2 weeks ago I went to a 2hr seminar that was hosted by Stephen Graham (<=2008 Gallery).

Stephen placed 3rd at the recent 2009 IFBB UK British Championships.

He went through his training and nutrition & supplement strategies. Many other things were discussed like pre-contest diet prep, which I found very interesting.

He felt this year his training has been the best ever; both with muscle gains, strength gains and also training focus. Especially during the diet prep phase which is a notoriously edgy time for BBers due to the extremes of the diet. He was told by a few people at the show, including the judges, that he had the best overall conditioning out of all the weight classes.

One of the main differences this year has been his understanding of the acid-alkaline balance and how he has, and continues, to be more alkaline. Well, imo it's a case of massively increasing his alkaline nutrient intake to buffer the acidity he causes with his food/"supp" choices.

- He drinks at least 3 litres of greens a day (and another 3 litres of water is consumed with his powders etc).
- He always uses filtered water (basic, but gets rid of some bad things like chlorine).
- He adds 1/4 tsp of him salts to every litre of water (greens and other liquid intake).
- Takes a lot more good oils (100ml/g a day) such as olive oil, walnut oil, almonds etc (doesn't like hemp oil taste though lol).

There were a few other things that he says has helped a lot namely SST's advanced Muscle Synthesis (MS) & Muscle Recovery (MR). I've used these and found them very good indeed. A unique ratio of aminos unlike any other product. I personally don't use these any more as personally I am trying not to consume too much overly acidic protein-like powders (sticking to plant proteins).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this info about Stephen to show that whilst he is obviously not living an alkaline lifestyle, his massively increased alkaline nutritional intake has greatly helped all aspects of his training. I can't quite remember his age but I think he said he was 39. He's in some shape! He's a real nice fella too.

http://www.ttfatloss.com/transformation ... efinition/

The post above has some info that was almost identical to what Stephen talked about with regards to a week out from a competition / photo shoot etc. That is about how to consume water to get the most out of your muscles.

Basically, a week out from the shoot etc consume ~8 litres of water. Then a day before the shoot cut back to what you were drinking before the ~8 litres. So probably 3 litres.

Erik Ledin doesn't seem to like sodium in water, but Stephen would always put 1/4 teaspoon of him salts into each litre. Indeed I would recommend the same. And still do this on comp day; very important imo so you don't get cramps.

good post Scott. And see what you are saying and agree - you can get the benefits without changing everything to the extent to which its a complete new way of nutrition.

Seems to make sense to me to add some salts... fluid is 'held' in the body by balancing osmotic forces, and it's primarily sodium that regulates this. The more water you consume without salts the faster you disrupt your mineral & fluid balance.

^^ indeed.

I would never say for someone to add pure sodium to water/diet, but a natural salt (himalayan / celtic sea) is different and is beneficial imo. Some maybe Erik just doesn't know about the benefits of such salt.

I have been splitting my oils between Hemp and Olive

Whats everyone else using?

Cut down a bit on Hemp and increased Avocado. Mainly due to not wanting to get so much polys in me. But that is just a month I've been doing it. I'll probably change again lol

Still getting the Coconut Oil in me. Love that stuff.

Coconut, hemp and avocado mainly. Some good olive oil as well. I've cut fish oil down to 8g/day.

Added fresh avocados and reduced the hemp slightly, coconut has been staple for about three years and ain't changing. Also increased cold pressed olive oil a little.

Also taking less fish oil supps, but eating more oily fish - have a large portion every other day.

We're all doing similar it seems

thats my concern on the hemp - i do krill and olive - not done alot of CO but may look at avacado - where is everyone getting theres from?

Am not using the oil yet, still buying fresh ones from tescos - often on sale at the moment and I think I'm the only person buying them!

What I'm actually doing is alternating, one day I eat a large portion of oily fish (usually mackerel), and then the next day as my 'fat meal' use an avocado.

As an average, a good sized avocado gives around 25g of MUFA.

Dtlv74 wrote:Am not using the oil yet, still buying fresh ones from tescos - often on sale at the moment and I think I'm the only person buying them!

What I'm actually doing is alternating, one day I eat a large portion of oily fish (usually mackerel), and then the next day as my 'fat meal' use an avocado.

As an average, a good sized avocado gives around 25g of MUFA.

Does that kind of routine actually work in terms of sticking to it? I just dont have the patience for that kind of complication and dont even attempt it as i know its not realistic for me

I bought a bottle of avocado oil, but mostly just use olive oil, walnut oil (every day on my chicken and rice to flavour instead of shitty sauces now). fish oil caps every day and a couple of portions of mackerel every week. Thats the staple basics. anything else is a bonus.

