Social sacrifice and contest prep.

[Beezers]

How much do you sacrifice while dieting. I realized yesterday what I'm deprived of on a daily basis, but feel no regret. In fact this is my pride. I'm a college student so needless to say there are lots of distractions for me, but I overcome tham everytime. While most people are partying on a Saturday night I am in bed by ten...It was leg day after all. I don't drink and seldomly go anywhere in the heat of the diet. I refuse to miss a meal and adhere to a set in stone diet plan. Bodybuilding is my pasion and my driving force in life. I sacrifice for my goals, but sometimes wonder if I'm going too far...If it's even worth it. How does one justify the lifestyle and overcomes doubt in this sport. I know I have what it takes, and refuse to give up. But sometimes I just wonder where the point in the madness is. I never see my progress, though apparatnly others take acute notice. I'm getting ready to start the serious phase of my prep and need to have my mind together in order to make it through. Right now I'm 255 at 9%, but after four weeks of dieting I feel like a fearther weight. Are my sacrifices justified?

[gopro]

This sport is all about sacrifice. To outsiders, our ends do not justify the means. But to us, true bodybuilders, it is not part of life...it is life. People say to me..."if I gave you 100 million dollars to stop training for life, would you do it?" Please, and look like everyone else? Keep your money.

We are a brotherhood...only we will ever understand what we do and why we do it.. when you begin to doubt yourself, ask yourself, what else would you rather be doing?

"All great journey's begin with a single step..."

[Gullie]

I dont feel I sacrafice all that much. Maybe for the 16 weeks of show prep I dont get to go out to eat and have to cut out pizza and Wendys but other than that I am happy. I never go out anyway, I dont party, I dont drink, I have never been to a club and the only bar I go to is the one I bounce at. But these arent because I am a bodybuilder, or maybe they are but the point is I dont like to do that stuff anyway. I did break off a relationship, for a few reasons, but one being I was told once I was married I couldnt continue this "childish" sport, yup I was told that, good bye! Now I am living with my girlfriend for over a year dating for almost 3 and we are both competitive bodybuilders and it is great, she understands what I go through and my moods and i understand hers, there is more to it but we are only on the bodybuilding part here.

I am also always asked what I get out of these shows I do, when I tell them its self satisfaction, no one can understand, they tell me its stupid and unrewarding, most of the time thats just jealousy. I see it in a few of my friends, kids who have killer potential and they mess it up because their friends want them to "hang out" once and a while and "you are ripped enough" All that is is jealousy, they cant stand to see one of them look better than themselves and give the poor guy a guilt trip about how he never hangs out anymore, its just 16 weeks! I cant stand the un-supportiveness people give out.

[Beezers]

gopro. This is indeed life, not some complimentary aspect of it. When I ask myself what else I'd rather be doing I can think of nothing more rewarding. Gullie, I'm much like you. I don't feel it's sacrifice. I feel it's my lifestyle. I don't party anymore nor do I drink. It just gets annoying when frinds bother me to go out and party and I have to repeatedly explain to them why I cannot. I take my bodybuilding very seriously, but wonder If I go too far. It's good to read you guys thoughts as I am not alone. I train at a gym where there are only two other competitors and we all train at different times so I seldomly get a chance to interact with them. Being in school makes this all that much harder though. I feel like an outcast for doing what I do, but on the occasion someone tells be I'm massive it occurs to me why I do what I do. I'm not a socialite so the life suits me well. I just don't want any doubts in my head when I'm preparing for my first show.

[Gullie]

No doubts bro, do it for you and fuck everyone else. This is not a team sport and those who do not support you dont hang around. If you explain to your friends how much this means to you they will be behind you. My partner doesnt compete but he is at the gym with me everyday and plans on staying and dieting as i do when Feb hits, who knows he might jump on stage. Either way he is there cause he is a true friend and supporter and know what this means to me this year. As does my girlfriend.

