Stuart Reeves

On April 30th, Baskin Robbins Ice Cream stores throughout the United States will be holding a charity event to benefit the NFFA, National Fallen Firefighters Association.  On this night from 5pm-10pm all scoops will be .31 per scoop, which is an awesome value since some store charge as much as $2.49 per scoop, and it goes to a good cause.  This is a great family night or a night with friends. 

 I am posting this in advance, so if it is of interest, this night could be planned in to your "cheat treat".

Well after my first show, I took a little more than a week off to rest my body and eat somewhat normal for a few days.  I am going to hit the gym starting today, getting ready for another show sometime in the fall, their are a couple in September.  During my journey I learned a huge amount about my body and how it will react throughout the process and especially during the last week.  These lessons about myself, will be invaluable going in to a contest in the fall.  I am really excited to get going again and really fine tune things and fix those things, drying techniques and AB’s, that I didn’t quite get right on my first show.  It is going to be a great journey.

Well I competed last Saturday and this was my first show, so I was a bit in the dark on what to expect afterwards.  Does the water retention even out over time?  I seem to be retaining everything I drink and can’t seem to get rid of it.  Any thoughts from anyone? 

Since I competed last Saturday in the Mr Natural Utah I committed to take a week off to recoup and just allow my body to rest.  So far, this time has been great.  I have been able to research what I can change for the next show, the September INBA, figure out what I need to do differently to dry out better and to see what I need to change up with my diet and supplements to allow my self to have some serious gains this summer. 

Its amazing how involved we all get in to our routines of working out, dieting and just overall concentration on building and shaping our bodies.  As I search thru BB.com, almost everyday, some of the people on this site are amazing, in both presence and drive to succeed.  I am sometimes awestruck, by those that are able to achieve such a great accomplishment and keep a hold of it.  Kudo’s to everyone out their that has a goal in mind and wakes up everyday working hard to attain it.

Well, after 16 weeks of preperation and dialing in for the big day, it finally happened, my first ever bodybuilding competition.  When I weighed in at 211 pounds I knew right then that I had not dried out enough, which I really could see in my ab’s that morning.  Every single part of my body looked as good, if not better, than I had expected, except for those damn abs.  The entire experience was a lot of fun and to say that I actually did it was a great experience.  I met some amazing guys throughout the entire process and I don’t regret it for one second. 

For the life of me, I cannot see how all of those guys had that "shrink wrapped" look on their ab’s.  No body I talked to in my prepping phase could tell me how to get those, and it really appears to be the hidden secret to bodybuilding, because those guys had it figured out.

I am going to do another competition in September and will hopefully be able to figure out how to dry out even better for that one.  What I took from this first show, was know where I could get to and what I need to change for the next one.

I have really been pretty scarce on the site lately.  This Saturday is my very first bodybuilding competition and I am really battling the nerves, internal mind games and what not.  My BF% is down around 6, but I still have some stubborn belly crap that just won’t go away, I am hoping its mostly water and it will be hidden with water depletion.  Does anyone out their have any thoughts or ideas on this?

It has been really funny to watch people at my gym getting ready for this competition, which has been advertised as a Natural show, but from what I am gathering is that "Natural" is a very loose word if certain people can pass the polygraph.  About 3 months ago, I met a guy at the gym that had just completed a Deca cycle, and is now competing in the Natural show that I am competing in.  I am new to this sport, but is Deca natural?  

All in all, the entire thing has been a lot of fun and I have met a lot of great and helpful people that offered their assistance in posing and routine practice.  I really took for granted the amount of time and effort that is involved in getting our bodies in the best shape they have ever been in, in order to strengthen our self confidence and attain personal goals that we set for ourselves.

Well the excitement is really starting to build.  When I started all of this I committed to a 16 week program and now my first competition is 1 month from today.  It has definitely been quite the physical and emotional roller coaster.  I cannot even count how many times I have told myself, "that’s it, I’m done" or "whew I really would like to eat pizza with my family", but I have stood strong.  Although I did not do a BF test when I started, I would say that I was at about 12-15%.  As of last Sunday morning I am currently at 7.8%, which was down from 8.6% the week before, and I am holding steady around 230 pounds.  Seeing my BF drop and watching my ab’s come out has really been the most exciting part of this journey, a journey that all started about 2 years ago when i was 300+ pounds and had a hard time walking from the basement to my second floor without being out of breath.

 I will post some progress pictures that I have taken every week since I started, and I must admit, it are these pictures that keep me going each week.  I am truly pumped for my first competition, and knowing my personality, their will be many more after this.  I never would have believed that I could turn my life around like this at 38 years old.  Working out and good eating, truly saved my life. 

It has been a while since I posted to this site.  I have really been cracking down and trying to drop the BF% so the muscle can show thru.  I am finally down to about 8% right now and will hang around there for a few more weeks before the final drop.  I have to admit, this has been a lot tougher and a lot more work than I had bargained for when I start 10 weeks ago, if I never see asparagus again it will be to soon.  As some have noticed, my weight has been consistently dropping at about 2 pounds per week with about 1% of BF each week also.  This entire thing has been a great experience and is something that I am glad I have done.  I have to admit though, the posing trunks intimidate me.  I got them about 2 weeks ago, and wow that’s something to get used to.  I am really happy with the progress and as soon as I can get up the nerve and quit being such a wimp, I’ll post some pictures.

Its official, on March 29th, Jay Cutler will be the Guest Poser, at the 2008 NPC Utah Open.  You can check out the details at www.npcutah.com

Well I am 10 weeks away from my first show and I have to admit that when I took all of my measurements this morning I was a bit let down that i wasn’t getting as much muscle growth as I thought I would.  And maybe it is part of the cycle, but it seems like the bodyfat that I still have has gotten soft and hangy, hopefully that is what happens before it begins to burn away.  I am just really frustrated because I am entirely lost on whether or not I am on the right diet for my body type to get the results I need.  I feel really good about my workouts, the intensity is their, but this stupid belly fat, its driving me crazy.

Please share any thoughts that you might have!!