My Contest Diet 2014 2/24/14 Hello everyone. Throughout the day I get asked about what I am eating and what I am doing differently to get ready for the 2014 NPC Vermont Championships. Well, I enlisted the help of great coach and mentor, John Meadows of http://www.mountaindogdiet.comThroughout the “offseason” we built up my metabolism and intake to the point that I was already a fat burning furnace. The only thing we really dropped from my “offseason” was 2 weekly cheat meals and about 200 calories from my training days. Here’s my daily intake:
6 Week Progress
Training Day (6 days per week)
Meal 1:
(5:00 am) 2 whole organic free range eggs, one cup of pasteurized egg white, ½ tbsp. coconut oil, 2 cups of steamed spinach.
Meal 2:
(8:00 am) 2 scoops of Dymatize Iso 100 Whey Isolate Cookies & Cream , ½ cup of oatmeal. I like to microwave the oatmeal and then mix in the protein powder with a little bit of Splenda.
Meal 3:
(11:00 am) 6 oz. grass fed beef, 2 cups steamed spinach
Meal 4:
(2:00 pm) ½ cup of Cream of Rice cereal, 2 scoops of Dymatize Iso 100 Whey Isolate Cookies & Cream, 1 tbsp. natural peanut butter. I like to microwave the cereal and then add in the whey protein and peanut butter. I add a little Splenda. It comes out like a tasty porridge.
Intra-workout Shake: 50-75 grams of Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin, 25 grams of Casein Hydrolysate. I mix in 10 grams of BCAA powder, 5 grams of creatine monohydrate, and 3 grams of beta-alanine. I drink this during training and am finished ¾ of the way through the workout. On hard legs, chest/delts and back days I also drink a large Gatorade for another 50 grams of dextrose. I have always used intraworkout nutrition in the past with things like waxy maize and free form amino acids but the combination of highly branched cyclic dextrin has taken my training and recovery to a whole new level.
Meal 5:
(4:30 pm) 3 cups of Organic kids cereal like something similar to Lucky Charms, 2 scoops of Dymatize Iso 100 Whey Isolate Cookies & Cream, 2 cups of Unsweetened Almond Milk. I mix the protein powder and the almond milk and then pour over the cereal. Love this meal.
Meal 6:
(6:00 pm) 6 oz. chicken breast, 110 grams of sweet potato, 2 cups of steamed spinach.
Meal 7:
(8:30 pm) 2 cups of pasteurized egg white, 2 cups of steamed spinach. Or sometimes, I do this: 1 cup pasteurized egg white mixed with 1 scoop of Dymatize Iso 100 whey isolate and cooked like a pancake, 3 tbsp. Walden Farms Calorie Free syrup.It depends on what I’m in the mood for but the macros match up.
Daily Total: 405 grams of protein, 341 grams of carbohydrate and 41 grams of fat, 3353 calories.
Refeed Days: depending on weekly results I am allowed to add another 200 grams of carbohydrates two days a week, a few days apart from each other. This brings the totals up to 405 grams of protein, 541 grams of carbohydrate, 41 grams of fat and 4153 calories. The extra carbs come from Ezekiel Grain bread, sweet potato, oatmeal, and cream of rice.
Non-Training Days: One day a week
Meal 1:
(5:00 am) 2 whole organic free range eggs, one cup of pasteurized egg white, ½ tbsp. coconut oil, 2 cups of steamed spinach.
Meal 2:
(8:00 am) 1 scoop of Dymatize Iso 100 Whey Isolate Cookies & Cream ,1 cup of pasteurized liquid egg whites, mixed together and cooked like a pancake. I spread 1 tbsp. of natural peanut butter on the “pancakes” and then add another 12 almonds. Then I pour on 3 tbsp. of Walden Farms Calorie free syrup.
Meal 3:
(11:00 am) 6 oz. grass fed beef, 2 cups steamed spinach, 200 grams of sweet potato.
Meal 4:
(2:00 pm) 1 scoop of Dymatize Iso 100 Whey Isolate Cookies & Cream ,1 cup of pasteurized liquid egg whites, mixed together and cooked like a pancake. I spread 1 tbsp. of natural peanut butter on the “pancakes” and then add another 12 almonds. Then I pour on 3 tbsp. of Walden Farms Calorie free syrup.
Meal 5:
(5:00 pm) 6 oz. of wild caught Atlantic salmon. 200 grams of sweet potato, 2 cups of steamed spinach.
Meal 6:
(6:00 pm) 1 cup pasteurized egg white mixed with 2 scoop2 of Dymatize Iso 100 whey isolate and cooked like a pancake, 4 tbsp. Walden Farms Calorie Free syrup, 1 tbsp. natural peanut butter. 1 cup of frozen organic strawberry halves.
Daily Total:
317 grams of protein, 106 grams of carbohydrate and 66 grams of fat, 2286 calories.
Condiments:
Your foods do not need to be bland. You will get sick of them quickly if you are not using seasonings and spices. Here are a few that I use daily.
