IT'S OVER!!! YEAH BUDDY!!!!

MY GOD!! WOOHOO! The worst and hardest 4 months of my life are over. Last thursday marked the end of my extreme cutting peroid, with a happy ending i might add. Let's get to it people, here's exactly what happened :)

Thursday morning... 7:00 am

I woke up unintentionally, took a look at my watch and started cussing out everything in sight. I was supposed to wake up at 11 am but my body got used to waking up really early. I tried to go back to sleep but gave up at around 8:30 and got out of bed. I looked at my desk where a 300 ml bottle of water was sitting. that was all the water i could drink til i got on stage. Breakfast was something to look forward to. 8 egg whites, and two big pancakes drenched in maple syrup (no chocolate chips, aziz). since i couldn't drink any water, i undercooked the eggs to make them a bit runny, and had fun with the syrup.

11:30 AM

I weighed myself at 75.3 KG. I had to get rid of atleast 300 grams of water before i head out to the arena. Yes, this might sound stupid, but it's one of the ways to get rid of water, fast! i put on a heavy jacket, wore sweat pants and thick socks, and went outside to sit under the sun and sweat. it took about 15 minutes to get the first drop of sweat rolling down, that's how dry i was. An hour later (at around 1:30 pm) i weighed in again.... 75.1 KG. still, i had 100 grams to go. So, i used the best technique to drop that weight. THE HOME SAUNA! i just got in the shower, turned on the hot water, and waited for the steam. 2 PM, i weighed in at 74.8 KG, packed my stuff (dried fruits, snickers, coffee, some clean clothes, a towel, and my secret weapon... hot stuff) and i waited for my buddy faisal to come pick me up and get my gatoraid.

2:30 PM

we hit the road. i was munching on the dried fruits all the way to the arena. My throat was so dry it just hurt. I saw my coach (he's not my trainer or anything, he's just the coach of the ittifag team and i had to sign up with them to enter) and he rushed me in to see how much i weighed on the official scale..... 75.0 KG HELL YEAH!! exactly on the mark. He still wanted me to lose more weight to make sure i made it in my weight category. The moment i started to feel the need to "go" i giggled with joy and rushed to bathroom. you can smell the diuretics from a mile away. i swear, the guy that was in the toilet next to me sounded like a firehose going full throttle. Those guys lose 2-3 KG 1 hour before the weigh in. DAMN!! anyway, faisal and i just waited for the other guys to tag along. we were filming... well... just wasting film on nothing. Then the guys came along with all the cameras and what not.

4:00 PM (the official weigh in)

74.7 KG!!!!!!!!!! i guess that piss had some density in it :)
I was officially in the 75 KG class. Time for snickers and coffee. I was still as thirsty as hell. Ofcourse, i kept sipping on water whenever the thirst was unbareable. especially after a couple of cigarettes, it gets pretty hard to breathe.

5:25 PM

WHAT THE F*** !!!??? the show was supposed to start an hour ago and it still didn't start!? there were no 60 KG competitors, so the 65 KG went right ahead. I wanted to start pumping up when the 65'ers left for the stage, but one of the guys who were in my weight class told me that there was plenty of time to pump up later, after the 70 KG. He was a really nice guy, one of the few people who actually looked a bit educated.

5:45 PM

Prayer time!!! welcome to saudi. even bodybuilding contests have to stop. I was as thirsty as hell and i was starting to get tired and frustrated. DAMN THEM ALL!! DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!!! I WANNA GO TO BURGER KING!!!

6:25 PM

The 70 KG class went on stage. TIME TO PUMP UP!! Some of the guys in the locker room had really great sportsmanship and they were helping each other out. the rest were just pure a$$holes. Anyway, the guy who told me to wait earlier and i started alternating exercise and make the best out of our time. One of the judges came in the room and just yelled "75 KG... ON STAGE NOW!" I wanted to be the first person on stage... bas ketha... so i rushed out and... i can't describe the feeling when i opened that door... with all those people, the bright lights, the sound of the drums (half of the people brought drums with them), the cheers (and the cusses)... it was truly unbelievable. The whole posing routine i've been preparing for the last couple of weeks just flew away and i just improvised. Competitors started walking in and everyone was just giving it his best. Then the judges asked us to step back, and asked me to step forward. compulsory posing time!! I just squeezed the living S*** outta my muscles with everything i got. when i was done, they asked me to step back. i was feeling short of breath, starting to get dizzy, sweat was pouring down like rain, i looked at the ground under me and it was like a lake of sweat! i looked to my right, under all my opponents, not a single drop. I WAS IN DEEP SHIT!!! yes, i did something very stupid. before i took my home sauna, i took about 50 mg of ephedrine. i needed the energy, and i needed to drop that extra water. The ephedrine should've left my system at 5 pm, 6 max. But since i was as dehydrated as hell, it just kicked in. I just begged the people next to the stage for water, luckily they had some on hand. so i started gulping it on stage. I was starting to get really light headed. Obviously, time flew as fast as a concord. The judges called me out again, and they called out a couple of more guys for the comparison. We all started posing, and we did the mandatory poses. then, the judges were talking, and i couldn't hear a thing. i thought it was time to get off the stage. i was relieved....... til another guy stepped beside us. they just called another guy to compare. a minute later, another guy. I seriously couldn't breathe, i couldn't even see. everything turned black. and they were calling out poses, and i just didn't even bother to flex. A guy in the crowd was yelling "ENOUGH ALREADY!! YOU'RE SQUEEZING THEM LIKE LEMONS!!" If i could breathe, i would've laughed my ass off. I them cracked the biggest smile on my face when the judges said "75 kg class... thank you" I stepped off the stage and i was relying on that 2 liter bottle of gatoraid i gave to one of my friends. i just went to the locker room, sat on the bench... and waited. i couldn't talk, i couldn't breathe, i was shaking like a mother f***er. I could barely lift my head up to see who's around me, i was just looking at their feet. i looked up and saw my friends and said "where's my bag?" it seems like that word causes a lot of confusion. cuz none of them knew what i was talking about. i told them to call faisal and tell him to bring my bag. 2 minutes later. i got A bag. unfortunatelly, it wasn't THE bag. it had my coffee in it. It was a good thing i didn't have enough energy to get up and start kicking poeple. finally, i got my gatoraid. I wanted to gulp the whole thing down but the same guy who told me to hold off the pumping up said "drink it slowly if you don't want to throw up". it's a very good thing he said that. 5 minutes later, i started feeling a hell of a lot better.

Well, i'm a bit busy right now, so hopefully, tomorrow i'll continue with how i placed, and what went on next.

toodloo