“Unleash the Ultimate Version of You” is the motto of my fitness brand Athletic Edge. And this is exactly what I set out to do when I left Melbourne at the end of August to represent Australia in the 3-week modelling contest Misters of Filipinas. The competition was a male pageant that included both local and international candidates of Filipino ancestry, vying for the chance to win a title that would allow them to compete further at the highest level of international male modelling. Having won the Australian title, this was my 2nd entry into the competitive modelling world and proved to be a very eye-opening experience indeed. Since after all this is a fitness article, today I want to share with you the challenges I faced with presenting the best version of Jam Acero on the big stage. This is my story.
The first thing I had to keep in mind was that this was not a bodybuilding or even a physique-based competition; the focus was not necessarily on having an extremely muscular or extremely lean body. Since the type of contest was male modelling, physique was just one aspect of the judged criteria...you ideally had to have a proportioned build that looked elegant (and relatable to the public) in any designer clothing, displayed exceptional personal grooming, and carried yourself with suave and unique style.
So during my prep phase in the months leading up to the comp, I was careful not to get too bulky where I'd look awkward in a suit nor too ripped to the point where I had 'scary' veins popping out everywhere. The sweet spot I aimed for was just below 10% bodyfat, which you can see below I reached a few weeks before I left:
Having been away from the Philippines for 16 years, I was in for a tough time adjusting to the limitations on my diet there. For starters, each day during the 3 weeks was fully booked: if we weren't competing in official judged events, we had a jam-packed schedule of photoshoots, Sponsor obligations and events, TV appearances, and fashion shows modelling the designer wear of our competition sponsors. Often the bus would pick us up from the hotel at 7am in the morning (or earlier!) and wouldn't return us back there until 10 or 11pm at night (or later).
This left us no time for grocery and meal-prep. We either had to make do with the catered meals that were provided to us by the event organizers, or buy something outside on our own. The problem was, as you know the country is still a developing nation and therefore food quality - at least in the main population areas - was not the same as what we are used to in Australia. Most common takeaway dishes available are like this:
As you can see the majority of affordable and accessible restaurant food is VERY oily and/or contains quite small servings of Protein along with too much carbs ie. Rice; also vegetables seem to not be very popular at all in Filipino cuisine (in general). I estimate the average restaurant dish, even if you tried the 'healthier' option, was about 100g Carbs 30g+ often greasy Fat and less than 20g Protein. As we all know when you take the deadly combination of artery-clogging fatty foods with insufficient amounts of the right nutrients to support a fit active body, you end up with more bodyfat and less muscle. Not exactly what I wanted heading into the Finals of the competition. So what did I do? Damage control.
I knew after a few days in-country that I wasn't going to be gaining any more muscle due to our hectic schedule preventing candidates from going to the gym more than once or twice a week; I also knew it would be almost impossible to get much leaner due to the food situation we had no control over. Luckily as shown above I came in well-prepared and already in decent shape. I decided my main focus would instead be to maintain the level I had and not let myself slip. I did this by not allowing myself to eat all or any of the carbs (rice) in my meals - secretly laughing inside as I watched most of the other candidates routinely gobbling up half a kilo of carbs everyday and wondering why they were bloated, muahahha >:) - and trying as best I could to avoid oily meats, and staying away from the temptations of the many amazing Filipino desserts on offer. I wasn't successful every time.
Fortunately I didn't have to be. Maintaining muscle and maintaining a lean level turns out to be a lot easier than gaining it or losing bodyfat, a valuable lesson I learned during this trip. All I had to do was assess at the end of each day or the morning after a binge day how my body responded to the types of meals I ate, and if I was able to keep the same leanness level then I kept doing what I was doing. If I seemed to lose a bit of visual definition in my abs then I knew to start cutting back even more on the carbs and fatty foods. Constant observation and honest self-appraisal is one of the keys to staying in shape that people often ignore: it turned out to be my saving grace, at least for the first 2 weeks of the competition. Here is where I was at at the end of the 1st week:
judging by how deep the ab definition is and the degree of hardness in the chest, arms and lower abs it's no more than 9% bodyfat, maybe even 8% although with the professionally edited second photo from an official photoshoot it's hard to know for certain.
By the 2nd week I'd dropped to a slightly higher bodyfat level, about 9-10% due to the types of food we were given to eat. You can tell coz my body looks a bit thicker and bulkier yet less hard and defined:
At this point, it was starting to get very difficult to find the right balance of staying lean yet having enough energy to get through the ever-longer and more demanding days of events. In addition, we weren't getting enough sleep: on average we had 5-6 hours a night and even less more often than I expected simply due to the tight nature of our itinerary. As you may know the stress hormone Cortisol rises when you are in a chronic state of nutrient/energy deficiency and/or when you are in a chronic state of sleep loss. When Cortisol is constantly high, fat-burning halts (it's the last thing your body wants to do when you're in a Stressed state) and water retention rises, leading to bloating. Again not the ideal situation with only a week to go before the Finals night.
A lucky change allowed me to turn things around from my downward slide leading up to the final week of competition. An interstate event we were supposed to attend was cancelled, saving us from travelling and giving us some much-needed extra free time. I snapped up this extra opportunity to hit the gym almost everyday, and managed to get in some long workouts 4 days in that last week which helped to shed the water weight and got my body back close to the original shape it was in. On the stage at the Pre-finals and Finals night I came in close to where I wanted to be, as you can see about 9-10% bodyfat still but with less water bloating for a more defined aesthetic look:
Here are the guys who ended up winning the 2 main titles, Mister International (Miguel Guia) and Manhunt International (CJ Querol).
I didn't end up winning a Title, but I felt that I was able to present the best of what I had with the conditions that were available to me. I learned that even if you don't have all the right tools or environment to succeed, you still have to keep the show going on and perform to the very best of your ability. When life throws you lemons, learn how to make AMAZING lemonade! If you get caught in a storm, learn to enjoy dancing in the rain. At the end of the day, this 3-week intensive male pageant was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience that spurred me to get into the best shape of my 28 years of life...and set me up to strive towards even greater heights. Although things didn't go exactly as I envisioned, I'm happy that I was able to achieve the #1 thing I wanted to do: to show the world the Best version of Me!
