How to Eat Blueberry Cobbler and Fried Chicken Like an Elite Bodybuilder
Martin Fitzwater’s southern bodybuilding prep recipes. Last updated on April 23rd, 2025 Diet preparation and planning can make or break physique goals. While shredding diets can be grueling and highly restrictive, flexibility is a trick for success. In April 2025, fourth-ranked IFBB pro Open bodybuilder Martin Fitzwater whipped up two southern comfort-inspired bodybuilding recipes — blueberry cobbler […]
Martin Fitzwater’s southern bodybuilding prep recipes.
Last updated on April 23rd, 2025
Diet preparation and planning can make or break physique goals. While shredding diets can be grueling and highly restrictive, flexibility is a trick for success.
In April 2025, fourth-ranked IFBB pro Open bodybuilder Martin Fitzwater whipped up two southern comfort-inspired bodybuilding recipes — blueberry cobbler and chicken and waffles. He’s eating them to prepare for the 2025 Pittsburgh Pro contest in Pennsylvania, which is set for May 10-11.
Blueberry Cobbler: Sweet Savior
Fitzwater uses cream of rice instead of oats for the cobbler. This is due to personal preference more than nutrition. He first mixes 150 grams (g) of blueberries with cinnamon, stevia, and salt into a glass baking dish for the fruit base.
This creates a blueberry soup at the bottom, which is [necessary] for the cobbler.
—Martin Fitzwater
Blend these ingredients for the crumble:
50 grams of apple for moisture
30 grams of egg whites to bind
240 grams of maple brown sugar cream of rice
100 grams of fat-free milk
Baking powder
After blending, stir the batter and pour it evenly over the blueberries. Shake the glassware to help the batter mix with the berries, and coat it with a little cooking spray. Place the dish in the air fryer at 370 degrees Fahrenheit and check it after 10 minutes.
“Bodybuilders are lazy,” Fitzwater joked, emphasizing the convenience of air fryers.
This is the perfect way to fulfill sweet cravings during prep.
—Martin Fitzwater
Top the cobbler with keto-friendly ice cream, or “creamies”— a frozen protein shake made with two scoops of protein, water, and a little milk. Serve portions according to diet goals.
Chicken Tenders: Indulgence Without Guilt?
Fitzwater weighs and blends 65 grams of cornflakes (50 grams of carbs) with his favorite seasonings to prepare the chicken tenders. Weigh according to your macro needs. Coat the tenders in the seasoned cornflakes, spray the air fryer, and cook at 400°F for 15 minutes.
“This is the Chick-fil-A prep version,” Fitzwater asserted, recommending cooling them on a rack to prevent a soggy crust.
Mental Prep
Fitzwater opened up about the mental toll of bodybuilding contest prep. “As good of a bodybuilder as I am…I’ve been the amateur that screwed up and ate crazy amounts of food and was up 20 pounds after the show.”
Now, Fitzwater embraces suffering: “Nothing worth having comes easy…embrace it and learn to fall in love with it.”
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It was Patriots Day at the pool at Libertyville Saturday. Stevenson’s girls water polo team remained unbeaten by holding off a furious fourth quarter rally to beat Libertyville 8-6 to win the girls sectional title. Right after, the Stevenson boys water polo team scored on its first three possessions and then never looked back as […]
It was Patriots Day at the pool at Libertyville Saturday.
Stevenson’s girls water polo team remained unbeaten by holding off a furious fourth quarter rally to beat Libertyville 8-6 to win the girls sectional title.
Right after, the Stevenson boys water polo team scored on its first three possessions and then never looked back as the Patriots, led by Armeet Gill’s triple hat trick, swam past Libertyville 16-10 to win the boys sectional title.
The Stevenson girls team will be seeking their third consecutive title at the state finals which begin next Thursday at Stevenson. The Patriots (33-0) will meet Evanston, who Stevenson beat in last year’s title game, in the quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Stevenson was without top goal scorer Olivia Speth, who was in California at the U.S. National team tryout. Girls head coach Jeff Wimer knew about the tryout months ago and has been planning accordingly.
“They stepped up, and that is without Olivia (Speth),” Wimer said. “I told our girls that they are a team. And it is a lot more than one player, it is all of you. We have been playing in situations without Olivia this season and they were ready for it.”
The Patriots showed how prepared they were when Dhanani Seneviratne scored twice for a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Libertyville’s Maya Anderson tallied and Jillian Carlson followed up with a goal for Stevenson as the Patriots let 3-1 at the half.