I do have coconut oil but i only use a very small amount each week while cooking so its hardly worth counting, and its very expensive so i wount be going through a bottle per week opr every other week like i do olive/walnut.

Need to start using Coconut Oil again for eggs instead of Olive Oil. Fish Oil are pretty low for me at the moment and most of my fat is coming from Olive Oil. I used Avocado Oil daily as Tesco never have Avocados on sale or ones that are ripe. Use a little bit of Hemp Oil if i don't have Hemp portein to hand but thats pre bed.

Rab wrote:

Dtlv74 wrote:Am not using the oil yet, still buying fresh ones from tescos - often on sale at the moment and I think I'm the only person buying them!

What I'm actually doing is alternating, one day I eat a large portion of oily fish (usually mackerel), and then the next day as my 'fat meal' use an avocado.

As an average, a good sized avocado gives around 25g of MUFA.

Does that kind of routine actually work in terms of sticking to it? I just dont have the patience for that kind of complication and dont even attempt it as i know its not realistic for me

It's not a 'fixed in stone' daily change around, sometimes two or three days doing one thing then swapping over. To be honest It's easy for me as it gives variety... the best way for me. Lack of variety and I get bored and end up eating badly, keep it varied a bit and it's much easier. Low boredom threshold for diet (and training) me!

Aye see what you mean. I need routine though. I thrive on it and i have recently figured out that i get on better by just stickign to a set plan in terms of diet. the only variables in it really is my meals on a saturday and what i sit down to 4 nights per week for a "normal" dinner with the dragon....traditional dinners..like the chicken, new pot's and sprouts with pepercorn sauce last night. Pasta tonight maybe.

I didn't mention Fish Oil as I thought that's a standard thing to take. Prob on 6-10g a day. Take 2 Krill a day also.

Avocado Oil from Sainsbury's as they are the only supermarket now (in Belfast anyway) to sell Olivado cold-pressed stuff.

To reiterate, I never use any oil for cooking except coconut oil. All other oils do get "ruined"; now they may not change to hydrogenated, but they beneficial properties are destroyed. I do occasionally combine coconut oil with avocado for oven cooking fish.

I also take 2-3 dessertspoonfuls of oil after each meal. I have one meal a day that I take just coconut oil with (then take my vit d with that meal). All other meals I'll have Olive Oil plus hemp or avocado. Prob taking 100ml oil a day I reckon. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I don't measure that accurately.

Whats your take on Eggs as a fat source? I guess they fall into acidity for you for a daily basis but there's so much conflicting advice pn whole eggs vs egg whites only.

If you eat eggs then eat whole organic eggs.

I have always had an issue with eating eggs; they affect me an hour or so later. This was confirmed 100% last week when I had a 3 egg omelet (5-6 weeks since eating any eggs) and the resulting digestive issues with flatulence wasn't good. This as I say is not a new thing at all, but even more noticeable when I consume few foods (mainly animal protein) that has that effect. It's a shame as there's some good stuff in eggs, but I can get it elsewhere.

health4ni wrote:If you eat eggs then eat whole organic eggs.

I have always had an issue with eating eggs; they affect me an hour or so later. This was confirmed 100% last week when I had a 3 egg omelet (5-6 weeks since eating any eggs) and the resulting digestive issues with flatulence wasn't good. This as I say is not a new thing at all, but even more noticeable when I consume few foods (mainly animal protein) that has that effect. It's a shame as there's some good stuff in eggs, but I can get it elsewhere.

Id say you should go with local free range eggs first if you can

For those that aint living inner city you usually have a farm shop etc somewhere that does good free range egs for a fair price - far cheaper and i find of very good quality (much better than super market free range which imo must be of the minimum standard of "free range") than organic eggs which are just too expensive.... well its a small expense individually but add up all these small extra costs and you are talking serious green each month.

I pay between £1 - £1.30 for good eggs from local farms.

agree rab - as allowing them to run free makes them so much better.

jokeee!!!

organic have to be free range

health4ni wrote:organic have to be free range

organic smorganic its all a con ?

limited benefits more than likely ?

Some organic produce can be a con. But the hassle required to be classed organic would likely result in better standards and production of the product.

I do feel that organic animal produce can be a bit odd since you can feed chickens on organic feed only (even thought hey'll get some foraged food during their free range roamingness) and that is classed organic! And yet you can get "proper" free range with minimal feed and the chickens just getting outdoor food.

BUT free range chickens are often just as stressed as battery hens... ... this is due to the "pecking order" that chicken enforce and so many lower ranked chickens produce very poor quality eggs.

It's a minefield

With regards to

Cottage Cheese is another that really needs to be an Organic choice.

Alex wrote:Cottage Cheese is another that really needs to be an Organic choice.

why so?

i'm not sure i've ever seen organic cottage cheese... where do you get yours from?