The spoils go to Manchester

An excellent day off today. I even went back to bed after doing morning cardio! Then a great afternoon of football, well done to both Manchester clubs, the deserved winners of their respective trophies. Meanwhile the not so mighty Tottenham are squabbling over 5th place after a poor season. We need a goalkeeper, a striker and a new manager, yes really! Preparation is going well for Saturday, I did have a slight panic over the fake tan but that's sorted now. I'm still waiting for the NABBA show video and photos but I have received one more picture which shows that my lower back and hamstrings were not tight enough. My hamstrings have always been a problem, my legs are big but the hamstrings just don't show. It used to drive my coach Eddie mad, he would have pulled his hair out if he had any!

The never ending diet....

Unbelievably, a three day rebound including Natalie's lasagne meant that by Tuesday night I weighed exactly a stone more than when I weighed in for the show the previous Saturday. So the hard dieting resumed at once and will now remain until after all of the upcoming shows. I don't mind feeling hungry all the time or even the tiredness, any excuse for an afternoon nap is great actually, but the constant aches and pains from my complaining body are becoming a lot to handle. Most of them I can ignore but my lower back, around the SI joint, where I am trying to make the "Christmas tree" that I had at the Universe last year reappear, is constantly hurting. Here's the first official photo from the NABBA show, you can be the judges, please let me know what you think.

A short rebound but so sweet

After the rigours of Saturday it was straight back to the gym on Monday but it made sense to have a few days of eating well before dieting hard again for the Bodypower show on May 21st. That culminated last night in my darling daughter Natalie coming over for the evening and cooking the best Lasagne I have ever tasted, which we shared along with a bottle of wine whilst catching up on our favourite TV show "The only way is Essex". For me, life doesn't get much better than that. Natalie has been the most important girl in my life ever since she was born just over 24 years ago and I can't see that ever changing, although after spending some time at the park with my Princess Lilybelle today she definitely has a challenger for the title.

Deja vu

Yesterday, in my first ever contest for NABBA, I came second in my class to Okon Gulutu (pictured). Okon is a massively experienced bodybuilder and one of the nicest guys on the circuit, he has competed for NABBA for the last 15 years in the Mr. classes but turned 50 a few weeks ago so decided to compete in my class, just my luck! It was an extremely close contest and we both competed very hard, many people thought that I had won but if I'm honest, although I was the biggest and heaviest I've ever been, I could have been a bit more ripped, so no complaints. On the plus side Okon has invited me to train with him at his gym in Cyprus the next time I'm there. The official show video is ordered so I will post a video and stills from that when it gets here, and as usual, I will let you people be the judges.

Waiting for that day

Well it's nearly time. After all of the endless preparation, all of the mad dieting to ensure a perfect look, all of the blood, sweat and tears, yes, tomorrow is the wedding of William and Kate. Whatever your views on the Royals you have to admit that we do this stuff better than anyone else in the world and that tomorrow will be a great day for Britain; so don't whinge or moan, just enjoy it. I have to add that Kate will not at any time (in her whole life hopefully) be dressed as my daughter was this morning, when I saw her walking down the road in a bright Pink velour tracksuit, I do love my little girl! Oh and by the way, I'm ready for my event this weekend too, I just have to dry out and carb up tomorrow, although that's actually worse than the diet! Win or lose I will put a report on here on Sunday.

Smelling the Roses

When you have dieted down this much it’s hard to get up and do an hour’s cardio before eating anything but it has to be done. To deal with the “mental tiredness” side of it, those that know me will tell you that I always find a positive way to get past that. The silver lining that I found this Easter weekend was to walk around a big lake while everyone else was still in bed. By doing this I was rewarded by seeing some real life nature close up. As you can see from the picture, these baby ducklings were not at all threatened by me as I was the only person anywhere near them, it was a lovely feeling. Like Tom Platz said, you have to “stop and smell the roses”, if you can do it a week out from a show, then you must be doing things right.

A nailbiting Wednesday night

What a fantastic North London derby last night! Although the result will probably mean that Arsenal's 5 barren years do become 6, as predicted here some weeks ago, it also possibly means that Spurs won't finish in the top 4. Regardless of those two facts it was the right result and a great night for football. OK now a moan, if there are 80,000 people on benefits because they are all either fat or drug addicts here's an idea, stop giving them benefits then they can't buy junk food or drugs! Too simple? Finally, Paradox are doing more filming for the documentary on Tuesday as I should be show ready by then, here's a still from the trailer that's already had a lot of views on YouTube.