I do have my bad days and good days. Sleeping pattern has been off an on but one thing I can attest to is they have been very vivid and weird. Last night I woke up at about 2:30 from a dream about me trying to find a restroom to go pee, I had to pee really bad! then, I finally find one and there is a group of people around the urinal just drinking and smoking away...sort of like being at a bar with no walls for the restroom. I remember yelling "I cannot pee with everyone around me!" they just laughed and went on with their thing. So, I then wake up from my alarm clock at 3:30 (this is for real now) and I do have to go pee real bad but this time there was no one around me and I releived myself in solitude. I am sorry if you think that was a bit of an awkward story to read but these are the type of dreams I have been having.

Ok, so enough of that! Workouts have been strong, haven't lost any strength and have managed to complete them all. Cravings have been awful but when I think about it, I am not even hungry when I am craving....it is just one of those things, I know I can't have it and I want it and in order to be the best, I CAN'T have it. So I find means of trying to defeat that, sucking on a sugar free hard candy seems to work until one of my meals approaches. Drinking plenty of water is also helping as well, you wouldn't think so but it does the trick. And of course focusing on the main reason why you are doing this in the first place.....to win! If you invest all of your time, effort and money into something you really want shouldn't you dicipline yourself as well?

I don't have a screen capture of my latest BF results but it continues to do well. I am now at 4.75% and at 157.2 pounds just a little over 2 more pounds to go in order to be in the lightweight class. I have increased my cardio from 25 minutes to 30 minutes and from 5 days a week to 6. Also, I just purchased a bottle of "Charge" from Labrada products. This product increases your energy, decreases your appetite and increases the thermogenics in your body to produce fat loss. Will it work? probably as good as any product out there which isn't to say much but I bought mainly because of its 300 mg of caffeine. I am not a coffee or tea drinker so the added caffeine will give a great energy boost in the morning to get me through my workouts and also to get me through the work day when I take it right before lunch.  I will keep you posted on how this product works.

Next posting I hope to have some photos posted of myself to show how my progress has went so far. At 2 weeks away, what I post for pictures is pretty much who I will look on stage (minus the tanning). My goal has been since the beginning of this whole phase was to get to the high 3's for BF% and to be in the upper weight of my weight class and so far I am right on target!!!!

Workouts have still been great for the most part, I have managed to maintain my strength through this whole ordeal. The only reason I mention this is because in the past my strength would diminish rapidly as I near the competition. The differences between this round of dieting and the past rounds are: I immediately have a protein shake right after my workouts (practicing what I preach), take CLA (a muscle sparing, fat burning "fat") and I think this is the most important factor....I get plenty of sleep! My energy levels have been for the most part, right there when I need them during my morning workouts.....there have been few exceptions but overall I would rate my intensity during this period excellent. 

In the past I used to rate my physical ability during my work day, it was for the most part...horrendous, poor and very lethargic at times. This time around, it has been so much better....more energy, not so tired during the day, work habits haven't slowed down and I haven't been so grumpy at night even with a 3 year old son around!  Again, I have to attribute this to the reasons I gave above. 

So, the last few Sundays I have been having cheat meals mainly because of the Easter Holidays and when I would weigh myself come Monday  I would be slightly higher in weight and also at the same time lower in BF%! This brings me to my next subject, carb loading. 

My usual routine during my last week of preparation includes 3 days of carb depleting and 1 day of carb loading. I would carb deplete from 200 grams of carbs down to 100 grams of carbs then on Friday, the day before the show I would increase to 300 grams or 1.5 x my normal amount. this seems to work to an extent but what I have learned from my last show is that if I carb load 3x the amount from 200 to 600 that I am so ripped and my BF will drop a good 1/2 percent that it is just so unbelievable. Now I found this out by accident and a day late, during my last show in 2004 I cam in at 4.25%. During the competition day I kept a slow flow of simple sugars flowing through my body. When I got home that night my wife had my favorite desserts waiting for me, cheesecake and apple crisp and I ate the whole thing while watching TV in bed!!, the next day I expected to be bloated but I could be more wrong, I was friggin ripped to shreds. 

So with that said and the fact that each Monday following my recent cheat days I have been looking more cut than the day before leads me to believe that I will need to increase my carbs not by 1.5x (or 300 carbs) but to 3X or 600 carbs, I may just drop it a bit to 500 carbs for the fear of what we call "spill over" which can have us looking too smooth. 

So here are my BF results, the first chart shows where I was at this time 2 years ago during my last show and the second graphic is of course the most current. You will see that I have more muscle and less BF going into this show... a good thing.  

And here are some photos from Sunday morning, with 2 weeks to go I do expect to be more cut come competition day from carb loading and using the right tanning supplies.

So there you go, a couple more reports left to go and I am golden!

See ya,
Steve

Ok, so now starts this crazy ritual of carb depleting and carb loading...taking extra supplements, stopping certain foods and additives and so on and so on. At the moment I am still feeling great and I am looking just as good (If I don't mind saying myself). My BF is down to 4% and I will certainly attain my goal of 3.8% by Saturday morning. I have been keeping track of my BF measurements every morning and will post them in my very last post on this journal.

