PEAK WEEK: 1 week out from OPA Cobourg, ON

1 week out, October 15th.

Body Composition:

Weight: 236.4 pounds

Body Fat: ~3.5%

Diet: Lots of changes this week! Last week I have been dropping the carbs continuously throughout the week from 200g on Monday to 100g on Saturday. Starting this week's Monday I will:

• Cut out oatmeal, and stick to sweet potatoes as the only carb source. I prefer to eliminate carbs that expand in water (wet carbs) and stick only to the dry carbs at this point. It also eliminates the possibility of a negative reaction to the trace gluten that is present in oatmeal.
• Protein sources are: chicken breast, white fish, eggwhites. Will introduce sirloin steak during the carb up.
• Fat sources: last week I started taking a tablespoon of almond butter with each one of the last three meals. However, I found that by Sunday I started to hold a lot of water, which needless to say freaked me right out. I cut it out on Sunday and just had a couple of pieces of boiled, unseasoned salmon at a wedding I attended (which was perhaps the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, no joke). I didn't have any other fat all day afterwards. Today I noticed that the water retention subsided a little, which is a bit of a relief. I assume that the water retention happened due to either higher levels of fat that has been kept to a minimum for the most of the prep (although even 3 tablespoons of AB isn't a big amount fat at all), or because I may have a minor allergy to it. Either way, any oils coming from plants are out of the diet till the rest of the prep.
• I will do carb depletion/loading in the following way:

Mon: Carbs-80g, Protein-420g, Fat- trace amount, Water- 12 liters

Tue: C-80g, P-420g, F- trace amount , W-12 liters

Wed (pre workout): C-0, P-120g, F-0

Wed (post workout-carb loading begins): C-600g, P-120g, F- small amounts with each meal coming from the steak , W-12 liters

Thursday: C-450g, P-240g, F- same amount from Wednesday, W-12 liters

Friday (before 5pm): C-350g, P-180g, F-same as Wednesday, W-6 liters. I will cut the water out at 5pm.

Friday (after 5pm): depending on my condition I will either continue with eating sweet potatoes and lean protein, or if I feel flat I will go out and get something greasy and full of simple carbs and sodium (I am thinking of a disgustingly greasy burger with fries). After the water is cut out, the possibility of spilling over is minimal at this point. After that I may have another meal or two consisting of 50g of carbs and lean proteins.

Saturday: I will have a greasy and sugary breakfast, something like steak and eggs, doughnuts, pancakes with syrup, or whatever that was a taboo for the past 14 weeks. Ending a traditional carb load in such way should pack some extra glycogen in the muscle and increase vascularity.

Supplements: Dropped ephedrine and most of the caffeine, as it can interfere with the carb up phase. Will start a natural diuretic on Thursday and will be taking it all the way to Saturday morning.

As I am writing this, I am 5 days out from the show. This is the most important week of the prep and I need to make sure that I don't screw it up. I have stopped cardio, leg training and ab workouts, in order to minimize the water retention in this areas. I feel much more rested, even being on such a low amount of carbs. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I am to do carb depletion workouts. I will carry them out in a traditional way: 1-2 exercises per body part (back, chest, shoulders and arms), circuit training for 12-15 reps per set without going to failure. I am to do 3-4 circuits like this and start my carb loading right after the Wednesday's workout. My first meal post workout is going to be a pack of natural rice cakes (about 110g of carbs). The rest of the carb load will rely only sweet potatoes.

Yesterday I was holding quite a bit of water, which made me a bit nervous. However, after cutting almond butter I see a slight reduction in water weight. The lack of daily cardio may have played a role in it, as well. However, I am also pretty depleted at this point (my last refeed was 8 days ago) and am looking flat, so I am hopeful that carb load and cutting water will take care of this problem.

I am posing everyday for 30 minutes. Not a big fan of my front and back double bicep and side tricep poses, but side chest, lat spreads, ab and thigh look decent. Can't imagine that the day I have been preparing for over 3 months is just 5 days away!!!

That's it for now, next time I will be posting pictures from the show and how it went.

Until next week!