Having missed every single summer and fall food festival last year due to my 7 month deployment with the USS Essex, I am that much more keen on seeking out these festivals this time around.
I recently had to pass on the Taste of Little Italy this past week, then this weekends Oyster Fest also got bypassed. Work, sports coaching duties, my own contest prep and life itself just did not align well for me to attend.
Coming up right around the corner however are several more culinary festivals of epic proportions. Here is a small list of the ones I know of now......(dates I am attending)
- SD County Fair (6/18)
- Taste of Adam Ave (not attending)
- The Great American Foodie Fest (7/10)
- Latin Food Festival (8/13)
These 3 events I plan to attend specifically so that I can feature them as future blog posts with plenty of amazing pictures and possibly........event video! I have just invested in a GoPro4 Session of which I plan to use quite often for such events those listed above to truly capture more of the live essence these festivals tend to emit.
The hardest part of these festivals is that I (5 weeks down) continue into my contest prep training and dieting for my August 20th Men's Physique contest and the photo shoot taking place the day after that. That said, I will be staying the course now through then without deviation. Once I make the call to do these contests (this is my 5th) I simply flip the switch and make the call to go all in and nail it 100% commitment or don't ever bother with it at all.
So some may ask why even bother going to these events if your not even going to try any of it? Fair question. I am sure there will be some items I can try and sample out, certainly not all of them but as with any food festival I have ever been to in my 3 years in San Diego, there is always something that can fit into any diet. I will not let my passion for unique foods, culinary history, festivals, friends and summers in San Diego take a 3 month back seat to my simple choice, my own decision to step on stage for 1 day (2 if you count the shoot the day after).
My outcome to possibly win my class (men's physique tall class) is a goal in the fitness world I have had for a long time and it means allot to me. The outcome I have, the goal I have set right now means far more to me then blowing it all at a few half day food festivals so that is where my priority sits.....at least until after the show and shoot dates come to pass. And that is the big picture aspect right there. This is not a lifetime restriction law for me, its 12 short weeks of my life after which I can then return to a more normal (normal for a fitness professional) diet with more flexibility allowed.
The nice part about men's physique division is that it is all based on height, not weight, so I have no weight class to make. I simply need to make sure I look the part of what the NPC criteria lists for the division scoring. My weight historically changes about 9-10lbs during a prep period of 12 weeks in length and that's just by simple adaptation to training and diet, not by intention. The single biggest changes I make in diet when I prep for a show is to eat a little less over time, than when I normally do in the non competition season. I control what it is I eat more closely and when I eat it. So meal timing and food sources become the more locked in factor while total amount eaten is still fairly high. I eat about 4200 calories on training days in off-season and right now about 3800 calories on training days at 5 weeks into prep. I drop out my weekly cheat meal I had been doing in the off-season and I add in just a hair more cardio in the form of sprint work on the track or the spin bike. Once ever 3rd day for 30 minutes does the trick for me. Too much more and I find that my recovery suffers.
OK well this has gone long enough for now, that's what I have for you all for now. Look for more to come soon regarding the events listed above. If you too are attending any of them let me know! I would love to say hello and see how your experiences go as well!
