I have been a competitive athlete my whole life with dreams and aspirations of one day becoming a professional baseball player. At a young age nothing but training and education consumed by daily life. I ate, slept, and dreamt baseball and excelled at it with ease. As I grew my training evolved and my talent, hard work, and dedication awarded me a Division I baseball scholarship.
I thought my dreams were coming true as I left Michigan to travel south to compete against the nation's top talent. That dream came to an abrupt end after multiple shoulder surgeries to my throwing arm. In an instant, I was told in the nicest way possible I was damaged goods and was no longer needed. For the first time in my life I no longer had athletic direction and had nothing to fill that competitive drive that fueled me every day.
I always trained in the weight room, but never at abodybuilding type level. I soon turned back to the gym in hopes to take out my frustrations and anger. As time progressed I found a new love and a new dream in the weight room. There, I was able to lose myself in the moment and not rely on anyone else. I controlled my own fate in the gym and could not get enough of it.
Instantly I read and researched everything possible. I continually came across the same quote "To get big, eat big" and I took that advice to the next level, and not in a good way. I wanted to get as naturally big as possible, so to transform my frame I force fed 8-10 meals per day, spread out every two hours.
These foods were all healthy, but were consumed in absolute mass quantities. Eating became harder than the workout because I simply hated eating chicken and brown rice multiple times a day. Nothing was measured or weighed out and no cardio was performed to preserve calories. I gave myself a "bulking cut off" point and did not care what I looked like up until that point.
I realize now that what I was doing was completely ridiculous, hence, the giant fat whale you see in my picture. Once I got to that point, it was time to get serious. I wanted to attain that ripped-up, veiny look, and to get there, I knew it would require more dedication and willpower than anything I have ever done before.
What was your low point or turning point?
I would say there were several low points that were quite depressing. I constantly flexed my “abs” in an effort to hide my enormous gut. Simple things like walking up or down stairs would leave me breathless. I could no longer wear any clothing I once fit into before.
The absolute lowest point though was looking at my before pictures after taking them and realizing I was a slob. It did not matter how strong I had gotten, I looked like a fat mess that never even thought about the gym.
Were there any unique challenges or circumstances that made your transformation particularly difficult?
Incorporating the cardio was probably the most difficult. Not too long ago I was a Division I baseball player who was recruited based on his speed. At 225 treadmill walking for 15 minutes was now the hardest thing in the world!
I was also discouraged when I cut down to 180 because I thought that was the weight I would be at to achieve the look I wanted. That was not the case simply because I had more fat to lose.
Transformation Start: There were multiple factors that triggered my transformation start. The most important were the simple facts that I could no longer climb stairs without becoming winded, fit into size 36 pants and realizing how fat I had become after looking at my before pictures.
Milestone: My first milestone was to incorporate steady state cardio into my daily workouts. I wanted to build up my cardiovascular endurance and start to shed some fat. I began my journey with 15 minutes of interval incline treadmill walking at 4.0 mph and max height. I also began getting my nutrition in check. I no longer ate mass quantities, portion control started to emerge.
Milestone: Each successive week time was added until I reached 30-40 minutes per session.
Milestone: Pounds dropped by soon I reached a plateau. I was not where I wanted to be so I decided to calculate my exact macronutrient breakdown per BMR and weight lifting sessions. I incorporated the use of a scale and each meal was weighed out.
Transformation End: To put the finishing touches on and really get cut up I used the help of a book I purchased titled “Better than Steroids”. I followed the advice from Dr. Warren Willey. I followed his food plans and after 12 weeks I finally where I wanted to be; veiny, vascular, and cut up.