Carlson and teammate Caroline Bichkoff scored within 25 seconds of each other in the final minute of the third period. That, along with sterling goalkeeping by Elsa Kusevskis, gave Stevenson what appeared to be an insurmountable 5-1 lead.
Libertyville (22-4), which had lost 5-4 earlier this season to Stevenson, had other ideas as the final period was all gas and no brakes.
Kaitlyn Galloway and Anderson each scored in the opening minute of the final quarter to cut the lead to 5-3. Stevenson came back to score on Arohi Mathur’s tally, but Libertyville answered again on another goal by Galloway to make it 6-4.
After a goal by Bichkoff, Libertyville’s Ciara Simpson scored a pair of the goals within 20 seconds of each other. The second was a penalty shot with 1:30 to play and suddenly the Wildcats trailed by just one at 7-6.
Stevenson got some breathing room when Raina Dastagir scored at 1:06 to make it 8-6. Libertyville had a chance to get closer, but Kusevskis turned away a penalty shot with 37.8 seconds left to preserve the win.
“I was really proud of my play, especially in the first half,” said Kusevskis, who had 15 saves, 6 steals and an assist.
“My team did really well. I was happy with my blocks and I saved a 5-meter (penalty shot) and that was nice.”
Carlson, who also had 6 steals and an assist to go with her goal, said that it was a complete team effort in the victory.
“We could not have done this without playing as a team,” Carlson said. “Together we played not as individuals and our offense was looking to score.”
Libertyville coach Tracy Balla said that her team never quit.
“This is a team that has dug deep all season never given up,” Balla said. “They communicate so well. And they play their best when they feel pressure and they felt the pressure today.”
Boys final: The Stevenson boys team had very little drama in their convincing victory. The Patriots tallied on four of their first five possessions on their way to an 8-1 lead. Gill had four of his career-high 9 goals during that span.
“I was just in the flow and excited to play,” said Gill, who is a junior and moved from attack to center.
“This is a testament to the work I have put in this season. I played out of position because on an injury. So I had to step up and fill a role.”
The Patriots, who finished second in the state the past two seasons, advance to the state finals for the fifth consecutive year. The Patriots (22-10) will play York in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We are still a young team,” Stevenson coach Sean Wimer said. “But we are also an explosive team. When we are focused and ready to go, the sky is the limit. Armeet (Gill) was really fun to watch.”
Kenny Weisner and Wes Linnenburger each scored twice for the Patriots. Adesh Arvind, Levi Schnulle and Hudson Swanson also scored for Stevenson.
Ted Stouffer and Will Kopecky each scored goals for Libertyville (17-11). Nate Stouffer added a pair of goals.
“We knew that Stevenson is a talented team and they play a fast-paced game,” Libertyville coach Kara Glerman said. “I am proud of the way we played in the second half. I thought we played a pretty even game there.”
Waubonsie Valley punches ticket to first boys water polo sectional final since 2010 after defeating Naperville Central
The Naperville North boys water polo sectional hits the final four as Waubonsie Valley takes on Naperville Central. These two teams split in their respective matchups this season, but this one is for a trip to the sectional final. This highlight is sponsored by BMO. The Redhawks start the game strong as James Behrend fires in […]
The Naperville North boys water polo sectional hits the final four as Waubonsie Valley takes on Naperville Central. These two teams split in their respective matchups this season, but this one is for a trip to the sectional final. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
The Redhawks start the game strong as James Behrend fires in a shot to put his squad up 2-0 early on.
Ben Meier puts on an early show on his birthday
The Warriors regroup with Ben Meier, who hits the right corner to even the game at 2-2.
Meier is not done yet because he wants another goal. Adam Matusiak finds him, and he connects on the long-distance shot, giving the Warriors a 3-2 lead.
The Meier show is on full display during the first. This penalty shot caps off a 6-0 run as Waubonsie opens up a 6-2 advantage.
Central stops the run in the second quarter when Behrend gets his name called once again with a catch-and-shoot goal.
The Warriors adjust on defense, and goalie Lukas Adeli jumps into position to make the save. Waubonsie holds an 8-5 lead at the break.
Waubonsie picks it back up in the second half with Youseff El Touny showing the skipper for a 9-5 lead.
Dawid Kowalewicz, step right up. Daniel Niv lobs the ball over, and Kowalewicz shoots a laser-like shot for the goal.
