Had a great trip to Seattle. Spent time downtown and at Pike Place market, and had an incredible night with over 70 incredible men from around the country in our investment circle, some of whom are our partners in a new business venture. We met at the organizer’s airplane hangar, which is also his office and home base while in Seattle, drinks, steaks, deep and meaningful conversation. It was an incredible time.
Had no issues whatsoever staying healthy with nutrition. Some tips on keeping it tight while on the road:
-Always find a healthy and clean breakfast, and fill up. Typically before booking a hotel, I’ll look at what food is around the area to make sure this is possible. Even a local diner will do. I will wake up extra early to go find a good breakfast if needed, and I will never eat a hotel “continental breakfast” unless it’s really good quality, typically higher end hotels will have good breakfast options. My usual go-to breakfast on the road:
-Whole egg farmers/veggie omelet (no cheese)
-Add diced ham or grilled chicken
-Breakfast potatoes (oatmeal is great too, I don’t eat oatmeal as it’s rough on my stomach)
-Fresh fruit
-No toast
Eating a big, healthy breakfast will give you solid energy for the day, and also make sure you’re not super hungry later. I find when I eat a big breakfast on the road, I’m able to eat smaller and lighter lunches and dinners.
-Find Mediterranean food if you can, it’s always possible to eat healthy there. Food is always cooked in olive oil, and there are plenty of meat, veggie and rice dishes.
-Come dinner time, any decent restaurant you go to should have healthy options, or, you can order something and make modifications (no cream sauce please!), or you can always order alacart. I’ve never ever had a problem eating healthy anywhere. Just be extra polite to your servers, because substitutions can be a pain in the pass. I usually say something like, “I hope I’m not being a bother, I’m going to order something and will have a few modifications, ok? I have some specific dietary needs, I really appreciate your help,” and it’s never an issue. The night before the Hangar steak dinner, I found a BJ’s, with has a ton of great options. I got zucchini noodle dish with grilled chicken, veggies, zucchini noodles, and a side of quinoa and rice pilaf. The chicken dish originally came with shredded cheese and a light cream sauce as well, which I asked them not to put on either.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have a business trip to Tampa coming up next month, 15 of us are renting a huge beach house right on the water, and will be spending some of our time educating and working, and the rest enjoying the beach. We’re also having numerous photo shoots done for advertising, business cards, billboards, etc. So, definitely gotta be on point for that!
I’m a hairy guy, and if I’m not competing, in the winter I don’t trim my chest, it’s just easier than way. But, it does make it really hard to see where my conditioning really is. Trimmed this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to see my conditioning for weighing 165lbs, I’d compare it to 157-158lbs a couple years ago. Very encouraging to see I’ve put on some solid LBM over the past year and a half I’ve been out of competing. I’d be happy on the beach with my current conditioning, but, as there’s 4 weeks to go, I’m gonna tighten it up.
Current nutrition plan
Free veggies I don’t bother putting on there. Those include sautéed onions, peppers, broccoli, asparagus, and leafy greens, which I always have with breakfast and dinner. The Soup for my lunch is always homemade and has lots of great veggies in it, then I weigh out meat and add separately.
My pre-workout meal is the cream of rice (COR) cakes I like to make, though sometimes I’ll exchange that for a nice microwaved Finibar and glass of Metabolic Drive chocolate milk.
The yogurt I have in the evening is non-dairy, coconut milk based. The EZ cereal is Ezekiel cereal, and lately I’ve been into “Love O’s”, which are made from legumes, have a nice light crunch to them and have 0 added sugar.
Training plan is my usual split. I’ll be adding a HIIT workout once a week, and will do 20-30min LISS-MISS after weights.
I won’t be doing a “low day”, my current deficit is good enough and as I’m not prepping, I’m not trying to be miserable. I still have a nice meal out and a pint of halo top on Friday nights.
