When I was 19, I prepared for my first bodybuilding competition while I was completing my first year in college. I really had no clue what I was getting myself into. I was broke, had no car, and the only real access to food was at the college cafeteria. I basically dieted on egg whites, tuna, pasta, wheat bread (yes, we used to eat bread back in the day while preparing for a show), rice, and whatever processed meats the cafeteria might have offered. I didn’t really have anyone to guide me other than a few guys at the gym who never competed and my roomate who played football. I didn’t really have any connections with any competetive bodybuilders at that time. While I was coming into my last three weeks before the show, I neeed someone to help me learn how to pose correctly because I really had no clue. I didn’t even know what pre-judging was. I met up with a guy who had won some local level shows in the teen division and had about a half dozen shows under his belt. I had seen him around campus and at the cafeteria, but he was kind of reclusive and kept to himself. He had a ton of muscle on him and he was a senior at the time. Long story short, the guy agreed to meet me in his dorm room and help me with my posing. I arranged to meet him. I went to his room and I’ll never forget the revelation I had when I went into his room. I looked in the corner of his one person dorm room and he had bags of potatoes, cans of tuna, boxes of rice, and tupperware containers stacked to the ceiling. His walls were plastered with diet lists, workout journals, and there were workout clothes hanging from a makeshift clothesline in his room. A few canisters of protein powder and a blender were in another corner of the room. This guy LIVED bodybuilding 24/7. I was a little shocked and maybe even a little scared. “Is this how all competitive bodybuilders live”, I asked myself? Is this what it takes to make it in bodybuilding? No wonder this guy was so reclusive. His whole life was tied to eating, sleeping, and training. He helped me with my posing and sort of rushed me off so he could get back on schedule. I was in awe. I wasn’t sure if I could do what he was doing. What was worse, I was more nervous than ever to compete in the upcoming bodybuilding contest. I definitely wasn’t doing bodybuilding at that level and I worried that I was in over my head with this competition thing.
Fast forward to today; I ended up doing the show and loving it and now 16 years and 23 shows later I’m still competing and loving it. I’ve taken diet and training to the highest levels and have improved year after year. The moral to the story is, to me, bodybuilding is more of a lifestyle than a sport. To be successful, you have to have the ablility to modify how you live your life. Today I decided to highlight a few tools of the trade to help you reach your goals. In my opinion, most of bodybuilding is diet. To diet right, you need a few important tools.
1. A good blender- I’ve gone through a bunch of them. I would suggest a glass blender. They last longer and blend better. When you make shakes, add more water than the recipe calls for and add a few cubes of ice.
2. Tupperware-Have a bunch of this stuff on hand. Buy containers that can hold a whole meal and that you can wash in the dishwasher. I generally prepare 3-4 days worth of meals and place them in tupperware in the refrigerator.
3. Food scale-I can tell how serious a bodybuilder is if he uses a food scale. Weighing your food is an extreme measure, but a necessary one if you are taking it to the highest levels.
4. An oversize frying pan- I use this to make egg whites en masse. I eat a ton of egg whites and I find that I have to get creative in how I prepare them. This large pan makes preparation much easier.
Learning to live the bodybuilding lifestyle is a process that happens gradually as you learn more about it. If you are a beginner, read all you can and find a good mentor with competition experience. If you are more advanced, you know what I’m talking about already. Hopefully you are more enlightened now!
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