It’s peak week! – My Road to Stage 2022

This past week was great. Not even seven more days until I step on stage for the first time. I am pumped but nervous. Let’s have a deeper look what happened last week.

Diet

Nothing changed in my macros since the last post (detailed macros here). I am at the same calories on training and rest days and feel good. I eat the same things now every day to make it possible to fine adjust. Salt every day at 10 g and water at 4 L.

Looking at my daily food, the meals are the following:

Breakfast: 50g oats, 10g psyllium husks, 5g cocoa powder, 30g ESN iso whey, 100g raspberries, 20g almond butter (I leave some of this as pre or post-workout, depending on when I workout during the day)
Lunch & Dinner (summed up): 80g Basmati Rice, 3 eggs, 300g broccoli, 130g chicken, 50g harzer, 5g butter
Snacks: protein shake, milk for coffee

All adds up to a bit over 1500 kcal.

Favorite food this week: Not really food, but rather a snack / drink: protein shake!

It sounds super dull but prepared in a certain way, it was my lifesaver last week. Since recently, I have a protein shake about an hour before bed and dinner about three hours before bed. In a past blog post I said that I keep my protein powder intake to a minimum because I prefer to get protein from whole foods. This is still true but a shake is an easy way right now to get some protein in before bed to not get hungry at night.

Protein shakes with water can definitely taste boring. Not prepared this way: Put ice cubes or crushed ice in a mixer, add water, add protein powder (I currently use the salted caramel flavor from ESN (link), but I also love the iced latte flavor for this), and add cinnamon.

Then I mix everything, leave it in the mixer for a minute to let all ice settle again at the bottom of the mixer, then mix again for about 10 seconds. The shake has a super fluffy consistency without milk or anything else that adds calories. Then put in a glass, sprinkle some cinnamon on top and drink with a straw. Give it a try! 😊

Workouts

My workouts were great this week. I definitely notice some declining strength on some lifts but remain heavy on most. While doing dumbbell deadlifts this week, I even got compliments and respect for the weight I lift. Who doesn’t like compliments like this? It made me feel even better.

I was at 14.000 steps per day this week, which surprisingly came to me easy.

Overall feeling

This week I felt good. One day when I was feeling weak, I felt like my immune system was not strong. Therefore, scheduled a massage and reduced steps on that day. Also made sure I got good sleep, and it definitely helped. My period showed up beginning of the week, which is great as it shows my hormones are still in check.

Now, I am ready to attack the last week, and then it is competition time.

Summary

One week out. I still remember how on some days during prep, I thought it was still such a long way and so many weeks to go, and now it is competition time already. Looking back, it passed quickly. So much happened in my private life, too. I went on many trips, and time flew by.

Overall, I would say prep came relatively easy to me. At least I pictured and expected it harder. For sure, there were some better and some not-so-good weeks. And also, there were some really mentally challenging days.

But all in all, I would say I had an excellent prep, and we did a great job forming my body, maintaining muscle while losing body fat. I am excited to step on stage! I am counting the days. Let’s see what the judges think. But no matter where I place next Saturday, I am already proud I came this far.

Interested in previous posts on this topic?

travel, health, fitness, movement & recovery

Diet

Workouts

Overall feeling

Summary

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