[W8's]

ok, i have listened to you guys and have to say. That maybe it is more of a sacrafice to me,than some of you guys. ok now. i do ocasionally like to drink. Not drink a lot but i enjoy greatly going out to dinner on a saturday night and having a bottle of wine with my girlfriend. Next, i am a huge socialite, i love going out and spending lots of time with my friends so i go out everyweekend unless i am involved in a serious diet. Just because i go out does not mean i party. i go out because i like hanging out with everyone and i go to my regular hangout a bar/resturant. I don't always drink and if i dont' drink i am usually slightly miserable. now i dont' want this to come out wrong because i by NO MEANS mean that i need to drink to have a good time, thats not it i mean i get pressured by everyone and harrassed to drink and do this or that or stay out late and go to afterhours when i really need to sleep cause i got legs the next morning at the gym. I am with my girl all the time we are never apart and she is very suppotive of me but when i am dieting i also feel like i am taking away from her life too. if i dont' go out neihter does she bacially. So I do feel like this is a huge sacrafice to my life when i diet. i am extremely dedicated to this sport but sometimes you got to live a little. i will never drink while on gear which is 8 out of 12months of the year. i will have drinks occasionally other than that. I do not have the genetics to go pro in any way shape or form. I can't wait to step on stage this year i am rearing to go but.... well i feel like i am rambleing on here but let me end it like this. I do feel like i sacrafice a lot for this sport... is it worth it? yes 100% i wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Gullie]

I just dont like anybody so its easy to stay in, hahahhhahahaha j/k.

I didnt mean to make it sound like I am against drinking or partying. I am not. I have a lot of friends that party and that cool, I my self dont drink for a reason, I have alcoholism in my family and I see what it does so i just stay away. Its not a health issue or anythng like that, I am not the healthy guy out there. I like to have fun, I go out with friends, I lov going out to eat, its my favorite pass time, but I know what I have to do and I do it whether anyone likes it or not. I love this sport and this is my lifestyle and that is the reason I dont feel any sacrafice. I cant feel the loss for things that I wouldnt do anyway. I just find fun in destroying myself in the gym. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[W8's]

i am with you bro. this is my lifestyle tooo but i just can't make my girlfriend give up her whole life for me either. its a give and take thing.

good thread guys.

btw... i will kick all your tails on stage if i get a chance this year.

lol
peace
w8's

[Gullie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by W8's:

btw... i will kick all your tails on stage if i get a chance this year.

lol
peace
w8's<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whoa, I smell challenge, lol. Its good to have dreams son, lol. Jokin, good luck in your shows you got my support bro.

[meathead278]

Awsome thread bro's. After reading this i do not feel alone anymore. And what i mean by that is that i too feel the same way you guys feel about sacrificing certain things in life. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[archive_FitnessChick]

....Wow, what a thread....

Let me tell you guys, as a woman bb'er and competitor, I often ask myself if its all worth it....My resounding answer....1000%!

I would not give up this lifestyle for anything. Something that started as a part time hobby has become a lifestyle. When I was dieting for my last show I was miserable. I couldn't envision the end of it. I would sit across from my friends eating burger king, and I would pull out my little tupperware container of grilled chicken and a meticuously measured plain yam. I had nightmares bout eggwhites, uggghhhh! I would literally drive by food places and salivate at the thought of seasoned, fried, salty food. I remember one day driving by Dunkin' Donuts & seeing this sign out for a new "Pizza Omwich"-a bagle sandwich with a pizza/egg omlett...now mind you this was something that would normally turn my stomach to think of, but for days I couldn't get it out of my mind. I even dreamed about food.

Leading up to the show I kept saying how bad it was, how much I hated dieting, and how It wasn't worth it....Let me tell you though....stepping up on that stage, hearing people scream for me, posing & knowing I looked good because of the discipline I had shown in the prior weeks, and taking home that overall trophy made it all worth it. When I got backstage, I said all the hunger, the fatigue during my workouts, the water depletion, the neverending piles of eggwhites and chicken-- it was all worth every second of being on that stage.

