Three Weeks Out: The Hardest Part Yet

Three weeks out.

This is the part of prep where everything feels heavy - not just the weights, but the days themselves. I’m currently at 69kg, 12% body fat, and running on 1,000 calories a day.

45 minutes of cardio and 12000 steps daily, still lifting like my life depends on it. But the fatigue is starting to hit hard.

Periods have stopped, which I knew might happen, but it’s still strange - a reminder that my body is in full survival mode. Every movement takes more effort than it should. Leg day feels like climbing a mountain on no sleep, and I’ve started napping in the afternoons when I can, just to get through the day. It’s not laziness; it’s my body begging for recovery.

Food is simple now. Functional. Tempeh and spinach. There’s no luxury in the food, it’s just fuel to keep the machine going. I catch myself daydreaming about food I used to take for granted. But that’s prep. You give up comfort for the chance to step on stage knowing you left nothing behind.

People will see the final look under the lights - the tan, the smile, the stage confidence - but this is what it takes behind the scenes and why I wanted to write this series of blog posts for my last few weeks on prep. The quiet grind. The exhaustion. It’s all real, definitely not the pretty side of bodybuilding but it’s real.

There are moments when I question why I’m doing this, and then remind myself that I chose it because I wanted to see what my body is capable of.

I have high days and low days but overall the feeling is positive, not long to go now 🩵