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Rob, either way, it will be great to finally meet you. We all gotta stick together, bro. I am excited to see how you and the veg crew do in AZ. I think you guys will be awe inspiring. Keep up the training, and remember to rest.

 

If we miss each other at the Bill Pearl, let's get together and train in PDX afterwards. I sent you my phone number on PM. I am curious to see what other vegans are doing with diet and training. I have really not changed my training much, but keeping my diet has obviously changed tremendously.

 

Thanks again for the great site where we can all get together and encourage one another.

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Four weeks now. Weighed in at 183 this morning. I am happy. This puts me on target for middle weight.

 

I started shaving my legs this weekend and am working my tan. Last week my lighting really made me look flat and washed out, so I need to get a better tan.

 

My training this week has been pretty plain vanilla for me. One hour a day, one body part per day. cardio has been minimal as usual. I am mostly relying on 3 days of yoga per week to cut up along with my diet. I am not completely cardio-free as I do hit the treadmill a few times a week. I just find cardio to be a waste of time if I can get my heart rate high enough during lifting, and I am hitting Bikram consistently. I have been averaging maybe 2 hours a week. Last show I did no cardio leading up to my contest, and I was not doing yoga. The yoga has been great because my flexibility and posing are much better.

 

My diet remains unchanged, but my workouts will get more fast paced. I have been hitting more super sets and giant sets. This will continue up until the show. The last week will be more yoga, my last weight workout will be Thursday AM. Depending on my conditioning, I may use one last Bikram class Friday night before the show. My last week will be no more than 100 grams of carbs per day. Most of my calories will be healthy fats and proteins. I expect to be on stage at about 172-174 pounds.

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Three weeks out. This week has sucked. I knew it would. I was in Kansas City all week for work. For those of you wondering, no there are not a lot of options for a vegetarian getting ready for a show. I did eat a lot of MRP bars I brought with me, had some oatmeal from Starbucks, and enjoyed more soy lattes than normal. I had three "off days" as opposed my normal one or two. Now I have put myself behind because I was in a place where it was hard to get what I needed. I did the best I could to manage it with what I had. I knew it was coming, and I prepared by basically overtraining last week and letting myself have this rest.

 

All of this said Monday I was at 182. Today I am staying away from the scale. I just don't want to face it. I have 3 weeks and anything I gained in three off days and three days of bad diet, I can burn over three weeks.

 

More to come as I get closer to D day. AND a good luck to my fellow Vegans out there doing their tune up show this week. You will all do well. Let's show the world that you can build an impressive body on a plant based diet.

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Robert, it will be good to meet you in real time. You and LNG did great. I have to say the photos were impressive, and Derek was amazed. Between my photos I send him and seeing you guys he is starting to believe that yes, people can compete without meat. AWESOME!!!!

 

This week is super awful for me. Last week was traveling for work meaning missed meals, bad meals, and missed workouts. This weekend I had some very bad news about some close friends that has been a gut punch. And yesterday my cat of 12 years died. I am completely wiped out. I can't eat, train or sleep. I just want to crawl in a hole and hide. I keep looking for him around the house. I expect to see his little face or hear him meow and brush up on me. At the same time, I know it will never happen again.

 

All of that said, I am grieving the loss, but I need to get back in the gym today, I ate breakfast, and I will eat my midmorning snack soon. I skipped weigh in yesterday, so maybe today. Maybe late in the week.

 

The hardest thing is to put it back together and come in strong. Today I just don't feel like it. I have posing practice this afternoon, so I better find a game face somewhere.

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Hey Steve,

 

So sorry to hear your news.........head up, hang in there, feel well soon.

 

I am officially entering the Bill Pearl Classic in Bend and got permission to film it too!

 

It will be awesome to meet in person! All the best and see you on the stage soon!

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Robert, that is great news. Really looking forward to it. After all of the emails we have exchanged, it will be nice to put a face with the email. LOL.

 

Yeah the week has been awful. I miss Sam more than I could have ever imagined. I did make it back into the gym yesterday, and am eating again.

 

I weighed in yesterday at 183, so I should hit stage about right. Looking forward to seeing you in May. Also if you get a chance stop by the Slam for Sam on Sunday at the Aikido dojo on 9th and Wilson in Bend. It is a martial arts seminar I am teaching. Proceeds go to Family Dogs New Life Shelter in Portland. Also let me know if you need a place to stay Saturday night.

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I still miss my buddy Sam. I am not sleeping and training has been difficult. This is where the test is. Anyone can train hard an diet when life us good. Today I am channelin my anger into chest.

 

Yesterday I weighed in at 183. I know I can push enough water to hit middle weight status. I just need focus a little an train hard to make the last two weeks good ones. I expect to hit stage at about 172 to 174. My bodyfat is low and I really have kept my diet steady with the exceptions noted in the blog. For those out there thinking of competig on a plant based diet I can say it is actually easier than doing it eating meat.

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Training looks good this week. I had a hard time focusing, and my sleep has been crap. I hate going to bed. I find myself missing Sam the Cat, so I just avoid bed altogether.