I am anticipating my next show eagerly, and in fact, my diet starts quite soon. I am more driven then I have ever been.

[Pharm Animal]

This thread should be kept at the top for all of us precontest bodybuilders to re-read when we are feeling the need to justify what we're accomplishing! My hat's off to all of you who are fueling my competitive fire this year /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

"Creating anabolic excellence for 2002"

[gopro]

AMEN...

"All great journey's begin with a single step..."

[Curious George]

I work in an automotive factory. For a long time I was working also at a wonderful supplement store with meathead278 and also training people on the side.

In the factory there is a continuous boredom from doing the same hum-drum thing, day in and out. It is very repetitive and the scenery never changes. There is no cafeteria that would understand my needs really as a bodybuilder or a competitor.

The people live on vending machine food and can't wait untill their lunch to get drunk or smoke a joint. It is the boredom and the lack of will power that make many of them turn into the stereotypical "Factory rat."

I get made fun of all the time because I bring food to work, do cardio on my 30min lunch break and drink a shake after. They ask me to join them in the pot smoking or a drink after work which I politely decline. People tell me that I am not "Normal."

I don't see how putting junk in your body day in and day out is normal. I also don't see how becoming a by-product of your invironment instead of making your own decisions on how to live it makes your abnormal. People tell me that I am not "living life to the fullest." I tell them that they I don't expect then to understand the root of my happiness as I don't understand the root of theirs.

I have had times when I don't train for a month or two. For that brief interval I am not being true to myself. Training and the mental discipline needed to diet, supplement and sleep are what make me a bigger part of who I am. By all means, bodybuilding does not define me, as I define it. I have other interests in this world, sports, family, my wife and puppies, politics, music, art, movies, reading...etc. I am passionate about life, but my true passion is redefining myself through bodybuilding.

I have always been a loner who likes to constantly question myself. I now have a wife who does not train, but understands my need for the time to train and my "Abnormal" eating habits. She does not discourage my anabolic supplementation, but does not whole-heartedly support it either. That is what makes us work I would guess, the rights of respecting individuality.

I cannot say for one second in my life I have ever thought that I made the wrong choice on the road I have picked becoming who I am as a bodybuilder. I don't feel I have sacrificed anything except my love for food and indulgence in overeating. I really love doing this. I love the feeling of pushing myself farther than I did last leg day, doing one more chin or getting a pump that lasts for hours.

Everyone of us does it for our own reasons. But nothing can ever take the feeling away from us of sheer love for being what we made ourselves.

Take Good Care,

Cg

[gopro]

Good post CG. Your comments reflect what most of us go through each day and how we feel about it, and what we choose to do /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

"All great journey's begin with a single step..."

[W8&amp;apos;s]

FANTASTIC POST. I HAVE SENT THIS TO A # OF MY FRIENDS AND MY GIRLFRIEND.

[Pharm Animal]

i'm eating

ICE
CREAM

right now

/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

"Creating anabolic excellence for 2002"

[Curious George]

What kind? I love cookies n cream with choc syrup......I myself am eating a sugar free popsicle.

long live hag n daz

Take Good Care,

Cg

[W8&amp;apos;s]

i made homemade choc. icecream this past weekend. it was damm good. i gotta say. this thing is bad news. i will be trying cookies and cream this weekend.

[Gullie]

Wow, look at you guys (&lt;---swallows a huge piece of choclate cake) eatin all this bad food (has another piece) what ever happened to chicken and rice (drops a piece on the floor and still eats it and hopes my girlfriend didnt see that) lol.

[gopro]

Whats wrong with you guys eating all that junk fo....wait, hold on a second..."Yes! I did say EXTRA cheese!" Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, stop eating all that junk... /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

"All great journey's begin with a single step..."

[gopro]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Frackal:
After it's all said and done, the cumulative result of your friend's "hangin out" (drinking, partying) will be some added lbs of bodyfat and poorer health and self image...your net result will be a masterpiece.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wonderfully put!

"All great journey's begin with a single step..."