 So here is what this crazy week is about:
On Monday I started a mild sodium load, I added more than normal salts to all of my foods as well as chose my diet to include foods that are high in sodium such as egg whites, salted almonds and beef jerky. Also started was a water intake load, my intake has probably close to doubled...I don't keep close track of how much water I take in but I do know that waking up 3 times in the middle of night to pee...sucks! A couple of reasons we do this, one- to trick the body into thinking that this is a normal ritual so that we do stop our water load, our skin will tend to shrink and tighten up some more and two, to flush out all toxins and to help the body function through this period.

On Tuesday I continued with the sodium load but I am now starting a carb depletion. I normally get roughly about 225 grams of carbs a day, I managed to drop that to approx 150 and supplemented that loss of carb with protein to keep the calories the same or slightly higher than usual. The water load is the same.

Wednesday is now here and the salt load has stopped, in matter of fact we now go into a salt deprivation mode. No salt, no spices, no foods that are high in sodium...all this to help the skin to tighten up (I think this is just theory but it seems to work). To help alleviate any issues with salt depletion, we supplement our intake with potassium to help the fluids in your body to maintain a steady balance. My carb depletion is now at 100 grams of carbs a day, this will continue for today (Wednesday) and Thursday. I do miss the flavor but there is only two days of this so I will survive.

Thursday will be the same as Wednesday's events.

Friday I will start a carb load, my regular 220 grams of carbs will jump to close to 500-600 grams. The protein will be dropped just a bit so the calorie will stay close to the same and you are still getting enough essential amino acids. The water in my case will be about half of what I am accustomed to. All this is done to now fill your depleted muscle cells with glycogen and what water you have in your body. This does work! it is amazing and I am looking forward to it. I have already stocked my shelves with sweet potatoes and high carb fruit and I will even throw in a carb bar or two. Your energy level will sore through the roof and come Saturday morning you will feel awesome and be looking the best you possibly can, you look more muscular, your skin is tight and your veins will pop out....it is all about timing and knowing how your body functions….lets hope I get it right! 

Workouts: Full body workouts, nothing strenuous...12-20 reps of high reps. No legs are done after Monday so the muscle can begin to look separated.
Tanning: Wednesday is the last day of tanning, I personally will tan every day from Saturday on to get the darkest I can before applying 3 coats of Pro Tan (a tanning liquid) on Friday and Saturday.
Posing: Once in the morning – 15 to 20 minutes and once in the evening for 30 minutes

Special thanks:
Whether you are there to support me or not, these people have played a big part in my "Journey to Showtime".

My wife Adelia: For always supporting me, cooking all my chicken and pasta and being a great mom to Tyler , our 3 year old.
My family as well as Adelia’s family: For understanding when I couldn’t gorge on fatty foods and high carb desserts during the Easter Holiday.
Stacey, Kathy, Dina, Barbara, Tony, Madonna: Current clients/friends who have been supporting me through the last 12 weeks and have listened to my advice without question :-)
Bob and Lynn Cooney: Good friends and fellow Bodybuilders who always very supportive of me.
Pete Pellegrino: For supplying me supplement advice and posing tips that I will definitely use during my show. You can check Pete out at www.100percentpete.com
Nancy Andrews: The shows promoter, for putting this great event together and for posing tips as well during her weekly posing classes I was taking.
Rick, Haley, Greg, Wanda, Phong, Amy, Janet, Al: Co-workers of mine who support what I do and (I think) have a great admiration of this sport.

and for anyone else I may have forgotten!

We’ll be chatting soon with some good news (I hope) and some great pictures (I hope)
Steve 

Well no great news to report, only good news. I placed 4th in the Masters 40+ class out of 13 competitors. Not a bad showing but I knew I could have done better had my posing been on target. My wife Adelia took several pictures of me and when I viewed them I couldn't believe what I was looking at....I looked like an amateur! I wasn't prepared enough, I thought I was but apparently not. Oh well, live and learn.

My BF did drop to where I wanted it to as shown below, but I feel I could have been just a little more tighter. You will notice that I dropped quite a bit of water weight during the last few days, this extra water weight will generally be considered part of your "Lean body mass" this due part of the inaccuracy of a Caliper measurement. So even though I lost those pounds, I was still 4 pounds heaver than the last time I competed and just as lean.

As you can see from the photo below, there were quite a few of us on stage. It was hot, it was crowded and there were blinding lights. Instead of retyping what I have already entered in my Newsletter, I am asking you to please click this link and read on for more about how my evening went.
Newsletter The final results!

You can view more photos here

Thank you all for taking the time to read my Journal, I hope you have enjoyed the writings. I am by no means a prolific writer as many of you have probably already guessed but I just thought that it would be nice to share my experiences with the visitors of my site.

Kinds Regards,
Steve