With less than two weeks to go, it’s time to start cutting.

Last Saturday, we made some changes to my nutrition plan, including a slight decrease in carbohydrates and an increase in water intake.

Stevia is also being removed and the use of condiments will be cut down (which is pretty much just mustard at this time). The idea behind removing the Stevia is another thing I’m just sort of playing with. Some people remove artificial sweeteners and feel it makes a difference in how things appear. I’m really not sure if the same may go for Stevia, but I guess we’ll see!

Every serving of carbs will be cut down slightly. For example, my ½ cup of oats in the morning now becomes 1/3 of a cup and 4 tbsp of Cream of Wheat becomes 3 tbsp. This is meant to begin the process of depleting glycogen stores in preparation for carb loading. The idea behind carb depleting/loading is that once the muscle is depleted of glycogen (stored carbohydrates) it will store even more glycogen once replenished (carb loading). This is meant to give the muscle a more “full and hard” appearance.

The water increase and condiment decrease is done to get rid of any extra water held between the skin and the muscle (water retention).

There are many different ways people go about their final bit pre-contest prep. Some may sodium load and some may decrease sodium. Decreasing sodium is just what I feel more comfortable with, unless another method were to be monitored.

Water intake will be about 6 – 7 L a day, which is up from approximately 4 L a day (a more accurate intake will be figured out as we get closer to water cutting time).

Measurements and weight have not been checked more than every couple of weeks until now. Things have begun changing so rapidly that I really want to keep track of this last little bit of prep for future reference and out of curiosity.

At 3 weeks out my weight was checked and it was 138 lbs and now 1 week later is 135 lbs. This is very light for me (weight number compared to structure has always been high for me from a young age). We had written down a goal weight of 134 lbs and I didn’t even really think about it, just focusing on making improvements from the last show. That goal weight seemed a little drastic at the time, considering it hasn’t been that low in the past 2 shows. Now it looks like it may be surpassed.

Every morning things seem different and it’s so exciting. The best part is my energy and moods are so much better than they have been in any other show prep at this point. It may feel a little bit different shortly, since carbs have just been cut back, but it won’t be anything that I cannot manage. My coach Steph reassured me that not too much muscle is being lost and that helps to know at this point.

The aim with training changes (stair sprints and higher repetitions in addition to the supersets for legs) was to bring quad size down and tighten them up more. Since beginning the stair sprints about a week ago, they have come down in both skin fold measurement and girth.

Here are the measurements and weight from 11 weeks out and from this morning at 2 weeks out:

11 weeks out (Jan23/10) 2weeks out(March27/10)

Weight: 145lbs                        Weight: 135lbs
Chest:  36.5″                           Chest:   34.25″
Bicep:  11.5″                            Bicep:  10.75″
Waist:  27.25″                          Waist:  25.5″
Hips:   36.5″                             Hips:   34.5″
Thigh:  21.5″                            Thigh:  20.5″

It’s so much fun learning from this prep, while still feeling functional. This is amazing!

Photography by Bill Cresswell Photography

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Tags: bodybuilding, figure competition, prep, UFE Competition

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