So, Cool story from last night. Well very cool to me anyway. As I mentioned yesterday that it was a carb up day. I kept carbs low all day long and then at about 6:30 I started taking in carbs working my way up to about 300 grams. Well I was about 2/3rds of the way through my carbohydrate mayhem and was getting crazy vascular by 7:30. I was looking at myself in the mirror just standing there and the cuts in my abs just looked sick! My wife rounded the corner into the kitchen and looked at me for a few seconds like she was studying me. Out of nowhere she says "You need to go take a picture right now. You need to take a picture of how you look right now!" She was obviously excited and impressed with how I looked. She does compliment me, and lets me know she likes the way I look, but this reaction was kind of out of character for her. It was like the change from depleted an hour earlier, to filling up and getting vascular was shocking to her.
Well I took pictures in the computer room where the lighting is typically pretty good for pics and I have to say that I was just looking awesome. The cuts on my abs especially at the top 4 where the skin is tighter was ridiculous. They looked like they were just bulging off of my abdomen and the valleys between them were both deep and etched into me. There were no shadow games, no questions about if that was a shadow or a deep cut between the abs. If the progress keeps coming at this pace, well I will just look crazy by the 25th.
Carb sources for this carb up were as such, 90 grams of carbs from Waximaize Starch 60 pre with some aminos, and 30 at the end with 100 grams of whey isolate and casien mix, 80-90 grams from whole wheat turkey spaghetti, and right about 110 from rice pudding with raisins made with skim milk.
I spoke with the wife and mentioned to her that she was right, now that I have gotten leaner I am considering another show. I really need to bring my arms up but if I do a show this year it will be in the Novice class and then next year I will do an open. That or I will just do the physique contest this year. You know the muscle model stuff. She was actually very supportive of the idea. I know the last one really put her through a lot of stress because it was my first and I didn't have any real help. My house was falling apart and the roof was damn near caving in we didn't have the budget to pay someone so I was on the roof working on it for hours every night the last 4 weeks of prep not getting my posing practice in, or having more time to plan my peak week approach much less do a practice run to see how my body would respond to my plan.
Today I am not doing any cardio or exercise of any kind. I will keep my calories nice and low, keep carbs low and see how I look Saturday morning. No reason for me to go do cardio and deplete myself farther when I can just chill and burn fat while leaving the glycogen in my muscle for a picture tomorrow if I get it right I will still be relatively full tomorrow and dryer than I am today. I was 203 yesterday morning, looking at myself today I would say I am closer to 207 and my face has no bloat so I don't think I retained much water, just filled up. We are getting a custom carrot cake from this amazing place for lunch today celebrating a birthday. I will take a piece or two home for Sunday, that is my next carb up. I will more than likely take some pics Sunday morning, Sunday during the carb up and then more than likely Monday morning and you guys will get the best of those to vote on for this week. This many pictures will also help me document how my body is responding to the carbs and at what point my body looks best, pre, during, or a day or so post carb up.
I can tell I am getting in that zone because in all honesty, I am taking pictures pretty much every single day now. I have a separate folder on my PC at home with pics for each day since Saturday. This isn't my goal but it is helping me and it is also teaching me how my body responds to what I am doing.
