DCNINJA

Interesting. Let me know if this is for real. Also look at you!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad I am not competing against you. Man, you are so lean and sharp you could cut diamonds.

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.

Bro you are lean and hard. Just hit the pump up, oil, and collect that trophy. Have a great time.

Bro, you are doing awesome. Just look at the stats if you have any doubts or better yet check out your abs. You guys make me miss home. ARGH!

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.

Bam Bam is a great posing coach. By high stung I mean getting close to the contest and feeling high strung emotionally. You are three weeks out and in awesome shape. I have seen guys in great shape in the last month turn into worry warts or start over training to get "just a little more". Just keep doing what you are doing. It is working great.

Crystal, you are a studette. Keep it up.

DUDE, that is awesome. Keep it up.

great conditioning buddy. looking really good.

why just forearms?

LNG, bro you are inside three weeks. GREAT JOB!!!!!! You are going to totally rock. Your conditioning is really great. The big thing now is stay loose mentally. Most competitors get too high strung the last month. I cannot wait to see your contest photos. Sorry I won't be there. Are you doing any other shows this season?

Keep it up bro!! UR doing great. Remember to get proper rest.

Varies, I love hard rocking tunes in the gym. Today I was in the Nine Inch Nails mood, Closer. Yesterday was Nickelback Next Contestant

I am in DC and a competitive vegan. Let me know what you need and maybe I can help.

The article did have some good things to say, but it is still junk logic. Just because more former vegetarians use laxatives to control their weight does not mean that vegetarian diets cause laxative use. 100% of drug addicts drank milk as a baby. Drinking milk therefore must cause drug addiction. Silly huh?

The thing I get is where do I get my protein. I think they ask out of curiosity not to belittle my diet. Most people do not think about food that way. They do not ask what does the body need and why. I guess the worst thing I ever heard was that when I went vegan I would be unable to continue competitive bodybuilding. That one was wrong. Of course I said that years ago and used it as a justification for a meat based diet. It wasn't until I did some research and serious experimentation with my own body that I decided that was not the case.

Interesting bill. Thanks for sending it out. This post is going to run a little long, please forgive the length. The regulatory pendulum has swung so far out away from any regulation with awful results whether it be bad peanuts from a processing plant or bad Odwalla juice. The danger now is sweeping regulation that becomes too restrictive. A lot of the rehtoric surrounding this may be a little over-reactionary. Having practiced law for over a decade I can say one thing about regulatory schemes. Any regulation that Congress or an agency passes faces the exact same language from those regulated. They are always, "destroying the industry", "confiscatory", "makes it impossible to do business", etc. I say this not to say this is a perfect bill or even one that people should support. I say this because knee jerk reactions are usually the worst reactions possible, and the rhetoric being used is the same rhetoric that is always being used. Thoughtful and reasoned discussions about regulation is what is needed now. Let's face it the food industry has been so poorly regulated that it rivals derivative investments for poorly managed industry of the year. That said there absolutely will be more regulation. The important thing for organic farmers, produce wholesalers, and retailers is to get in front of the wave and not behind it. It is better to work with the shaping of regulation than reacting to it. We all know there need to be standards, e.g. what is an organic apple. The real problem is finding reasonable regulations that fit the myriad of food options people choose. Being a minority of consumers those of us in this community (veg and or organic) probably do need to practice a higher level of vigilance to ensure reasonable standards.

Sometimes that is the best thing you can do. Next workout will kick ass.

Dude, got any new photos? Inquiring minds want to know....

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.

On more photo, and no matter what I do they keep coming out sideways. UGH!!!

Okay five weeks to go. Posing practice and weigh in today. I weighed in at Rob Kreider's gym. I am not convinced his scale is 100%. I came out at 185 pounds, I would peg me a little heavier based on recent weeks weight loss under similar conditions. It is possible that my recent increases in rest have given my metabolism the signal to really kick into gear. Here is a photo from today's session. This morning I had my PT test, which is why I gave myself three days off from training. Out of a possible 300 points, I scored 285. Not bad, I missed a couple of sit ups, and my run was not the greatest. I may not have scored 300, but I am hoping when I step on stage I look like I starred in the 300. I know, bad joke. So this week was a little more rest than normal. It was also a little more restricted in diet since I was not working as hard. I did have a fair amount of cardio with a two day sword seminar, and a lot of walking. I am starting to restrict my carbs. I know it is early, but I am traveling next week, and if I can get a little ahead of the game I will have three good weeks at home before I need to be in top condition. I am happy with pretty much everything where it is. I am looking forward to leaning out a few more pounds. Candidly if it means giving up an ounce of muscle at this point, I will hold exactly what I have. If I push ten pounds of water, that puts me at 175 and in good enough condition to beat most novices. I really want to be the biggest guy in the weight class. That said I could get blown out by a short guy who is really well developed with good conditioning. I am not going to worry about it too much since what matters most is that I am very pleased with my accomplishments here. Only a month until I am back home in Oregon, and I cannot wait. Time to get back to finishing my second gallon of water today.

Mary, that is reall y nice of you.

I read these the other day, and thought, "Nothing like this ever happens to me." So I am stranded at the airport with no food, hungry as hell, and searching for anything I can eat. I find a place that serves boca burgers and order one. It was really hot in the airport so I took off my sweat shirt, and I was wearing a really tight Nike tank top underneath. Love the shirt, it makes me look about fifteen pounds bigger than I really am. I wish I could wear it to work. I went up to get my veggie burger when it was done, and ths s e guy look at the veggie burger, looked at me with his eyes popping, then kind of tilted his head a little and said, "You get THAT big eating veggie burgers." I just smiled, and said, "Absafuckinglutely." It was truly an awesome moment. When people see me as a bodybuilder they ask me about diet, and I love explaining that I don't eat meat or any animal products (okay an occassional free range omlette or capuccino has been known to grace my table), but they are always shocked. Every time I show that the stereotype (one that I bought into for years) of the scrawny vegetarian who will blow away in the wind is simply not accurate I feel great.

Hey brother, you and Robert can laugh at me after I have been so down on not getting enough sleep and over training. I did it last week and am recovering. I spent the week in England doing martial arts and came back to get stranded in NYC after a sword seminar. Run down and tired, my sciatic nerve is killing me. I know better rest and stretching would alleviate the problem, but I do things I shouldn't anyway. MMMM, someday when I am a more advanced soul, I won't do it anymore. You look great. In a few weeks you will be on stage wowing them with how lean you are. Keep up the great work, get some rest, and I am looking forward to seeing the photos. I hope we get a chance to meet next time I am home. Steve