Nutrition

6. Changes in your physique will evolve not so much from your diet as from your training. What you do in the gym determines the quality of your separation, hardness and detail.

7. Trust the mirror, not your diet chart. I look in the mirror after I'm done training, not after I'm done eating.

8. 14 weeks out from the show, I start cleaning up my diet, cutting out soft drinks, junk food, ketchup, steak sauce and seasonings.

9. 12 weeks out, I go from five meals a day to six or seven smaller meals. I also shift my training schedule from four–on/one–off to three–on/one off, two workouts a day. Cardio is also increased to twice a day, 30 min. each session.

10. 6–8 weeks out, my instincts are still telling me how to eat, but I am scaling back on complex carbs and red meat, still not writing down anything.

11. The final week is divided into two parts. Monday through Wednesday, I cut back further on carbs and increase my protein. Thursday through Saturday, I load up on carbs and decrease protein.

12. When all is said and done, the principle of Instinctive Dieting is that there are no dramatic changes at any point along the way to shock the body and derail it from its steady improvement. Never did I try to coerce my body to comply with my wishes by force-feeding it; instead, I listened, as it told me what it needed to be its best. That made me my best. FLEX.