Redhawks cut into the deficit
Redhawks are down but won’t give up. Weston Schmitt finds the open target to keep his birds within striking distance.
Moments later, Elliot Skly tallies another goal, but Naperville Central still has work to do, trailing 13-7.
Waubonsie Valley boys water polo moves on to first ever sectional final
However, this game belongs to the Warriors as El Touny throws in the dagger goal, and for the first time in program history, Waubonsie Valley is moving to the boys water polo sectional final, where they’ll face top-seeded Naperville North. The Redhawks end the final season of legendary head coach Bill Salentine’s career with a 21-9 record.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page.
Women’s Track and Field Set Two School Outdoor Records at Midwest Twilight Qualifier
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The Hope College women’s track and field team bettered school outdoor records in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays at the Midwest Twilight Qualifier hosted by Augustana College (Illinois). In the 4×400 relay, junior Catherine Leahy (Elk Rapids, Michigan / Elk Rapids HS), junior Frances Cozzens (Lyman, New Hampshire […]
The Hope College women’s track and field team bettered school outdoor records in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays at the Midwest Twilight Qualifier hosted by Augustana College (Illinois).
In the 4×400 relay, junior Catherine Leahy (Elk Rapids, Michigan / Elk Rapids HS), junior Frances Cozzens (Lyman, New Hampshire / Saint Johnsbury Academy), senior Jasmine Zimmerman (Byron Center, Michigan / Home School) and junior Sara Schermerhorn (Traverse City, Michigan / Traverse City West) recorded a sixth-place run of 3 minutes, 46.68 seconds.
The time eclipsed their previous record of 3:47.18 and ranked 21st fastest in NCAA Division III this season.
In the 4×100 relay, junior Ava Schmidt (Saline, Michigan / Saline), Leahy, freshman Sofia Fisher (Lombard, Illinois / Montini Catholic) and Schermerhorn clocked a fourth-place time of 47.00.
The time surpassed their previous record of 47.16 and ranks 36th in the nation this season.
In the 400 meters, Leahy placed sixth with a season-best run of 55.79, placing 38th in the nation.
A-State Track and Field to Compete at South Alabama Last Chance Sunday
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JONESBORO, Ark. (5/17/25) – Several Arkansas State track and field athletes will compete Sunday at the South Alabama Last Chance, jockeying for qualifying position in the upcoming NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Competition begins at 3:30 p.m. with the men’s shot put while the first event on the track for the […]
JONESBORO, Ark. (5/17/25) – Several Arkansas State track and field athletes will compete Sunday at the South Alabama Last Chance, jockeying for qualifying position in the upcoming NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
Competition begins at 3:30 p.m. with the men’s shot put while the first event on the track for the Red Wolves will be the 100-meter hurdles at 4:30 p.m.
TEAMS REPRESENTED: Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama (host), Southern Miss, Troy, ULM
THREE THINGS TO NOTE:
1. REGIONAL QUALIFYING: Sunday’s meet – appropriately titled “Last Chance” – represents the final chance for athletes to cement qualifying position in the upcoming NCAA Preliminary Rounds. Entering Sunday, A-State currently has eight athletes within the top 48 in at least one of their respective events in the West Region.
MEN
5000 meters: Jacob Pyeatt – 13:35.90 (#33)
110m Hurdles: Colby Eddowes – 13.45 (#9)
Pole Vault: Bradley Jelmert – 5.55m/18-2.5 (#4); John Carswell – 5.28m/17-3.75 (#32)
2. PYEATT’S PROWESS: Arkansas State standout distance runner Jacob Pyeatt scored 20 points at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships, one of two men’s athletes to do so. He was also named the league’s Track Performer of the Year for not only his efforts at the championships but throughout the season.
3. ELEVEN RED WOLVES ON THE ALL-SUN BELT SQUADS: A total of 11 Red Wolves notched all-conference finishes at the outdoor championships, including six on the first team: Menachem Chen, Colby Eddowes, Noa Isaia, Bradley Jelmert, Jacob Pyeatt and Carly Pujol. Brandon Williams, Miranda Burgett and Michelle Ogbemudia were second-team finishers, while Kamil Przybyla and Tyra Nabors were on the third team.
NEXT UP
After competing in Mobile, A-State will next send multiple athletes to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, scheduled for May 28-31 in College Station, Texas.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For the latest on the A-State track and field and cross country programs, follow @AStateTrack on Twitter and @astatetfxc on Instagram, while also liking the team’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/AStateTrackAndField.
