DCNINJA

You just reminded me I need to book my room for Friday. I can't get the house until Saturday. Bummer. Can't wait to meet in real time. Looking forward to it. You are a stud duck to do three shows in three weeks.

Interesting. First I hate BMI. Competitive bodybuilders are obese using it when they are on stage. What is your body fat percentage. Begin there. I am assuming a clean vegan diet meaning no sugar or other crap and that your 1500 calories are clean. I would start by finding your maintenance calories. Eat that amount of calories. Keep it simple no more 40 percent calories from carbs, 30 from protein and 30 from clean fats like flax. A lot of people will disagree with me on the percentages. I try to keep my protein fat and carbs in pretty much equal divisions. Next plan your meals, five or six a day. Then track them in a log. Write down every single last thing you eat. Be 100% accountable. Each week do a weigh in and body fat calculation. One thing, never ever eat low GI carbs. Judging by what you are saying here, your body is incredibly efficient at fat storage. No pasta, no potatoes, no bread, nothing in that whole line of foods. You should see a pound a week or so come off this way if you are doing it in conjunction with exercise below. If it is a huge change in your current eating patterns try slowly phasing into it. Training. I like pilates, running is okay, but start adding hills and intervals. Never do the same workout twice in two weeks. Really mix it up with sprints, intervals, long distances, speed work, everything. Try to burn at least 600 calories per day. I am making an assumption here that you do not currently have an overtraining problem. I am assuming other than weight not coming off you have no issues like sleep problems, irritability, declining athletic performance, etc. If you do have those issues, then I would look at cutting back on my cardio until the overtraining is corrected.

U and me bro. Just got get out there and collect our trophies. If you are staying Saturday and need a place let me know. I have a house and am hanging until Tuesday. I have the benefit seminar for Family Dogs New LIfe Sunday and am snowboarding on Monday so you are welcome to hang. Steve

one armed chins. Now there is an old school exercise. Do you brace with your free hand or do you just dead hang and do them? I just found your blog. Good stuff in here.

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.

Only if I get to fight. Then I would beat his ass down.

These guys trained damn hard, dieted like fiends, and I am so proud of all three of them. Getting up on stage takes tremendous courage. Each of these competitors presented a phenomenal physique. Gentlemen, congratulations. You all did a fantastic job.

Does anyone reads Muscle and Fitness any more? Of course their bias is shared by so many others. How can we demonstrate that "real men" whatever they are do not need meat? Even among vegan/vegetarian athletes there is little promotion of their dietary lifestyle.

Is it just me or are there a lot of people who are hostile when you say you are vegan? Recent I caught myself wondering if I would have been better saying I was an Al Qaeda operative, child molester, or investment banker when the subject arose.

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.

Great job!!!

Bro, remember you are early in your competition career. Having placed last, I know disappointment. My first three attempts at competition, I didn't even make it to the show. A first place is nice. But what is even more important is how freaking awesome you look. You trained your ass off, and you looked fantastic. That said, if I don't win in Bend and I am kicking myself, you can kick my ass just like this and we can laugh. Let's get together and hit it when I am in town. You have my number, right? I get in Thursday night, and am heading over to the show Friday and hanging until Monday/Tuesday, then back in the gym training in PDX no later than Wednesday. I miss Portland so much. Be proud of what you have achieved. I am, and a lot of others are too. You have built a great physique that will only get better.

Bro, just got my shipment of vega last night from veganproteins.com. Thanks again. I have to say you look great. All the intense training and diet has paid off. Go get your trophy, and have fun with it.

I wonder about this. There is a certain segment of people that want to be dismissive of anything different. There is also a certain segment of people that want to be dismissive of anything that requires them to give up something they want even though they know it is bad for them whether that be meat, religion, bad relationships, drugs and alcohol, smoking, or any one of a number of other drags on their life with no redeeming benefit beyond, "I like it." I wonder what it is that drives people in this way. Is it some sort of primal need to cling the known?

Octo, you are doing great. Don't worry too much. You have a great physique. At this point it is about dialing it in, and pushing your water. The dandelion should help. I expect you have cut your sodium so you are good there. Just push the last of the water, get a good tan, and have fun. I have seen the photos, you look good enough to win. Now go out there and get your trophy.

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.

Great photos. You guys will do awesome this week. Looking forward to seeing you in Bend.

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.

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.

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.

Steve Arntt, vegetarian bodybuilder and martial arts teacher will be teaching a seminar on May 3 from 10-5PM at the Takayama Dojo @ SE Wilson & 9th in Bend, Oregon. This is a donation only seminar. All profits go to New Life Family Dogs rescue shelter. Steve's martial arts career includes 26 years of training, nineteen in the Bujinkan organization. He has taught in nine countries, and on three continents. This seminar is open to everyone, not only Bujinkan members.

Looking through these photos I gotta say to both Robert and LNG, outstanding. I am truly impressed with the level of conditioning you both had. Robert came in larger than I expected. You both did awesome. You guys will light it up in AZ.

Hey bro, you did great. The reports I heard from back home were all, "WOW, that guy is f*&*ing conditioned." A second place to an overall is never a bad thing. Also you did this as a RAW foodie with fifteen weeks of lead time. You are a true iron animal!! Now enough of how great you are. Get out there, rehab the shoulder, stay in great condition and crush it. BTW--When I get to town, you better be ready to talk conditioning. I am damn ready to listen because if I can take my size and pair it with what you are doing to bring those abs in, I am going to be unstoppable in late season on the east coast. Keep it up!!

Not meaning to hijack Octo's blog here, but I will be in OR just after the first of the month competing on the second. If you need a blood sample for research I am happy to help. Just let me know. Thanks--Steve

Robert, good luck. Looking at OCTO and LNG, man that is one tight contest. I am proud of all three of you.