I recently lifted at the Arnold XPC Finals. This was my first meet at 220 since 2010 where I managed a 955 squat, 675 bench and 675 deadlift for a 2305 total and lightweight best lifter win. Taking some time to get leaner, look better and accomplish a few other physical goals. 

Chelsea and I took a vacation last week down to St. Pete Beach, Florida. In 2015, we had our wedding just south of St. Pete on Passe Grille Beach. The resort we stayed at in 2015 was having some great deals on room rates, so we decided to head back and spend some down there.

St. Pete was awesome. During our wedding, we didn’t spend a ton of time just exploring, this trip was perfect to relax and see the area some. Spent most of the time just hanging out on the beach and wandering in the town.

We did take a long bike ride down to Passe Grille, right back to the spot where we got married at. That area is so cool, super quiet and historic. Crazy real estate too. Someday when we go back I’d love to spend a couple nights at one of the small hotels there.

On a side note, we had super easy travel to and from Florida as well. With an early flight out of Detroit, we stayed near the airport and used a park, sleep, fly deal. It really couldn’t have been any easier. Detroit was a lot more fun than I expected too, spent the evening exploring downtown and had a great dinner at a place called Rustic Crow near Ford Field. A lot of potential in that city for sure.

Training

The hotel did have a nice little fitness center. Did 3 quick workouts while I was there in the mornings. Had to keep it real simple due to limited equipment but it worked.

We also ran twice, sticking to the 5k training. Between that and all the walking my activity level was actually very high.

Nutrition

Day 1-3 I actually did pretty good. Obviously wasn’t weighing out food and such, but stuck to white meats, nothing fried and lots of veggies.

Day 4 got a little worse with some pizza and ice cream, but hey it is vacation!

Day 5 was the worst. My dinner, half of Chelsea’s, a basket of garlic bread, ice cream, you get it. Topped off with several Clif bars.

As expected, my bodyweight was up 5-6 pounds when I got back. But after just one day of eating right and training in my usual gym I was back down 3. Sure, I was bloated when I got back but it doesn’t matter. I needed a break from the diet. Now in the future, I need to do a better job of controlling the gluttony but overall no real damage done!

Great trip, very relaxing and just what we needed.