Franks Hot Sauce- goes on everything; my grass fed beef, chicken, eggs etc.
Todd’s Dirt Mix- a calorie free seasoning that goes on chicken and beef meals.
Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar- goes on everything. I have at least a tbsp. every solid meal. I like to put it on my spinach, meats and even eggs. Sometimes I just take a sip out of the bottle.
Splenda- I use this non-nutritive sweetener in moderation in oatmeal, on sweet potatoes, coffee and sometimes on my spinach.
Walden Farms Calorie Free Syrup- goes on my protein pancakes and in oatmeal sometimes.
Cinnamon- goes on sweet potatoes and oatmeal.
Sea Salt- I throw it on everything, especially my spinach.
Training
I currently train 6 days a week on this current Mountaindog split.
Sunday- Legs Hard
Monday- Off/AM Cardio
Tuesday- Chest/Delts Hard
Wednesday- Back Hard/AM Cardio
Thursday- Legs Pumping
Friday- Chest/Delts Pumping
Saturday- Arms Hard/AM Cardio
Hard Workouts- these are the main “bread and butter” workouts of the week. Volume is cycled throughout 12 week intervals with a lot of emphasis on special intensity techniques such as drop sets, accommodating resistance work (bands and chains), rest-pause and supersets.
Pumping Workouts- are just that. These workouts are to flush the muscle tissue full of blood and to add extra volume. Rest periods are extremely short. They are not meant to be taxing on the joints or on overall recovery.
Cardio
My cardio has been miniscule during this prep. I do three 16 minute HIIT sessions a week. I start out doing a two minute warm up at an incline of level 15 and a resistance of level 15. Then I do 14 rounds of the following: 10 seconds all out intensity followed by 50 seconds of a recovery pace. That’s it.
Update 3/1/14
Getting leaner! We instituted the following changes:
Nutrition: Nutrition plan is the same with the addition of a weekly cheat meal on leg day. Typically a cheat meal is something like a burger, fries, and a dessert and maybe some other odd treat. I drop one meal from this day. Additionally we added in a 200 gram Carbohydrate day midweek.
Training: Training is the same. 6 days a week. 4 main HARD workouts and 2 extra PUMPING workouts.
Cardio: Cardio is the same. 3 x 14 minutes of HIIT.
Update 3/10/14
Nutrition:
Nutrition plan is the same with the addition of a weekly cheat meal on leg day. Typically a cheat meal is something like a burger, fries, and a dessert and maybe some other odd treat. I drop one meal from this day. Additionally we added in a 300 gram Carbohydrate day midweek.
Training:
Training is now at 7 days a week and will remain that way until 3 days out from the show.
Cardio:
Cardio has been cut from 3 x 14 minute HIIT sessions to 3 x 7 minute HIIT session. Yes, you read that right.
Update 3/24
Nutrition:
Nutrition plan is the same as the 3/10 update but with the addition of 1 cup of rice to meal 3 for an extra 36 grams of carbohydrates. I still have the cheat meal on Saturday after leg training. On Wednesday I get an additional carbohydrate reefed day with an extra 400 grams. This brings that days totals up to 405 grams of protein, 777 grams of carbohydrate and 44 grams of fat, 5124 calories.
Training:
Training is now at 7 days a week and will remain that way until 3 days out from the show.
Cardio:
Cardio has been cut from 3 x 7 minute HIIT sessions to nothing.
Final Update 4/12
Well, now I sit at one week out from the 2014 VT State Championships and the hard work is pretty much all done. Now its time to finish it out and PEAK. There were several small changes over the last two weeks that will be noted below.
Training:
Still at 7 days a week as such: Saturday- Hard Legs, Sunday- Hard Chest/Delts, Monday- Hard Back, Tuesday- Pumping/Volume workout for Legs, Wednesday- Pumping/Volume workout for Chest/Delts, Thursday- Arms, Friday- Pumping/Volume workout for Back.
Nutrition:
Same as the plan update from 3/24 but with the addition of 1/2 cup oats at meal 1 and an extra cup of rice with meal 2. This brought my daily total intake to 418 grams of protein, 440 grams of carbohydrates and 44 grams of fat. I was still given a cheat meal on Saturdays and an additional 400 grams of carbs mid-week. This brought the daily total intake for that day to 420 grams of protein, 840 grams of carbs and 40 grams of fat.
Cardio:
none
Final Week:
Nutrition:
The plan this week is to keep everything pretty much the same for Sunday-Wednesday. Same macros as above as I finish out my training days. I am not training Thursday or Friday so there are some minor adjustments.
Water:
2-2.5 gallons daily
Training:
My training going into peak week is such: Saturday- Hard Legs, Sunday- Hard Chest/Delts, Monday- Hard Back, Tuesday- Arms and Wednesday- Pumping/Volume Workout for Chest/Delts/Back. Thursday and Friday are rest days.
Time to finish this thing out, work on my posing and figure out a routine. Thanks for all the support from friends, clients and family. Hope to see you at the event and do you proud!
Questions?
For training or nutrition program design email berryswole@gmail.com.