Bodybuilding and traveling while living in Japan (GetFitJP)

I do bodybuilding in Japan and I also do group and personal training, so my physique is a huge part of my life and my business. Let's face it, no one wants to be coached by someone with a horrible physique. That being said I try to stay lean all year, that way I don't have to cut too drastically for a show and I can also be a source of motivation for my clients. However like everyone else, I love food. I love to eat burgers, porridge, bread and sweats. But with my lifestyle I can't indulge in these things as frequently as other people so hence the cheat day. For those of you that don't know cheat days are days where people who diet can take a break from their diet and eat what they like. It's a day where you don't have to think about your calories, you can just sit back and enjoy. I live in Sendai and there aren't that many foreign restaurants here so I try to schedule my cheat days when I'm in Tokyo. So here are my top places to have my cheat meals ...

My first contest prep as very interesting. I had no idea how to pose and or how important practicing posing was. I also had no idea what and when to eat. I went into my prep completely blind but luckily I had time and help from my friends at Golds Gym and a nutritionist I know. I started my prep February of 2017 and my contest was August of that same year. That gave me 7 months to get from 96kgs down to 82kgs which was the weight i went into last year's contest at. That's a 14 kg weight difference. The first place I looked for help was from the more professional bodybuilders at gym. I first tried to cut and paste their diets into my life but as a soon found out, that was a huge mistake. Take for example two brothers that attend my gym, they are both bodybuilders and both poses spectacular bodies. You'd think them being brothers that would mean that their diets would be the same but it's not. The older brother can eat carbs but is weak to fats and the younger brother...

              ↑ ホワイトソースの材料 ... 豆腐   一丁 おからパウダー   大さじ 1 ハーフカロリーマヨネーズ   大さじ 1 塩麹   少々 黒胡椒   少々 具材の材料 ... 鶏肉  (  塩麹にんにく生姜に漬けといた物 ) 150 ｇ ニンニクの芽  2 本 玉ねぎ   半分 アスパラガス  2 本 ぶなしめじ   半分 ココナッツオイル  ( 調理用 )  小さじ 1 コンソメ   小さじ 1 鶏がら   小さじ  1 トッピング ... パプリカ   赤、黄色   少々 ブロッコリー少々 90% カロリーカット   とろけるチーズ  2 枚 オリーブオイル小さじ 1 ( より脂質をカットしたい方は油なしでも大丈夫です。 ) 作り方 .... ホワイトソース ... 1 、豆腐をレンジでチンして水気を切っておく。 2 、豆腐、マヨネーズ、おからパウダー、調味料をミキサーにかける。 ( ザルなどなめらかになれば OK)   具材 ... ( 野菜はお好みの大きさに切っておく。 ) 1  、鶏肉以外を強火で炒める。 2 、野菜に火が通ったら肉を入れて火が通るまで炒める。 3 、お皿に具材を入れてその上にホワイトソースをかける。 4 、トッピングをしてオーブンでチーズに焦げ目がつくまで焼く。 ( オリーブオイルは焼く寸前に上からかけてから焼く。 ) 完成！   見た目が豪華なのでパーティーなどにも使えます。具材は冷蔵庫にあるもので大丈夫です！ぜひ試してみてください ;) White sauce  ... Bean curd (Okura) 1 tablespoon of Okara powder Half calorie m...

All diets share one common thing and that is they all want you to eat less. Losing weight is simple, calories in should be less than calories out. To put that into perspective. If someone has a fitbit or any calorie checking device and they burn on average 2,500 calories per day. Then that means to lose weight they should be eating at least 1,800-2,000 calories per day. Assuming that their basal metabolic rate is less than 1,800. Your basal metabolic rate is the energy your body needs to function in a resting state. Is is the equivalent of figuring out how much gas a car consumes while parked and idle. Once you figure that out then you can start figuring out how many calories you can consume daily while sticking to a calorie deficit. In my case I burn on average 4,0004,500 calories per day and my BMR is 1,800 calories per day. So from that I know that I need to consume more calories than my BMR and less calories than my daily average in order to lose weight. You also have to take you...

Looking back one of the biggest mistakes I think I made in last years prep was in my diet. I didn't quite understand just how important meal timing and proportions were to my physique. Your diet plays a major role in getting your body from where it is now to where you'd like it to be. You could spend hours in the gym however if your diet isn't complementing your efforts in the gym then honestly you're just wasting your time and I wasted a lot if time. In my opinion if you aren't blessed with a body that allows you to eat whatever you want and still maintain a good fat to muscle ratio then you need to be looking at your diet. It just makes sense, why spend hours in the gym agonizing and suffering through your workout just to go home and ruin your progress with bad dieting? It's as if you're walking up on a treadmill that's going in the opposite direction. And for many people that treadmill is moving very fast. I think the reason many people ignore t...

I competed in the 2018 Higashi Nihon bodybuilding contest in Tokyo, Shinagawa last week August 25. Preparing for the contest was extremely difficult because it was my first contest away from my home city Sendai. I stayed in Tokyo for a week before the contest so I could do posing classes with a coach. It was also my birthday week so I decided it just made sense to spend the week in Tokyo exploring a little in my down time. While in Tokyo I stayed at two locations, one was at a friends place in Chitose Funabashi and the other was at a really nice hotel in Shinbashi, a 2 min walk from Ginza and another 5 mins walk from Tokyo station. I think the hardest thing for me was my meals and making sure I ate at the right times throughout the days. Tokyo is a very busy city and it's easy to get caught up in the fast pace of the city, so at times I didn't even feel hungry but I knew I had to eat. Thankfully in Japan healthy food is never too far away. I mostly relied on convenience sto...