Road to the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic - 2 Days Out

*Watch the video ending for my current posing condition 2 Days Out*

We are officially two days out from the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic I actually had to re-record this update because my first take featured a piece of rice cake stuck to my hair for the entire video.

Today is focused entirely on carb-loading, hitting roughly 3,500 calories without eating any meat or beans. I am still getting well over 100 grams of protein strictly from my carb sources, which consist of oatmeal, rice cakes, and rice. I am keeping my meals simple and avoiding bread and potatoes, though I am definitely getting tired of the current menu. Tomorrow evening, the diet shifts to a fatty, greasy burger with fries to push salt, fat, and a little bit of meat into my body before the show.

For show day itself, I have a junk food platter ready, packed with chocolate bars and wine gums. These fast-acting, sugary carbs are used to quickly fill out the muscles, but they must be eaten carefully to prevent stomach bloating while up on stage.

There was no training today, just a dog walk and some posing practice. Tomorrow's schedule is dedicated to final preparations, including finishing my packing, manscaping, and applying a pre-tan spray that pulls out skin pigment ahead of the official spray tan on Saturday. After that, we will check into a hotel closer to the venue to eliminate the 45-minute drive and keep stress to a minimum for show day.

Road to the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic - 5 Days Out

We are officially less than a week away, just five days out from the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic!

This final week is arguably the most exciting (and complex) part of the entire competition prep. A lot happens to the body in these last few days, so I want to break down exactly where I’m at, my strategy for "peak week," the actual science behind carb loading, and a slightly scary mishap I had over the weekend.

Current Stats: Where I’m At

Right now, I'm weighing in around 185 to 186 lbs.

According to my body fat scale, I’ve been sitting right around 5% for the last two weeks, and it’s even ticked up slightly. But here's the catch: I am incredibly dry right now. When your body is depleted of water and glycogen, body fat scales get confused. They read the lack of water as a lack of muscle, which artificially inflates your body fat percentage.

Realistically, I’m sitting somewhere close to the very low 5% range. Once I start carbing up and rehydrating later this week, that scale reading is going to plummet as my muscles fill back out.

The Final Cut (Monday – Wednesday)

For the first half of this week, the goal is to scrub off that absolute last 1 to 2 pounds of stubborn fat.

• Calories: Dropped to about 1,500 – 2,000 max per day (a near 2,000-calorie deficit).

• Macros: Very low carb (under 100g per day), keeping it mostly protein with a little bit of fat.

• Training: Taking it easy. Monday through Wednesday is all about getting a light pump. I’m just pushing blood into the muscles without risking any injury or inflammation. By Thursday, I’ll drop weight training entirely. I'll also be cutting way back on my walking to conserve energy for the carb load.

The Science of Carb Loading (Wednesday Evening – Friday)

Starting Wednesday evening, the real magic happens: the carb reload. I’ll start with about 300g of carbs on Wednesday night, bump it to 500-600g on Thursday, and push 600 to 700g on Friday depending on how my muscles are filling out.

The Biggest Carb Loading Mistake: A lot of competitors are so terrified of gaining fat during peak week that they eat their carbs while staying in a calorie deficit. If you do this, your body just burns those carbs for energy! To force those carbs (glycogen) into the muscle, you must be in a calorie surplus. I’ll be eating at least 1,000 calories over maintenance to ensure those carbs go exactly where they need to. Over these two days, I won't lose fat, but I won't gain any either.

The Thinner Skin Effect: It’s a crazy science. Every one part of glycogen brings three parts of water into the muscle. By staying properly hydrated and keeping my electrolytes (sodium, potassium) balanced, that glycogen will literally pull the water out from under my skin and into the muscle tissue. This is what gives you that full, dry, "paper-thin skin" look on stage. You can't cut your water and sodium, or this process just won't work!

Show Logistics & The Cost of Competing

I've decided to book a hotel right near the venue for Friday night. My first tan is at 6:00 AM on Saturday, so staying close saves me from a super early morning commute and gives me a comfortable home base to relax and prep my meals on show day.

Speaking of the hotel, I wanted to touch on the reality of what a show like this costs. Between the $150 membership, $150 per category (and I might do up to four!), a $150 tan, my wife's tickets, and the hotel... we are easily looking at over $1,000+ just to step on stage, not including food or media packages. We don't get paid for this; we pay to be the entertainment! But to me, it's worth every penny. It's a journey. I love pushing this old body to the limit. I feel like I've been given a second chance at life, and I'm not going to waste it sitting on the couch eating potato chips.

