My Journey from ’Rock Bottom’ to the ’Top’…and Still Climbing
My journey starts off at the very beginning of 2006, January 1st to be exact. At the time, I was going through many hardships in life; marriage separation, job layoff, and a 1 year old baby-girl to try and take care of. I was living in Monterey, CA, but due to my job and marriage situation, I resided back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I was originally from.
During that time, I was battling depression, stress, and lots anxiety from all my current life stresses, not to mention i was 245lbs, overweight, out of shape, self conscience, and had a very low self-esteem. Since I entered college in 1999, I pretty much stopped most of my physical activity, and took the college-life into full effect; drinking, partying, staying up late, BAD diet routines, laziness, etc. This lifestyle pretty much continued from the point I started college, till I graduated in 2004, but once I got married in 2004, I didn’t really start the healthy lifestyle that I should have.
I worked in Monterey for the entire time I was living in the area (1999-2005), then I got a position in San Jose, CA, so at that point the only choice I had was to commute 1-1.5hours each way to work, each day; that meant ‘no time to workout’. Once I got home, I had to take care of the family, and especially my young baby-girl. Bad eating habits, no motivation, depression, all continued and got worse. If I remember correctly, the heaviest I got was 245lbs, and that was around the end of 2005, which is where my personal marriage issues started to really heat up.
On January 1st, 2006, the wife I had and I separated, and it really never healed into what a marriage should have. It really hit me hard, and I took it very serious, somewhat like “my worst nightmare, the thing I never wanted to ever happen in my life…just happened.”
So, on January 2nd, 2006, I decided to start making a positive change in my life, start going to the gym. My father and I got memberships to 24hour Fitness in San Carlos, California, and that’s when I decided to get back into shape.
As time went on, I started getting more involved into supplements and training routines, as the Max Muscle Franchise in San Mateo, California (which is where I learned about ALLMAX Nutrition) were very kind to start me off on the right foot on many supplements and nutritional guidelines.
For a time, I was really interested in training for a strongman competition, cause I loved lifting heavy weights; as I did have the size for it. But as time went on, I felt really burned out on lifting as heavy as I could, cause I didn’t see the physically appealing results that I was looking for; I was really intrigued by the Arnold Schwarzenegger (one of my childhood/current icons) look/figure. So, during mid 2007, I decided to take up more of a bodybuilding approach to my training, lower the weights a little, get more reps, keep it intense, use the ‘pyramid’ method, burn fat, eat right, more water, and push the intensity up!
Soon enough, I started to see physical results come faster and faster. My weight was going down, but my muscle mass was noticeably increasing, as well as my strength, stamina and intensity. In September of 2007, I weighed my lowest I ever had since I went to college in 1999 at 202.5lbs. So my motivation jumped even more to get more muscle, and shred the fat off. There wasn’t anything stopping me at that point, even my current divorce and daily-life drama.
During January of 2008, I was pushed into maybe competing in an actual bodybuilding show, which I have been very interested in doing one day anyways; so, I decided to take up my first show in October of 2008. I kept watching Jay Cutler DVD’s to pickup any information I could on dieting and contest prep, read bodybuilding books (Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger), watched Pumping Iron, read magazines, started eating a variety of foods to see what they did to my body and how I reacted to each of them, trial and error with various supplements, etc. I tried to do all the research I could to make this goal come out as best as I could the first time out. I even planned my own 16 week pre-contest diet, and followed it to the ‘T’, implemented many things I caught from the Jay Cutler DVD’s (mainly training techniques and foods). I ate every 2-3 hours, implemented proper nutrition into every meal, drank tons of water, cycled my supplements properly, and listened and learned from others that competed before or had past related experience.
So, from the support of my family/friends/ALLMAX Nutrition (all my strongest supporters), Max Muscle San Mateo, TF Supplements and Bon Vivant Tea, I competed in my first bodybuilding show in October 2008 with the WBFA (World Bodybuilding & Fitness Association). I Placed 2nd in Men’s Middleweight Novice, and 3rd in Men’s Middleweight OPEN. The heaviest I weighed during my pre-contest 16 week diet was 223lbs 10% bf, and I shredded down to 176.5lbs ~5% bf at contest time.
I have to say the whole experience on-stage was probably one of the greatest experiences I’ve done in my entire life. Seeing the crowd, music, lights, camera’s, cheers, everything! I couldn’t get enough. I seriously had a permanent smile on during the whole show, even though I was dying for some water. I seriously cannot wait to get back on-stage, as I plan on doing 3 to 4 shows in the 2009 season.
With all the things I’ve learned, and experimented with, during my transformation, I’ve been inspired to help others and share my knowledge. I am currently submitting my tests to become a certified ISSA Personal Trainer, have plans on becoming a supplement distributor for a variety of supplement manufacturers, fitness clothing, fitness modeling, and even do fitness seminars, expos and travel-training.
I have definitely been bit by the bodybuilding bug, and I don’t think I’m gonna look back! This is a lifestyle that is definitely appealing to me, and the best part is that my experience is inspiring others to try the same.
