Flip transition UINavigationController push does not call viewDidLoad until animation completed

I'm animating UINavigationController push to be a flip following this, but the problem is that viewDidLoad does not get called until the animation is completed, which looks bad since I'm loading photos and such on the destination view controller. How can I ensure that the destination view controller is 'ready to go' (viewDidLoad) called and everything initialized before the animation starts?

[UIView transitionWithView:self.navigationController.view
                      duration:0.75
                       options:UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionFlipFromRight
                    animations:^{
                        [self.navigationController pushViewController:viewcontroller animated:NO];
                    }
                    completion:nil];