A Quick Halloween Mishap...

Finally, I have to share a quick story. I was at a Halloween murder mystery party this weekend. I was playing the murder victim, and when the lights went out, I was supposed to drop to the floor and play dead.

Well, in the pitch black, I went down and smashed the side of my head directly into a solid metal table. I cut my ear up pretty good and bruised my jaw so badly it was hard to chew my food for a couple of days! Thankfully, I didn't hit my temple or my face. Given that I'm on blood thinners, a facial bruise could have been a disaster for the stage. I was completely sober, just a victim of committing a little too hard to my acting role in the dark!

Could have been worse, but we survived, and we are ready to go.

Thanks for following along on this journey, everyone. Make sure to subscribe, and I'll be posting more videos and updates as the week unfolds, straight through to show day.

Time to go hit a quick pose—see you in the next one!

Road to the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic - 1 Week Out Update & Physique Check

We are officially one week out from the 2026 Vancouver Fall Classic. It’s Saturday today, which means by next Saturday, it’s showtime. Honestly, this is probably the most exciting phase of the entire prep for me. All the months of hard training, dieting, and discipline are coming together. At this stage, if you’re just starting to look ready, it’s too late, you should already be right where you need to be or very close to it. Luckily, I’m feeling right on track.

Here’s a breakdown of where things stand with nutrition, energy levels, training, and the final peak week strategy.

Dialing in the Final Numbers: Calories & Energy

Over the past week, progress has been really steady. Everything has been coming off evenly without having to pull any desperate, crazy moves.

• The Deficit: Right now, I’m sitting around 2,000 calories a day while burning close to 3,500 calories, leaving me in about a 1,500-calorie deficit.

• Energy & Strength: Even with that deficit, I feel great. Energy levels are solid, and gym performance has surprisingly stayed strong. That’s always a good sign that muscle retention has been right where I want it.

• Adjustments Ahead: For the first couple of days this week, I might pull calories down closer to 1,500 just to burn off the very last layer of fat, keep protein high, and get in plenty of walking.

The Carb-Load Mind Game

The reason behind that slight drop early in the week is the upcoming carb load. A couple of days before taking the stage, calories and carbs will ramp up significantly.

This is where a lot of competitors mess up mentally. You start taking in all those extra calories and carbs, and your brain tells you: “You’re going to get fat and ruin all your hard work.”

In reality, you aren't storing body fat in those 48 hours. You are simply filling up depleted glycogen stores inside the muscle belly to look full, round, and dry on stage. Any true fat gain wouldn’t even show up until days after the contest. It’s a classic mind game, but you just have to trust the process and stick to the plan.

The Scale & Body Scan Reality Check

Weight & Body Fat Metrics: The scale has remained steady at around 186 lbs, but my latest body scan showed body fat ticking up slightly (form 5% to 5.6%). Analytically, that doesn’t make sense given the conditioning and visible fat loss. What’s really going on comes down to how impedance scanners read body composition: because calories and carbs are so low, my muscles are flat, dry, and holding significantly less water. When intracellular hydration drops, these machines often misinterpret the lower water volume as higher body fat, skewing the numbers artificially higher than reality. Visually and physically, everything is right on track.

Peak Week Routine: Focus on Recovery & Blood Flow

Peak week isn't the time to chase heavy PRs or risk injury. My focus for the remaining workouts is simple:

1. Low Risk, High Blood Flow: Light pump work to keep muscles activated without generating deep tissue fatigue or soreness.

2. Step Count: Steady daily walking to keep energy expenditure high without beating up the joints.

3. Posing Practice: Holding mandatory poses, dialing in transitions, and locking in stage presence.

Posing Routine & The "Anabolic Lighting" Comparison

For this update, I brought back the posing trunks and ran through both classic mandatory poses and physique-style quarter turns:

• Physique & Flow: Direct front stance, side twist variations, and transitions.

• Classic Mandatories: Front Double Bicep, Side Chest (locking in the hamstring), Rear Double Bicep, Side Tricep, Favorite Classic pose, and Abdominals & Thighs.

