My diet has always been perfect. This is a positive and a negative, depending on how you look at it. I have to maintain contest condition year-round to feel good about myself. I credit this to be the reason I am still alive, considering I have abused gear non-stop for 17 years. My good friend used to lecture me all the time that I could maintain a similar condition with atleast 20Lbs more muscle if I ate more solid foods, less protein drinks, and more calories. My friend ate like a horse and was huge and thick at 330Lbs. He abused gear as heavy as I did, if not heavier, and his muscles responded to it in a massive way. The difference between my friend and I today is he died of a heart attack at 28, while I'm still kicking.
I don't believe I would be pro today if I had a guru, as my friend that died was guru to Nassar. This guy knew more about nutrition and gear than anyone. Nassar said he was the most knowledgeable person he had ever met in regards to bodybuilding.
My training for my upperbody had been incredibly consistent the entire 25 years I have trained. With my lowerbody, when I blew up my knees at 29, I realized my dream of turning pro was over, as I could no longer lift the incredibly heavy weights I had been lifting to build my mass. I tried over and over for the next 4 years but every time I would get strong on my squat, I would reinjure my meniscus. I decided I wasn't going to compete again, and lost the consistency to my leg training. I decided to get the perfect bar body. It wasn't until I was 39 that I decided to compete again. I have been busting my ass on legs ever since, but losing 10 years of hard, consistent leg training has made it a bitch to get them to catch up to my upperbody.