Posts Tagged ‘thoughts’

Cheating?

Written by Josh on August 10th, 2010

I pride myself in not cheating. My cheating is eating an extra serving of oatmeal or an extra 4 oz of chicken. So it’s easy for me to say “no” to a slice of chocolate cake or a glazed doughnut. However, my wife – the nice girl she is – went to Whole Foods to buy my Ezekial bread and came home with Cinnamon & Raisin Ezekial bread.


It does have some sugar – and I’m sure it comes from the raisins. Other than that it’s pretty close to the regular Ezekial bread. Is this cheating? I guess it’s up to me to decide, but it’s a tough decision.

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Thoughts

Written by Josh on June 6th, 2010

Only 12 weeks left… am as far along as I should be?

It looks like I have a long ways to go…. should I change my diet or cardio?

I think I’m ahead of schedule compared to my last diet.

Should I be doing more cardio?

I’m about halfway there, does it look like I’m halfway there?

I still have 3 months left… that’s a long time…

I only have 12 weeks left… I really need to get going…

One of the hardest things about dieting for a contest is to ignore all of this.

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What do you get if you win?

Written by Josh on May 21st, 2010

The other day I had a conversation with someone who had never heard of natural bodybuilding before…

Her: What do you get if you win?

Me: A plastic trohphey.

Her: …there must be some sort of personal satisfaction you get from it then?

Exactly. I diet for 22 weeks – that’s 154 days – 3,696 hours that I’m hungry, tired, and cranky. I dedicate over 40% of a year to dieting down for a contest. I miss out on going out to dinner with my wife, possible family vacations, and drinking beer with my brother.

I say that to say this – I’m on stage at a contest for maybe 3-4 minutes total. That’s it. I spend 3,696 hours to be on stage for 3 minutes. And if a judge happens to think that the guy next to me looks a little better for the 3 minutes he’s looking at us – that’s OK. That doesn’t discount the 3,696 hours I put in.

So for me it is, but it isn’t, necessarily, about that end placing – especially in this subjective sport.

What is important is that I dieted and trained for the contest like I should have. That I had the mental toughness to be better than I was last time. In the end, it’s not a contest between me and the guy next to me – it’s between me and the previous me.

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Nothing Phase

Written by Josh on April 29th, 2010

I’ve been dieting now for almost 5 weeks now. I’ve lost around 10-11 pounds. I’m about to enter,, what I call, the “nothing phase”.

When I’m not dieting, I try to gain as much weight as I can. I do this because I think it makes me stronger – this is probably debatable. In any case, when it comes time to diet down for a show I have a lot of weight to lose. The average natural bodybuilder might have to lose 20-25 pounds, however I usually have to lose 50+ pounds.

Somewhere in between being big and fat, and small and ripped there is the “nothing phase”. I’m no longer big, but I’m not quite cut yet… I’m nothing. This is a hard part of the diet because I don’t like looking like nothing. But, in the end, it’s just something I have to get through.

I’m thinking in another 5-6 weeks, I’ll have lost another 12 pounds or so, and I’ll start coming out of the nothing phase. At that point I’ll start getting excited about how I’m looking and start really focusing in on the final result. But, for now, I’ll just deal with the “nothing phase”.

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Written by Zack on January 31st, 2010

As Josh said we are taking a different approach to the upcoming powerlifting meet, is it the right one? That remains to be seen. I do know that this program (I believe we are in week 10?) is kicking my ass. Not only physically by making me rep heavier weight than I’ve ever done, but also mentally by thinking all these heavy lifts through. We started this journey in hopes of better, heavier lifts and I think we are on our way.

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