To give an honest look, I compared the lighting setups. We started in standard, conservative lighting so you have a true, baseline reference point without dramatic shadows. Towards the end, I headed into the gym room under that dramatic overhead “anabolic lighting” just like last year’s prep. The contours and conditioning really pop in there, and overall, I’m liking how everything is coming in.

Final Stretch

We’re down to the wire. I’m right where I want to be, feeling confident, and ready to close this out. I might drop a quick midweek update if time allows, but otherwise, the next big update will be show day!

Make sure to leave a comment, like, and share the video/post if you're following the journey, it really helps out the channel. Let me know what you think of the conditioning so far, and I’ll catch you in the next one!

The Momentum Shift - How to Break the Fitness Rut and Take Control After 40

If you are currently feeling stuck, struggling with low energy, carrying unwanted weight, and frustrated every time you look in the mirror, you are far from alone. Most people know when their lifestyle isn’t serving them anymore. They know the habits they’ve fallen into aren't supporting their health, longevity, or how they want to feel day to day.

Yet, knowing you need to change and actually getting moving are two entirely different things.

The biggest hurdle isn’t a lack of desire or discipline; it’s an issue of inertia.

The 0-to-60 Car Analogy

Think about your health and fitness journey like driving a car.

If your vehicle is sitting at a complete dead stop, getting it from zero up to 60 miles an hour requires the absolute most effort from the engine. You have to step hard on the gas, burn through fuel, and push through initial resistance just to get the wheels rolling.

[ DEAD STOP ] ──(Max Fuel & Effort)──► [ ACCELERATING ] ──► [ CRUISING AT 60 MPH ]
  Stuck / Inertia                       Hardest Phase         Minimal Effort / Cruise Control

Once that car reaches cruising speed, however, everything changes. You back off the throttle, the engine hums along smoothly, and staying at 60 mph takes barely any effort at all.

Right now, if you are stuck in a fitness rut, you are sitting in park. Breaking that inertia is going to demand energy and focus upfront, but once you build momentum, maintaining that lifestyle becomes significantly easier.

Here is the exact three-step framework to get your wheels turning and build lasting health momentum.

1. Make the Honest Decision

Before buying a gym membership or cleaning out the pantry, you must confront an uncomfortable truth: your current body and energy levels are the direct result of your current daily choices.

The routines, comforts, and conveniences you’ve settled into created the reality you’re living in today. You cannot expect a new outcome by repeating the exact same patterns.

Breaking negative momentum requires an honest decision to trade short-term comfort for long-term vitality. You have to decide, without reservations, that you are ready to do things differently.

2. Pick One Lane First (Diet vs. Exercise)

Where most people derail is trying to change everything at once. They decide that "next Monday" is the day they will completely clean up their diet, eliminate sugar, drink a gallon of water, and hit the gym five days a week.

By Thursday, the cognitive overload kicks in, fatigue sets in, and they abandon the whole plan.

Instead of overhauling your entire life overnight, pick one lane first:

• Lane A: Nutrition. Focus entirely on what you consume. Dial in your protein, manage portion sizes, or eliminate liquid calories.

• Lane B: Fitness. Focus entirely on movement. Commit to getting to the gym three times a week or hitting a daily step goal.

Ask yourself: Which of these two feels like the lower barrier to entry right now? Choose the one you feel most confident tackling first, and give it your full focus until it feels like second nature.

3. Stack Your Wins

Once your first habit is locked in, something crucial happens: you create positive momentum.

You start noticing small victories, your clothes fit a bit looser, your morning brain fog clears up, and you regain a sense of accomplishment. That newly built energy completely changes the equation when it's time to tackle the second half of the puzzle.

Transitioning into workouts is dramatically easier when you’ve already fixed your nutrition and feel lighter and more energetic. Likewise, cleaning up your diet feels intuitive once you’re regularly training and don't want to waste your hard work in the gym.

You are no longer pushing a stalled vehicle; you’re steering one that is already moving forward.

Ready to Put the Entire Blueprint Together?

Building that initial momentum is step one, but knowing exactly how to bridge the gap—balancing effective resistance training, sustainable nutrition, recovery, and lifestyle after 40—is where most people lose traction.

That is why I built the Get Fit Now training course.

It eliminates the guesswork, providing a practical, step-by-step roadmap designed specifically to help you build lean muscle, strip off stubborn fat, and sustain peak energy for the long haul.

👉 Start my FREE Get Fit Now Training Course Today and let’s keep that momentum moving in the right direction.