I've been working with Steven Wade at Beverly and he provided me a final week strategy that is very typical. However, there are a couple things I've seen that are different on contest day (Saturday) and wanted some thoughts.

Here's what was prescribed for me:
Saturday:
6 oz. Steak and 3 Eggs for breakfast – salt to taste, 1 Grapefruit any other meals prior to prejugding (up to 2 more) 6oz 93% beef, ½ grapefruit Water – sip as needed Potassium – 3 – 99 mg tabs per hour up to contest Each meal between prejudging and evening contest: 4 oz. Steak or ground beef, 4 oz sweet potato About 30-45 minutes prior to going on stage, have a large snickers bar Good Luck!

Questions:
1. I notice many people do the pancakes, butter, syrup breakfast versus the steak and eggs. What are the purposes/advantages to either strategy?

2. My pre-judging is EARLY (9am), so does either strategy work well for being close to the pre-judging? In either case, what time should I plan breakfast, assuming pre-judging starts at 9am, and I'm in the Novice Lightweight class?

3. I am planning on using Muscle Goo versus the snickers bar (I think). I could've sworn I saw somewhere on these boards that some take muscle goo every 30 minutes between pre-judging and the night show. Is that right? If so, I assume that would be in place of other meals. I was going to stick to the sweet potato and beef meal or two as he suggested, unless you have some ideas to consider.

Thanks in advance!

Let me try to answer your questions.

1. Competitors are given different breakfast plans according to body-types, where they may be at contest time, along with what they've had in their final 3 weeks of dieting. I was with 5 different people after the weigh-in and our Bev consultant only had two of us on the pancake breakfast. The others had beef/grapefruit.

2. Most prejudging is women first. However, your breakfast should be about 7 AM.

3. I don't want to question your diet, but if you follow the beef/sweet-tater, I think you'll come in looking full and better at the night show. The goo would be too much for you every 30 min until night. I think that reference is every 20 to 30 minutes until you go on stage, or at least that's what it should be.

If you'll notice the post I made on the Goo in the General Discussion, you'll see there are two different types I used.

Overall, I think you should have at least one meal of beef/sweet-tater.

Also note that you don't want to go hog-wild from AM to PM. Should you win your novice division, you have a chance to go for overall.

Best wishes!!
Frank

Frank brings up an important point which I'd like to emphasize, if I may. Don't deviate from your plan. Especially between the pre-judging and the night show.
First Master's over 40 show I ever competed in, a bunch of the guys went to a Chinese restaurant after the pre-judging and tried to persuade me to go with them. I became very suspicious of this and felt like they were trying to sabatoge my conditioning. (hey, I'm from the Bronx ) When they came back for the night show, the guy who eventually won the 50 and over, lost all his definition and was sporting a noticeably distended stomach. Earlier, during the pre-judging he was peeled and rock hard. VERY impressive looking. I stayed with my plan and consumed very lean steak with a little sweet potato between A.M and P.M.
During the Master's overall posedown, I won out in the end.
Moral of the story?.... Don't be tempted into celebrating too soon. You'll have all the time in the world for that..... AFTER the show.

Aram

Thanks Frank and Aram. Good timing on your posts as I was just trying to plan my day tomorrow.

I definitely WILL NOT be celebrating between AM and PM. I'm too paranoid to take a chance like that. I'll stick to my plan as prescribed.

Thanks for your advice!