Last week was a solid week, which is just what I needed heading into Peak Week!
What’s peak week? The week leading up to show day. It’s almost here baby!
the competition
If you’re new here, I’m competing in The Natural Viking in Bloomington, MN on 9/30/23. This is the same show I did last year, but different than the first one I did in 2018.
My overarching goal is to get my Pro card as a bodybuilder in the bikini class. Ambitious? Yep. Impossible? Nope. I’m all about finding out my personal capacity.
What is a Pro card? It’s a status earned when you take first place in the Open or Masters category of your division (again, mine’s bikini), and I could qualify in either since I’m currently 39 years old and Masters is 35+.
Check out what that looks like for the OCB federation here. You’re also then able to compete for prize money, which isn’t really what I’m shooting for. I just want to see if I can do it!
the numbers
Since I’ve competed twice before (and did a mostly okay job of tracking important metrics), I have some data to compare my current prep journey to.
For reference, I round up to 5’9. Part of my strength training goals are to maintain my height, ha!
- 2018 – 1 week out: 143.0 pounds, 17.7% body fat
- 2022 – 1 week out: 143.8 pounds, 18.0% body fat
- 2023 – 1 week out: 138.7 pounds, 15.8% body fat
I feel elated when comparing this year’s numbers to my previous two shows, as I’m at my lowest low adult weight and body fat – BOOM! And there’s still this week to go…
THE DIET
My diet was on point this week, with the caveat that we were out and about yesterday, so I had Chipotle for lunch.
But I’ve got it down – burrito bowl with a lettuce base, a small amount of brown rice (like 1/4 normal scoop), chicken, 2x fajita veggies and tomato salsa to top it off. Normally I don’t, but yesterday I stole some of Hazel’s sour cream… couldn’t resist!
Super filling and delicious and according to their nutritional info, fits into my existing macro count (unchanged from last week again).
Current Macros:
- 130 Carbs
- 40 Fat
- 135 Protein
the training
My coach, Peter Fitschen, has me on the following training split (he also sets my macros):
- Day 1 = Lower + Back
- Day 2 = Shoulders + Arms
- Day 3 = Lower
- Day 4 = REST
- Day 5 = Back + Chest + Shoulders
- Day 6 = Glutes (focus lower)
- Day 7 = REST
While I’d ideally take Thursday and Sundays as my rest days, my schedule doesn’t always work out like that. Most weeks I do strength training plus cardio M-F and cardio-only on Saturdays, with a rest day Sundays.
My total steps for last week were 133k – averaging 19k per day (down ~2k/day from last week).
That’s the best way I’ve found to track overall cardio efforts. If I just work at my computer all day, I’m likely to only get in 3k steps.
During this week (peak week), my strength sessions are still 5x, with a lower body day Monday, upper pull Tuesday, upper pull Wednesday and light whole body circuits Thursday/Friday. I also get to decrease my cardio quite a bit, yay!
Looking for help?
While I don’t coach other competitors, I am a weight loss coach for hire and my approach is different than any of the fad diets/workout programs you’ll find online. Learn more about my approach, based on life coaching, here.
Also, have you checked out my guide to help you answer the question: Why am I not losing weight? The answer might be different than what you think!