I was the kid they made fun of, and the one the girls despised. I was very overweight. I was healthy under age 11, but when sugar entered the diet it all went downhill. (I know this now.) No one was there to teach me the right way to eat, workout, or rebuild muscle.

I learned by myself, at least initially.

I was over 300 lbs by the start of high school. I had very little muscle. I was in every sense of the word, unhealthy. It was slow correcting it at first, taking small steps, finding out which book's advice worked and which didn't--then it was a battle with my habits.

It's not just about getting healthy, it's about changing the way you do things--it's about getting control over a part of you that is invisible to you. This is not easy nor is it quick.

Eventually, I conquered my mountain. I lost over a hundred pounds of fat, and gained a little muscle--it took about 1-2 years. The results were empowering. To anyone who didn't know me, they wouldn't think anything of it. Physically I just became a thin guy--"skinny fat" as they say--but it was amazingly better than where I was previously. People who hadn't seen me since losing the weight did not recognize me--literally; I ran into a few of them and only the ones I let hear my voice realized they knew me from somewhere. The others, to this day, did not know it was me they were looking at.

Then some life disasters hit. I gained a large portion of my weight back. I hadn't reached the point where the habits to keep the weight off were ingrained enough to endure life's storms.

I started over.

Slowly, once again, I started shedding the fat. I learned more about how to gain muscle the second time around, which helped keep the fat off. THIS IS KEY. Muscle gain will help create a barrier to fat gain. Add to that eating clean (or at least cleaner than you were eating previously) and you start moving a metabolism locomotive that is eventually difficult to stop.

Then I backtracked. I don't even fully remember how it happened, but the fat gain and muscle loss was gradual this time--which is more difficult to catch if you're not surrounded by people with healthy lifestyles--and I was not yet part of the fit-minded crowd. The backtracking wasn't as bad as before, so although it was the wrong direction, my general direction was improving. Think of your treadmill cardio graph: each hill is progressively larger, only think of it in reverse. Over time I'm stabilizing closer and closer to my ideal fitness level.

The cycle was a key tool this time around--I was unable to sprint on the treadmill as often as needed due to a serious foot/ankle injury (my foot was taken out of the socket in a bike/car accident--I almost lost my foot) so the most effective type of cardio, pure running and sprinting, I could not use on a consistent basis without high impact issues in the ankle. The accident also caused a huge problem with being unable to do any form of exercise for an extended period of time. The farthest I would travel each day was from one room to another, and that was a project.

I still remember getting a tour of the new gym I was joining while on crutches. I had to wait another month before I could wobble around without them and start working out. Using the cycle I lost a large portion of the fat, and was now at a great starting point to visually see muscle sculpting in a way I never had before.

That was a few years ago. Since that time I have set and reset muscle building goals, and thankfully, found a lifting partner, which was pivotal. Working out with someone mentally focuses both of you on not missing workouts. It also permits you to push farther with the weights, cause someone's there to spot. He was a swimmer so his lifting goals were different than my own, but he got me doin ab workouts--which was the first time I ever REALLY worked the abs on a consistent basis. I owe him big for this one, cause it was the first time in my life I got abs--and for the former fat kid to find himself with a strong core and visible abs was one of the most awesome feelings I have ever experienced.

After my ankle healed enough I decided to try the indoor running track--convinced I would only do a lap or two. (It was a small track.) I always hated running so my decision to try it in lieu of the treadmill was more of mental discipline and an attempt to shock my system out of a fitness plateau I found myself in.

I will never forget this.

I started running. IT FELT PHENOMENAL. It was the first time I had run with a core, a really strong core. It was also a cushioned indoor track, which was pivotal for the ankle.

I ran. And I ran. And I kept running... and I didn't stop. SEVEN miles. My legs sang. I didn't even have good running shoes. I loved it. Then I discovered I pushed it too far and my ankle started protesting a few days later, after I had returned to the track each day, running each time. Now that I loved running, I found myself limited by how often I could run. It was very bitter sweet.

I eventually had to move for a pilot job to a small town, and found myself without the same gym facilities. Now I had to relearn how to build muscle by doing more with less equipment. The gyms of large cities have rows and rows of machines alongside the free weights, so you have a multitude of ways to target muscles, even if you have remedial knowledge about how to do it. Now I needed to learn how to reach my next fitness level with less. Eventually, especially through reviewing Arnold's advice, I learned how to shock the muscles again. My main photos on this site are the result of that work.

One of the coolest (and kind of embarrassing) thing to happen after reaching that level of fitness was when I was grocery shopping and a mom with her little boy in the grocery cart walked by. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this little kid bursts out loud, "HEY MOM! LOOK AT THE MUSCLES ON THAT GUY! MOM! MOM! LOOK AT THE MUSCLES!" It was really cool, but I also kinda shrunk back cause everyone turned to look as he was pointing. Much better than when I was a teenager though. :)

Now, I keep going. I have gained more muscle, even since those photos (taken July 2014) but I also gained a little fat in the process. Legs and back have been a primary focus and it has paid off. I managed to reach 900# on the hack squat with three reps. (Ok, the last two were like 3/4 of a full rep each, hehe) but adding the leg muscle has really paid off in the way of speeding up the metabolism. My core is still very strong, but hidden under a small layer of fat. At one point I would have hated this, but I know continuing to build muscle while occasionally cutting has been successful in my body's overall health. The abs will come soon enough, with much more muscle this time around. (Besides, I had to enjoy Christmas you know?)

This summer's gonna be awesome. Thanks for reading.

I get to live the number one thing on my "impossible list."