Getting into the zone...

Getting into the zone...the secret to nutrition success

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Getting into the zone...the secret to nutrition success
by Gary Howell


Ok. As bodybuilders we have several objectives:
1 to gain quality muscle
2 to stabilize or even reduce BF
3 to train and eat well so as to keep the above at a steady rate

The way I see it is that many bodybuilders fall short with one or all these areas. God I know that I have many times over.

The point I am making is that only a few can keep these three things going at all times.

Example: November last year was the last time I went abroad with my girlfriend. I ate myself stupid and rested for two weeks getting fat and loosing fullness of muscle from lack of training. When I came home I started my show prep, prep! This is what I call getting into the zone! I will explain what I mean by "the zone" shortly.

So by the following February I started my diet which went on for 8 weeks up until my show. "Never will get fat again" I said....WRONG JIMMY LAD! As soon as it was over I turned into the ****ing Cookie Monster! You see, I needed to do this. It’s what the body is shouting out for and there are not many people who can ignore these signals and stay lean!

From there on I carried on eating tescos dry for about a month! I then calmed down but still had treats every day and before I knew it, I was fat holiday boy all over again!! It just sneaked up on me and kicked me in the nuts like a sneaky little nut kicker

I then resigned myself to the fact that I was a fat looser with no self discipline (a lonely single fat looser because I lost my girlfriend to someone that looks like banana man during my diet but that’s another story).....Anyway It was mid summer and I ate well in terms of protein etc but I did eat more crap than I should have. Looking back, I wasn’t ready to get back to the zone just yet.

By the end of august I decided on competing next Easter again so I worked out a gear and GH course, more importantly a stable food plan. I won’t bore you with the details especially as I fine tuned it quite a bit as I went on (gear, GH and diet).

I started to train well also and not worry about the scales and mirror etc but just get on with it with my head down and carry on fighting!

Never the less I started to notice changes in my strength, size and condition, try as I did to ignore it! People started to comment on my physique, something I had not heard since last year! "Your getting bigger again" and the funny ****ers said "where's the gut, you on Atkins?" More importantly I started to realise that I wasn’t craving junk food and kept that to my cheat day (I know some people don’t believe in cheat day but it helps keep me sane as long as I don’t go mad). I was not eating one single scrap that I didn’t need as well as not missing out any food that I had in my plan blutacked to my fridge!......I was in the zone again, I looked great, was loosing BF and was gaining quality tissue at the same time!!! Hooray for Jimmy, at last he is back on track.

This has taken me till present day and I still have roughly two months to go before I need to diet. All going well I will be yet better and leaner by then!

So what is this "zone"?

It’s the stage where you are mentally right for attaining your objectives. My objectives were to gain as much quality size as I could and loose as much BF as poss. before I started to diet.

"Don't we all want that?" I hear you shout "impossible" say others....NO NOT IMPOSSABLE!!! We all can get into the zone as long as we get our minds and bodies set to what we want.

We do this by
1 Planning our objectives

visualise what we want to obtain in our minds. Then write them down and admit that that’s what we want i.e. loose fat, get triceps up to match biceps

2 setting realistic goals

Don’t think that you can gain 50lbs of muscle whilst loosen 50lbs in fat because you wont unless you have the muscle of Jimmy Saville and the gut of Dawn French! Instead be realistic with your goals according to your own body type. Work out a training split that you can manage, not one that Dorian, Flex, Cutler or superman would follow!

3 getting our environment correct

Throw out all junk food, read body building mags, join forums such as this one full of like minded people with good ideas and advise( watch out for idiot posts as there are some people who eat corn starch, swearing that its a quality carb)Stock your house with nutritious foods. Go to shows and get motivated, stop going to the pub! PUB=PISSED=KEBAB & CHIPS LATE AT NIGHT! Prepare all your food the day before without fail...You get the picture

4 working out what we need to do this

Sit down and work out your gear stacks, food plans and time scales. Write out your shopping lists each week, containing these foods only. Make sure we have time to get to the gym, following the already planned training split. Get enough sleep each night.

It may be hard for a few weeks but once you start all this you will suddenly find yourself in the zone.

Get in the ZONE people, its great. You feel like a well tuned engine that just can’t break down. It gets better; once you get the ball rolling what you think is near perfect starts to improve further.

So what are you all waiting for? The zone doesn’t last for ever for most people because it can’t! We need rest to get better next time the zone strikes. You must ask yourselves if your having too much rest and delaying the zone! Some never get there but it’s not to say that they can’t turn that around. Do these guys want to be and look like bodybuilders or are they just lazy?



