Our athlete Rory Golden is going to compete this year and we have decided to follow his journey. A diary from start to finish, 18 weeks out until stepping on stage.
Rory Golden - The Prep files
Blog – 8 weeks out.
The re-feed Sunday night was a little bit different, the coach added in an extra 50g of rice with the 100g of oats and 50g of jam. I was looking forward to this meal all day once I got told I was having it. When having extra carbs in a re-feed the main focus is the carbs and not the protein and fats like in a normal meal. Normally the fats are minimal and protein is decreased to allow for the carbs to pass through me better and to allow the digestion process to be regular. The aim of this re-feed like any other is to replenish the depleted stores that have been created through being in a deficit diet via food, cardio and weight training.
After the Monday morning check in with weight and pictures my food changed. I do this check in around 4.30am as I start work at 6am and still have to travel there. My working days are normally 6am till 8.30pm with gaps in the day to eat, do cardio and train. While I was at work my coach sent me through my instructions for the coming week with new food changes. I prep all my meals on Sunday for the following week ahead as my work hours don’t allow me to cook during the day and when I do get home at night I just want to eat my last meal and go to bed! The changes to the meals were dropping out 20g of chicken in one meal, swap chicken with fish in another meal and replace steak with 5% fat mince for my last meal.
When something like this happens you just have to deal with it. You can’t moan because the closer you get to a show the more likely things are going to change accordingly to how you are looking. This might be an increase or decrease in carbs (hence why many bodybuilders carry extra food and scales around with them). Or cardio might be increased or decreased. You just have to plan ahead the best you can, be prepared and adapt to the changing situations that you face.
Tuesday I had my first posing session at body limits, really enjoyed it even though it was very tough and brutal as competitors would know! Was great to get some rounds of posing in with a trustful/knowledgeable pair of eyes making changes. The most interesting part of it was doing the rounds of posing with water in my mouth to make sure I controlled my breathing and this made sure I kept my mid section tight. The mop and bucket were nearby but wasn’t needed thankfully as I didn’t spit any out! However, after the hour of posing, I had my pre-workout meal and felt like I could fall asleep right at the table. This was the first time I posed that intensely for that amount of time, I did have a push session planned after but changed it to arms and abs and kept the session shorter with more focus on super-setting and short rest breaks. Then finished off with my 30 minutes post workout cardio.
Wednesday I traveled to a gym in Hemel to train back and that was another good session and overall day, again changing the surroundings really does help to keep things fresh and to try new equipment. The rest of the week went smoothly with cardio and training having no problems. Also no bad hunger and diet cravings during this week. I was given another re-feed Friday night where again I dropped down the protein intake and doubled the carbs in that meal and added an extra 100g of oats.
Saturday I woke a little heavier due to the re-feed the night before and when training Saturday afternoon added 2 scoops of carb powder which made me feel great! I looked a lot fuller when training and felt stronger throughout more of the session. Overall was a good week of dieting, cardio and weight training.
Sunday morning my weight was 77.7kg the lowest it’s been all prep. I was happy with the check in pictures and I look forward to battle another week and move closer to show day. Tick box mode is in full swing!