The idea of adolescence as a horror story is not new, but it’s given a splashy workout in Charlie Polinger‘s queasily stylish debut feature, in which the swimming pools, lockers rooms and bunk-bed dormitories of a boys’ water polo camp are a puberty petrie dish livid with sinister bacteria. Drawn from experience and benefiting from […]
The idea of adolescence as a horror story is not new, but it’s given a splashy workout in Charlie Polinger‘s queasily stylish debut feature, in which the swimming pools, lockers rooms and bunk-bed dormitories of a boys’ water polo camp are a puberty petrie dish livid with sinister bacteria. Drawn from experience and benefiting from some standout performances among its well-selected young cast, “The Plague” has a familiar coming-of-age narrative, but stranger, subtler undercurrents of creeping dismay at the men these boys will become when, at this formative age, cruelty chlorinates the water they swim in.
Sensitive, 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) comes to the Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp in the summer of 2003 as an outsider twice over. He’s not only joining after the second session has started, he’s also a new arrival to the area. And, as we understand from an early conversation with his affable but ineffectual coach (Joel Edgerton, who also produces) a reluctant one: there’s hurt in the studied neutrality of his tone when he describes how his mother uprooted their lives to be with her new lover. Perhaps the wrenching change-up of father figure fuels Ben’s anxiety to fit in, but also maybe that’s just the way he is. When one of the kids’ endless games of would-you-rather makes him choose between “not fucking a dog but having everyone think you did, or fucking a dog and no one knows,” Ben opts for, well, screwing the pooch.
In any wolf pack, the Alpha is obvious and even among these cubs, Jake (a superb Kayo Martin) is easily identifiable as the ringleader. Deceptively cherubic beneath a shock of tousled strawberry blonde hair, and wearing a surprisingly adult expression of skeptical watchfulness, Jake is initially friendly enough to the newcomer — at least once Ben begins answering to the nickname “Soppy,” devised after Jake picks up on his very minor speech impediment.
There’s an easier target for Jake’s lazy but keen-eyed ridicule. Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) was presumably already an oddball — into magic tricks and solo flailing dance moves and lurching non-sequitur conversation — even before he developed a disfiguring skin complaint. The angry-looking rash that covers his arms and torso is probably some sort of eczema or contact dermatitis, but the boys are still of an age to be fascinated by lepers and curses and so Jake declares it “the plague.” Eli is ostracized, to the point that all the kids dive for another cafeteria table if he so much as pulls up a chair.
Good-natured Ben, in the throes of a panicky uncertainty that from the outside is sweetly poignant, if only because it will be gone in a year or a month or a minute, feels for Eli’s predicament— possibly more than the quite contentedly peculiar Eli does for himself. But as he barely has enough social capital to guarantee his own acceptance into Jake’s circle, Ben befriends the outcast cautiously, away from prying eyes. It’s fine to make taboo transgressions if nobody knows about it.
DP Steven Breckon punctuates “The Plague” with interludes of woozy underwater photography, in which the boys’ bodies dagger into the pool and then tread water, resembling so many headless sea horses. Sometimes, while Johan Lenox’s excellent, ’70s horror-inflected, nightmare-choir score reaches a bombastic crescendo, the girls of the synchronized swimming class who share the pool and fire the boys’ crude erotic imaginings, are shown inverted, so they appear to be dancing floatily across the water’s underside surface. These subaquatic symphonies give a touch of the phantasmagoric to a milieu that’s otherwise cleverly recreated from the banal remembered details of an early noughties childhood: the Capri-Suns, the pop tunes, that brief phase where kids believe that smoking kitchen-cupboard nutmeg will get them high.
Perhaps too the subjective nature of Polinger’s memory of a time when the peer-group dynamic was so much more influential than any peripheral authority figure, accounts for why these kids are so often unconstrained by adult supervision. Jake naturally takes advantage of that freedom to continue his offhand reign of terror, one he can maintain without ever really lifting a finger. Almost all of the violence in “The Plague” is self-inflicted and therefore easily disavowed by this tweenaged tyrant – a character so vivid that it’s tempting to imagine a more provocative movie told from the bully’s perspective. But as “The Plague” ramps up to an impressively eerie, body-horror-styled finale, it takes a rather more expected turn toward a significant, if hardly triumphal moment of personal growth for unhappy camper Ben. Teetering on the brink of adult society with its own bewilderingly insidious notions about masculinity and conformity, you can dive in or you can be pushed, and it’s only then you can know if you’ll sink or swim.
