Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try.

I’m currently 6 weeks away from my first Mens Physique show and have been dieting now for nearly 11 weeks, its definitely been an experience cutting down for such a long period of time but the science behind why I chose this approach (to maintain as much muscle as possible) has been successful judging from my current condition.

One question I’ve been asked a lot during my prep is about my social and work life, a lot of people seem to presume I work in a gym or a part time job somewhere which allows me to do cardio in the mornings then weights in the afternoon. This really isn’t the case; firstly I cook all my meats on a Saturday/Sunday and prep all my meals the night before. The huge advantage of being this organised helps me wake up at 6am, hit the gym for my cardio session then back home for a shower and first meal of the day, followed by my job as a Specialist Recruitment Consultant (8.30am – 5.00pm) and finally back to the gym after work for my weights session. I’ll be honest I also used to presume the guys I’d see in the magazines and on stage didn’t have ‘proper’ full time jobs and that it wasn’t achievable for someone in full time university or work. How wrong was I??

This also brings me on to my social life, obviously I haven’t touched alcohol since the start of my prep and I’m not going to lie, I’m dying for a vodka! However this hasn’t stopped me going out with friends and family, not only on nights out but also for meals too. I’ve had my brothers 18^th, poker nights, friends birthdays and work nights out where I’ve kept to either drinking water or diet coke and still had a top night. I have had occasions where I’ve been close to just knocking the prep on the head and calling it a day. That could be down to parts of the diet like low carb days, my general mood being affected by things around me or personal issues that I’ve gone through during the prep which made it really hard for me to keep everything and on track. However like I said in my ‘Finding your inner switch’ article I’ve used the gym as a place to help me get away from personal issues and use that time to really focus on myself and goals I’ve set.

So basically, it's all about finding that balance between your set goals and lifestyle. There's no need for me to sit in every night incase I'm tempted to stray from my diet, that's not a healthy way to live or a fun way. Enjoy yourself and don't take things too seriously!

Heres's a raw update pic from this Sunday morning (24/03/2013), as I said 6 weeks out and looking pretty lean, "too lean" as some people might say!  ; )

Lee