Competing.. NO RUSH TO DO IT AGAIN.

Competing.. Challenging to say the least.

Hours at gym training and on the treadmill alone.
Depleted diet, tired and grumpy. This is for months.

Sounds terrible, well for the majority of my competition preparation it was a challenging experience.

This was more so a personal challenge for me. Sure everyone likes and wants to win however this wasn't my goal.
From being extremely overweight and unhealthy throughout my school years I would never have imagined I'd be on stage in a condition like that.

Once I started training and changed my lifestyle this became my goal / dream. To one day be that "shredded" guy up on stage.

Knowing it would be challenging and I'd have to push myself to new lengths I decided to aim for this.

Gradually the diet grew harder and stricter, cardio increased and with this my energy decreased, my mood decreased.

Sure it was great being in such a lean state but it took its toll on myself and the people around me. Physically and psychologically.

Your constantly challenging yourself and judging yourself. We see picture of these "athletes" and expect we can look that way, yet the photo is most likely heavily edited creating unrealistic goals and ambitions.
I know when I was this lean I still though I wasn't lean enough! Looking back now I think I was crazy! But that's the effects!

This is definitely a way of life and sometimes you need to take other priorities into account.

So will I compete again?
Honestly I do not know.. I do know I'm in no rush too though..

I love challenging myself, however the onflow effects were there too, which definitely aren't taken into account enough.

Maybe one day but for now I'm happy training and eating "health", not a depleted diet.