I have a confession to make and as I accepted my decision last weekend, I knew right away how it would make me look and I still didn't care. I have trained for 33 years and competed for 27 and I finally admit that I am not "all in" anymore when it comes to prepping.
Sure, I love the process. I love the day-to-day grind and the progress and structure of it all. I have always said I could do without the stage part as long as I still get the day-to-day grind of prep. Nothing has changed in that sense but I came to realize this last weekend that some things take priority over prepping these days.
I am not talking about the obvious things like my wife's Mother battling cancer but other things that might seem insignificant to some, are not to me.
I had the opportunity to reunite with a long time friend that I have known since the 7th grade this last weekend. We were tight (still are) but had a minor falling out over some dumb shit about 5 or 6 years ago. Neither of us was big enough to pick up the phone until I did about a month ago. We played baseball together and we both got involved in bodybuilding around the same time and became really good friends in our teens. He insisted on us living with him briefly when we moved to Colorado 20 years ago so that we could get our feet under us and start to build our future here. Without him, nothing we have in Colorado right now could have happened.
The long and short of it is I took the entire weekend off. Now, I don't typically train or do cardio on the weekends, anyway, but I took the weekend off of my diet and just enjoyed the weekend being normal. By that I mean, I still ate a lot like I would while loading but not as much (I didn't force food and rather enjoyed it) and I ate what I wanted for 2 full days.
We started with a terrible burger at Bad Daddy Burger Bar. I should have known right away I was in trouble based on not being able to find anything I wanted on the menu. That just doesn't ever happen. This burger was mediocre, at best, and that means the meal was a giant waste.
Did Ruth's Chris for dinner and let me tell you it was fabulous. I am a lamb chop freak and they were perfect, as usual. Everything was awesome from the bread to the sides and dessert.
Hit a new crepe place later that night and these gourmet crepes were insane. Cream cheese, fruit and nutella made for a great crepe. 80 dollars later we left and it that was only about 30 minutes or so. Expensive but worth it.
New breakfast spot with Bananas Foster french toast and cinnamon glazed pancakes. Definitely will be going back soon.
Ended up taking our son out for dinner before heading home on Sunday and had a great time, as well.
You may think I am not disciplined enough or serious enough about prepping for this show but I look at it this way: I am ahead of schedule. I still have 8 or 10 weeks out depending on whether I do both shows or not. Mrs. Skip is not ahead but I am. I took a calculated "risk" and made the decision that I have plenty of time to still get into incredible condition and it was very important to me to be able to spend time with my long time friend and mend the past. In fact, I would go so far to say that it was MORE important than this show - of which I am not threatening to win or even kick a lot of ass but just to show that I can still kill it in my old age while only on TRT dosing (or slightly above TRT dosing).
I am back on track as of Monday and 100% focused again. Maybe, this little break will add a nice fire psychologically, but even if it doesn't, I am confident moving forward that I will continue to progress and get into incredible condition.
I accept your judgement - whether it be negative or positive. I am comfortable with my decision. Even if I get blown away at my shows, it will be easier to take with my long time friend there pulling for me and supporting me. Whether some of you think so or not, there ARE more important things than a show.
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