far. It never lets me down and the battery lasts for days at a time, It just works, never crashes and gives me consistent usable fitness data I can depend on!

So why am I thinking about switching to a Wear OS Smart Watch like the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS? Maybe I'm just nuts or bored or perhaps I just like farting around with tech a bit too much and my Garmin Fenix 5X has just become that thing on my wrist I don't think all that much about.

I can say I do miss the added functionality of a dedicated Smart Watch like the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy series of watches, all the cool Apps, being able to answer my phone and speak into my watch, reply to texts on my watch and the constant detailed notifications that allow me to leave my Phone in my pocket most of the time.

After a bunch of research the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS Wear OS Smart Watch may just be something that has good enough Fitness Tracking combined with full featured Smart Watch capabilities and will allow me the best of both words this time around?

My plan is to combine a few Wear OS Apps like Sporty Go linked to Strava combined with Google Fit and the native Mobvoi Fitness Apps to send workout and step info to MyFitnessPal, which at the end of the day will give me my total exercise calories for tracking of my daily calorie expenditure.

So I have a few work arounds to figure out with the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS Wear OS Smart Watch before I can determin if I will be able to switch from my Garmin Fenix 5X to TicWatch Pro 3 GPS but so far it looks promising...

Vancouver Island Showdown - 9 Days Out

I thought I would make a video that comprises at least part of my day and some of what goes into what it's like about a week before a Fitness Show, in the case the Vancouver Island Showdown. I didn't capture all of my day as my energy is getting low and to be honest I kind of forgot to get video for some of it.

Hopefully this will give you a little bit of an idea on what a typical day for me looks like a week out before one of my shows.

2 Weeks Out - Vancouver Island Showdown - New Date

Almost in the home stretch now only a couple of weeks away from the Vancouver Island Showdown where I will be competing in Open Physique sand Classic Physique classes. In terms of how I feel I am doing, I feel right on track, perhaps the heaviest I have ever been at 2 weeks out weighing in at 198 pounds this morning. This could be a concern but I feel I am right where I need to be in terms of body fat and how lean I am. This week will be fairly hard cutting as have been my last several weeks but I feel pretty good and the fat is still coming off nicely.

I have been adding in a one day weekend refeed and this past Saturday I ate at least 400 grams of carbs and did my best to match my maintenance calories for the day so around 3000 to 3500 or so. My body managed the carbs well and did not retain too much water the next day. This next week will be aggressive in terms of my calorie deficit of around 1500 calories Monday through Friday which I am hoping for another refeed day on Saturday again and then starting Sunday I will be low carbing it right up till Thursday night when I will start my carb up for the show.

My body feels pretty good overall with no real injuries other than a bit of a sore foot which makes walking a bit painful at least at the start but I am holding in there OK and if need be I will substitute some biking that will reduce the stress on my foot. This week should fly by quickly as my days are full with lots of walks, weight training, posing and of course work. I hope to make a video this week where I blog an entire day from start to finish, at least the highlights...