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Getting into the zone...the secret to nutrition success
by Gary Howell


Ok. As bodybuilders we have several objectives:
1 to gain quality muscle
2 to stabilize or even reduce BF
3 to train and eat well so as to keep the above at a steady rate

The way I see it is that many bodybuilders fall short with one or all these areas. God I know that I have many times over.

The point I am making is that only a few can keep these three things going at all times.

Example: November last year was the last time I went abroad with my girlfriend. I ate myself stupid and rested for two weeks getting fat and loosing fullness of muscle from lack of training. When I came home I started my show prep, prep! This is what I call getting into the zone! I will explain what I mean by "the zone" shortly.

So by the following February I started my diet which went on for 8 weeks up until my show. "Never will get fat again" I said....WRONG JIMMY LAD! As soon as it was over I turned into the ****ing Cookie Monster! You see, I needed to do this. It’s what the body is shouting out for and there are not many people who can ignore these signals and stay lean!

From there on I carried on eating tescos dry for about a month! I then calmed down but still had treats every day and before I knew it, I was fat holiday boy all over again!! It just sneaked up on me and kicked me in the nuts like a sneaky little nut kicker

I then resigned myself to the fact that I was a fat looser with no self discipline (a lonely single fat looser because I lost my girlfriend to someone that looks like banana man during my diet but that’s another story).....Anyway It was mid summer and I ate well in terms of protein etc but I did eat more crap than I should have. Looking back, I wasn’t ready to get back to the zone just yet.

By the end of august I decided on competing next Easter again so I worked out a gear and GH course, more importantly a stable food plan. I won’t bore you with the details especially as I fine tuned it quite a bit as I went on (gear, GH and diet).

I started to train well also and not worry about the scales and mirror etc but just get on with it with my head down and carry on fighting!

Never the less I started to notice changes in my strength, size and condition, try as I did to ignore it! People started to comment on my physique, something I had not heard since last year! "Your getting bigger again" and the funny ****ers said "where's the gut, you on Atkins?" More importantly I started to realise that I wasn’t craving junk food and kept that to my cheat day (I know some people don’t believe in cheat day but it helps keep me sane as long as I don’t go mad). I was not eating one single scrap that I didn’t need as well as not missing out any food that I had in my plan blutacked to my fridge!......I was in the zone again, I looked great, was loosing BF and was gaining quality tissue at the same time!!! Hooray for Jimmy, at last he is back on track.

This has taken me till present day and I still have roughly two months to go before I need to diet. All going well I will be yet better and leaner by then!

So what is this "zone"?

It’s the stage where you are mentally right for attaining your objectives. My objectives were to gain as much quality size as I could and loose as much BF as poss. before I started to diet.

"Don't we all want that?" I hear you shout "impossible" say others....NO NOT IMPOSSABLE!!! We all can get into the zone as long as we get our minds and bodies set to what we want.

We do this by
1 Planning our objectives

visualise what we want to obtain in our minds. Then write them down and admit that that’s what we want i.e. loose fat, get triceps up to match biceps

2 setting realistic goals

Don’t think that you can gain 50lbs of muscle whilst loosen 50lbs in fat because you wont unless you have the muscle of Jimmy Saville and the gut of Dawn French! Instead be realistic with your goals according to your own body type. Work out a training split that you can manage, not one that Dorian, Flex, Cutler or superman would follow!

3 getting our environment correct

Throw out all junk food, read body building mags, join forums such as this one full of like minded people with good ideas and advise( watch out for idiot posts as there are some people who eat corn starch, swearing that its a quality carb)Stock your house with nutritious foods. Go to shows and get motivated, stop going to the pub! PUB=PISSED=KEBAB & CHIPS LATE AT NIGHT! Prepare all your food the day before without fail...You get the picture

4 working out what we need to do this

Sit down and work out your gear stacks, food plans and time scales. Write out your shopping lists each week, containing these foods only. Make sure we have time to get to the gym, following the already planned training split. Get enough sleep each night.

It may be hard for a few weeks but once you start all this you will suddenly find yourself in the zone.

Get in the ZONE people, its great. You feel like a well tuned engine that just can’t break down. It gets better; once you get the ball rolling what you think is near perfect starts to improve further.

So what are you all waiting for? The zone doesn’t last for ever for most people because it can’t! We need rest to get better next time the zone strikes. You must ask yourselves if your having too much rest and delaying the zone! Some never get there but it’s not to say that they can’t turn that around. Do these guys want to be and look like bodybuilders or are they just lazy?