 

My diet has been pretty clean, and I have been back to my consistent meals. I have not weighed in this week, but will do so tomorrow before posing. I am increasing the intensity of the workouts by training with a lot of giant sets, rest periods are now breath almost caught, then into the next set. My total number of sets is actually up a little bit. I am not a big believe in hours of mindless cardio to burn fat. I like to burn as much as I can with weight workouts that have a high heart rate. The reason I do this is because it is too easy to lose muscle mass. So let's say I run for cardio. It is usually something with some sprints in there. I try to keep cardio in interval training, like varying hills and upping the resistance on a treadmill. My biggest form of cardio remains Bikram Yoga.

 

My diet is pretty much the same as it has been through out the cut up. Next week that will change up some. I wanted to cut back on carbs this week (two weeks out), but was reminded I will peak too early. I am getting into that trap many competitors hit where they want to make things happen instead of letting them happen. Next week will be low carbs and a lot of water until Friday when I do my final dry out.

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I am really sorry to hear about Sam. These things can be really tough to get through. Sounds like you are coping best you can and your training is still coming along.

 

Endless hours of mindless cardio make me want to stab myself. I like the way you are doing things. I'd like to find a studio here that does Bikram, no luck yet.

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Six days out from contest, and I feel good today. That might change by tomorrow. The thing I love about this point is when the body is changing your hormones get so out of whack that you can be in the best shape of your life and still think you are in awful shape. The mania that goes with it is really interesting. I even see it in top competitors, so I try to remind myself when I see other peoples photos and stuff that I need to be more objective.

 

This week my diet should be interesting. It is my first carb depletion and load and first experiment with a vegan diet for contest. Let's see how I do.

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Really inspirational blog. The pictures you posted are incredibly impressive. It'd be cool to see all the info on how you, Rob, L&G, and Jimi prepared for competition this year organized and released to help others thinking about competition on a plant based diet. Just an idea, but I got excited when I thought of it. If you guys ever think about I would be open to designing (or helping design it). I'm going into my third year of design and I've been wanting to contribute my skills to VBB somehow, haha. Anyway, let me know what you think of this, and hopefully Rob and crew read it too.

 

Good luck in the competition!

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Carb depletion. I have to say this is the part of my prep that has actually been harder than meat eating competition. First finding good protein with no carbs is harder for us than it is for meat eaters. I am eating tons of seiten and tofu. I have been cooking the seiten with lots of chili's and peppers to make it have some flavor. I love chili's and peppers for the health benefit and they stimulate the body to give up fat.

 

Yesterday's 179 by the scale was impressive. It showed me that I probably should have started my diet later, and started a little heavier. That sounds counter-intuitive, but I had a very gradual descent for this contest, and I think coming in with a little more muscle and dieting a little harder would have been doable.

 

I skipped yoga yesterday because the new teacher freaks me out. She has no energy, and I walk out disappointed. I know it is yoga, but come on, have a pulse.

 

I trained heavy until yesterday when I backed off. I should have backed off earlier. My chest workouts have been heavy, back has been a beast. I am obsessed with weighted pull ups. What prompted the back down was my elbows are hurting, and I am afraid of further damage. I have always listened to my body, and have managed a mostly injury free career.

 

No new pics today, but tomorrow is posing so I will probably have Rob Kreider take a few frames for me, and I will post the same. Over all I would say I expect to come in pretty hard. My legs feel like rocks.

 

Thursday I will start putting carbs back into my diet, and Friday I will cut the water after about six.

 

I gotta go put the seminar materials together for the Slam for Sam.

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See you soon!

 

Is the offer good for Friday night too? Or just Saturday night?

 

My plan is to arrive on Friday, compete Saturday and hang out til Sunday.

 

Let me know.

 

Again, I appreciate it! I can hook you up with some Vegan Bodybuilding clothing, some supplements, etc.

 

All the best!

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Cool! Thanks for heads up....I need to get a room for Friday too, but may take you up on a place to hang out on Saturday and then I'll leave on Sunday to get back home and back to work.

 

Thanks and looking forward to meeting you as well!

 

All the best in the show!

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I'm sorry i couldn't get the SunWarrior to you sooner. Have you received yet? At 16g per 70 cals it's a pretty good thing to use for carb depletion days.

 

I'm sorry it's a struggle but like everyone else told me it's worth it! Stick to it.

 

I will see you in Portland and most likely not make it out to bend. Too far need downtime and want downtime with my loved one.

 

Best of luck.

 

Let me know how the carb load thing worked.

 

Me personally, i didn't like it. I did 3g per lb of bodyweight and felt it to be WAY to much. Even if it was 1-2 per lb of bw i don't think i'd like it.

 

I prefer fat loading personally; no spillage.

 

Next year i'll do

 

1) a fat load comp like 1/2 - 1 jar of almond butter day before throughout the day

2) a flat comp

3) a carb load of 1.5 - 2g per lb of bw

 

IN THAT ORDER

 

just my two cents from my personal experience this month. Do what you do and keep us informed!!!!!

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