Vancouver Island Showdown - 1 Day Out

Just one day left to to go till I make it to the stage of the Vancouver Island Showdown. Today was all about checking in and loading up with carbs to fill in for show day. If you're not sure what carb loading is, it's when you purposely deplete yourself from carbs and glycogen so as to make your muscles go flat or less inflated looking in preparation for loading them up right before stepping on stage. So in effect your muscles will actually absorb more glycogen and water making them as full as possible for the competition.

That is the plan at least and getting it just right is a bit tricky as you can come in underfull or overfull. Underfull means you didn't eat enough carbs and your muscles still appear a bit flat and dry. Overfull is probably worse since if that happens the glycogen spills over into other tissues like the skin and any fat in it washing out the hard full look of the muscles. Let's hope I got it just right!!

Vancouver Island Showdown - 2 Days Out

2 days more to go till the Vancouver Island Showdaown becomes a reality! This video takes you through some of the day with us, mostly to do with our travels to beautiful Victoria British Columbia where the show is hosted this year. My wife Nicole joins me as we make the short trip and get settled in at the WorldMark Victoria where we have stayed many times before. Tomorrow will be the athletes meeting along with checking...

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!

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.