During your diet mode your goal is to decrease calories which is generally achieved by decreasing your carbohydrate and fat intake. While you will still get your fiber from your complex carbohydrate such as rice and oats, you'll rely more on a higher intake of fibrous vegetables to help you feel full. 

These include: broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, green beans. Make sure you have plenty of these vegetables in the fridge if you are hit by those late night hunger pangs. However, due to their higher energy content it is best to avoid corn and peas as part of your dinner plate. While fruits also contain fiber, it is best to decrease the amount of fruit you eat during pre contest as these will add calories to your diet.

Make sure that you have plenty of fluid with your meals to make the fibre nice and soft. Increasing the amount of fibre in your diet might, at first, cause an increase in abdominal bloating and wind. After a while, this becomes less of a problem.

In a nutshell, excuse the pun, fiber in the form of fruit and vegetables plays an important role in your fat loss regime as it helps you feel fuller for longer.

Training.  For a while there I really didn't want or feel like training.  I was putting so much time into covering everything else I forgot about myself.  So now I'm getting back into it and have even managed to train 4 times last week.  I almost even feel inspired to compete again.  But don't hold me to that!

Now that I've had a rest, I'm thinking what will I do now?  apart from training clients that is.  I'm kinda getting bored with how Go Figure looks at the moment. Are you?  Then again I'm easily bored so I'm going to give the site a makeover.  I have some ideas I'd like to implement and my ever wonderful IT guy has put some technical ideas forward that sound interesting so over the next weeks I'll be working out Go Figure's new look.

I'm contemplating whether to bring back the Messageboard.  But not exactly in the same form as before. What do you think? do think there should be somewhere you could write your thoughts about stuff?

If you have some ideas of what you'd like to see on Go Figure then please email me with them.  Go Figure is a group effort and you're definitely part of it so feel free at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I don't often look at stats because I don't want to be driven by numbers. But occasionally when I'm feeling a bit low, and have one of those 'what's the point of it all' moments, I do go and check out Go Figure's stats and tell myself that it IS worthwhile.  So it astounded me when I saw Go figure had over 2 million hits! 2,138, 726 to be exact in October.  This, following September's 1,742, 046 is amazing. So thank you for returning and seeing what action's going on here.

The other thing that made me super happy this week is that I'm going to be writing in Musclemag!  I was gobsmacked when one of my acquaintance said would I like to write for them. I said yes ofcourse! are you serious.  So its nice to be thought of and recommended to do so.  I've been reading (well more checking out the pics) for years so to get an opportunity to contribute is an amazing achievement.  Hopefully I'll be writing regularly but I guess it depends on how the first article goes, so wish me luck!

Trialling something new. On Monday 16 November, I'm going to be trialling something on Go Figure that I've never done before. Its new and exciting, and hopefully you get plenty of benefits from it. So watch out for that.  Its a move that you might see more of on here so stay tuned.

Through my network of friends and business colleagues, I have a feeling that next year's bodybuilding season is going to be a big one. We may see some international athletes down here. I know one initiative is going to shake up the bodybuilding scene, I'm not allowed to say anyhing till its confirmed but it sounds exciting!

Make sure you stay tuned to Go Figure to be the first to know!!

That's all for now.  Happy training everyone!

Lisa
Go Figure
13 November 09

2. Choose your competition date. Calendars for NZ's bodybuilding organisations should be out in December. Once you've got the services of PT or talked over with a friend about your contest goals, the next step is decide which show you'll be ready for.

Traditionally, 12 weeks is the period required for contest preparation, however, if you're a novice
it may be a good idea to start early at 16 weeks. The reason being is that you're not sure how your
body is going to respond to the new diet and training plan. Your body may be stubborn to change
and may take longer to loose the weight you need. It's better to start early than do hours of cardio towards contest time anyway.

3. Check your weight, bodyfat levels and take photos.
You'll notice subtle changes in your bodyshape. Some days your legs will look leaner and other weeks your top half will come into shape. Everything won't change at once!

Everybody hates weighing themselves but if you're going into bodybuilding contest, especially
in a weight class, you'll need to check your weight before and during your plan. It doesn't matter
so much if doing figure as you generally go on how you're looking but if your aim is to compete
in a weight division then it's imperative you get on those scales to see that you are loosing weight.  

5. Contest eating. Contest dieting is about eating for energy and recovery rather than for taste. So it's just not exciting. At the beginning of your contest plan it's probably a good idea to clear your cupboards of any naughty foods such as biscuits, delicious condiments like mayonnaise or sugary sauces or any tasty treats as they won't be part of your diet for the next 3 months or so.

6. Contest Training. There's a fine balance between your weight training and cardio regime.
You need to do enough cardio to promote fat loss while weight training will help shape and give muscle definition. Do too much cardio and you could be eating at some of your muscle. Depending on your muscular condition, you should do at least 5 x 45 minute cardio sessions per week - which will increase as your contest day approaches.

Ideally you should do your cardio in the morning before breakfast as this promotes more effective fat burning while your weights is done later in the day as this will help prevent overtraining. Again, you should seek advice from PT as to how much you'll need to do to burn fat and maintain muscle mass.

Here's an overview of your diet and training plan

3-4 Months Before
Measure body composition. Measure bodyfat with calipers or electronically.
Clean up diet. Eat 5 to 6 times a day. Increase cardio.
Practice semi-relaxed and compulsory poses

Every 2 Weeks
Measure body composition. Assess progress. Manipulate activity and diet if needed

2-3 Months Before
Reduce dietary fat if progress is not adequate.

1-2 Months Before
Decrease calories if progress is not adequate. Work on your posing and posing routine

2 Weeks to 1 Month
Practice posing without mirror.

1-2 Weeks Before
Make changes to your diet and cardio, decrease or decrease cals, depending on how you're looking.

6-3 Days Before
Stop weight training
Decrease walking and posing slightly

3 Days Before
Decrease intestinal volume:
Eliminating bulky low calorie foods
Eating smaller portions 6 to 8 times a day

2 Days Before
Reduce dietary sodium by eliminating canned foods, eggs, dairy, diet drinks and sweetners

1 Day Before
Drink water only when thirsty

We've all been accused of it at some stage and we've all heard it all before, sayings like "you workout too much", "why don't you take a break", "do you have to go to gym today?". If you have been at the receiving end of these comments you may be labled a compulsive or obsessive exerciser.

Bodybuilding and weight training by it's very nature incorporates a certain degree of compulsive behaviour. Afterall bodybuilding, whether it be pre-contest preparation or off season, requires you to be disciplined in your eating and training so that you can sculpt and build your physique as you imagine it to be. If you're serious about bodybuilding, you'll probably have some compulsiveness in your training and willing to make sacrifices to reach the result you desire. Quite often, training will more than likely dominate your life which can lead to an unbalanced lifestyle.

While it's important to be disciplined in your training, I feel most of us walk a fine line between achieving our own personal health and fitness goals and our obsession with getting to 'peak perfection'. If we continually compare ourselves to others, the more we get obsessed with training and needing to be like our ideals which really defeats the purpose of living a health lifestyle. Instead, we should focus on constantly improving ourselves so that we are reaching our own potential rather than trying to do what others are doing.

But do you know if you are obsessed when it comes to your own your training? I found the following points in the Journal of Sports Medicine Newsletter which may be able to help you identify if you have 'obsessive' traits: