New Pics

Ok guys - here are some new pics from this weekend. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm about 4 weeks from being ready to step on stage. I still have a decent amount of fat on my low back and butt, but I think a month is enough time to get rid of that. My quads and obliques aren't in yet either but I think those will be coming soon. My weight is about 207lbs now, first thing in the AM. Our goal is to come in right at the top of the LHW class.

Helping out...

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was busy (as usual), but I got a lot done. We filmed the first few 'Wojo's Wisdom' segments and we'll be releasing the first one later this week once we get done the editing. I think you guys will really enjoy these. I've been getting a lot of great questions so we have plenty to discuss.

I also got the opportunity to help out in the community, which I really enjoyed. There's an annual event in Prince George's county called Christmas in April where they basically pick the house in most need of renovations that someone still lives in, and get together a bunch of donations and volunteers to fix it up in one day. This particular owner was wheelchair-bound and the house was not wheelchair accessible. We did tons of landscaping, built a deck with a ramp, made the bathrooms functional (there were no fully functional bathrooms in the house), painted, put down new carpet, you name it...

It was a lot of work but it was really inspiring to see people pull together for a common cause. Especially in today's world where it seems everyone is so wrapped up in their own life and issues and all we hear about on the news is doom and gloom. It reminded me that there are a lot of good people out there who genuinely care about helping their neighbor, even though they may have their own problems.

NC State Championships

The NC State Bodybuilding Championships were this past weekend and I'd like to congratulate a couple of my friends for some great showings. Kevin (as in 'my diet guy' Kevin) won the HW open and masters (over 40) class, and Micah placed 3rd in a really tough light-heavy class. Nice job guys! Kevin was full and grainy hard and Micah was sliced to the bone (Kevin did his diet as well).

This show brings up a lot of memories for me. In 2003 I placed 3rd in the light-heavies to Van Anthony (now an IFBB pro) and Shaun Crump. Tough class! In 2005 I went on to win the overall, and to date, that has been the highlight of my 13+ year bodybuilding career. Up until that point I had never even won my class - let alone an overall - so you can imagine how I felt. At dinner afterwards I even started to tear up as it all set in; and while some people thought something was wrong, my buddy Steve just looked at me and nodded, knowing what was going on.

What I'd like you to take away from that story is that you should never give up on yourself. Ever. I competed for over a decade without a win. Think about that. But I kept coming back, and you can do the same - whether it's in bodybuilding or some other pursuit in your life. Hard work, discipline, and sacrifice will eventually pay off if you give it enough time.

One of my favorite quotes by Thomas Edison relates directly to this:

"Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".

Whew!!!

Hey guys what's up-

It's been absolutely crazy around here lately so I haven't had the chance to post sooner. Sorry! As you all know, taxes returns were due today. I have several businesses and a bunch of last minute issues kept me pretty occupied over the past several days. I won't even tell you how much money I had to pay the IRS. One word....OUCH! If I wasn't officially poor before...I am now. lol.

Work has also been nuts recently because we have a demonstration this week highlighting some technology we've been developing. How the demonstration goes will largely determine whether or not funding for this project gets continued, so as you can imagine, it's been a bit stressful.

Despite all this, training is going well and I've increased cardio to 5x 45 and we've getting ready to start carb cycling. I don't think I'll have a chance to post progress pics this weekend because I'm heading down to NC to see a couple buddies compete in the state contest, but I'll post some soon.

Coming Soon!!!! Wojo's Wisdom!!!!!!

I've got a really cool surprise for you guys I think you're going to absolutely love...

Next week, I'm going to start a weekly "Wojo's Wisdom" video clip or text column right here on the blog. This is going to be an ongoing question/answer type of interaction that will be updated every week. The concept is pretty simple - you email me questions, and I'll do my best to answer them. Feel free to ask me anything about bodybuilding, investing, or whatever - heck even science if you want! This is your chance to pick my brain - don't wait too long to ask though because I'm getting old and forgetting stuff daily. LOL.

Email questions to jasonwojo@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you!

Started the Fat Burners!

What's up everyone? Sorry for not updating this earlier - it's been (and will continue to be) a crazy week at work. We have a demo next week at a conference and we're trying to get all the assays, etc. taken care of.

This week I started the 'fat burners'. I'm using True Protein's BCAA Blast before my AM cardio and I take 1 500mg green tea extract per day. I actually alternate the green tea extract with real green tea every other day. On days I have the tea, I put 4 tea bags into a liter of water and drink that throughout the day. I should note I consider these to be mild fat burners, but effective nonetheless.

In the past I used to take ECA (25mg ephedrine, 200mg caffeine, and a baby aspirin) up to 3x a day as show time approached. NOTHING I've tried worked as good as this, both for fat burning, and for the stimulant effect that really helped get through the cardio and workouts. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now that ephedrine is off the shelves. (Which could be a huge rant in itself but I won't get into it).

Hopefully we'll see some progress this week. I still have a ton of fat in my back and arse to get rid of. Everything else usually comes in ok but those two areas for me are the most troublesome.

New Pics

Ok guys - we have some new progress pics. Things are coming along pretty well. The first potential show is 8 weeks away so I think we'll have plenty of time to dial things in. I just sent these pics to Kevin so we'll see if he wants to change anything or keep what we're doing now for a bit longer.

My workouts have been surprisingly good lately, so I've been happy with that. I plan on video recording a few workouts in the near future. I'll post them here once they're done.

Diet/Cardio Update

Ok we have another change to note. This past Sunday cardio was bumped up to 40' 5 days a week, and we've dropped another 300 calories from the diet. To be honest it's only been a couple days but I can already feel a difference. I think Kevin will be impressed with my progress come Saturday when I take new progress pics.

Also, although I have a treadmill in my basement, I've been going to the gym to do cardio 1st thing in the morning (around 6am) lately. It's just for a change of scenery and it's a little less boring that doing it at the house. I don't have a TV near the treadmill at home so I'm stuck reading magazines, etc., which can get old. At the gym it's more amusing and there's more energy because I see others going crazy on the cardio equipment. Plus I can usually convince Rae to do cardio with me so it's nice to have someone to talk to and make the time go by more quickly. :)

So why "Lifebuilding" as the Title of the Blog?

This is actually pretty easy to explain if you already know me. To me, an important part of life is making the most of the gifts that you've been given by God. All of us have individual strengths and weaknesses in both our abilities and character, and I believe we should all strive to become the best person we can - not only for ourselves and those around us, but also as a sign of appreciation to God. I personally try to grow everyday, whether it's physically, mentally, or spiritually. For instance, in the past I've had issues with patience so I had to try and work on that and I think I'm better now. As an example, in the past if a 90 yr old pulled out in front of me on the street and drove along at 10mph I would have layed on the horn and started cussing up a storm. Now I just smile and pleasantly wave hello. LOL ok not quite but you get the idea! ☺ I also constantly try and learn new things by reading and listening to audio CDs while driving (the CDs - not the reading - that would be bad!). I've actually learned to enjoy learning new things and I think you will too if you give it a chance. Whatever you choose to work on though, over time I think you'll be surprised at the results if you're relatively consistent. (Same with bodybuilding right!? See the parallels?)