“Embrace that which defines you.”

That is one of my all time favorite motivational quotes. It really connected with me the first time I heard it. I never really felt a pull in any particular direction while growing up. Like most boys, I wanted to be a professional baseball player when I grew up – but a combination of poor genetics and lack of talent prevented that from happening. Throughout high school, didn’t really have an idea either.  I began my college career in General Studies because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.

The one thing I did know is that I didn’t want to work for anyone, I wanted to control my own fate and own my own business – so when I had to choose a major, I chose Business Management. In one class, Small Business Management, my professor asked all of us – “If you won the lottery and never had to work again for the rest of your life, what would you do every day? “. He told us whatever that answer was is what we should try to build a career in. For the first time in my scholastic career a light bulb went off.

I always loved exercising from an early age. I remember watching Rocky III and the Incredible Hulk in awe of all the muscles they had and wanting to look like that some day. Unfortunately, those genetics got in my way again! When I was in 8^th grade, I was 5’4’’, weighed 180 pounds and wore size 38 pants.

I actually had this picture on my fridge to motivate myself to lose weight with the caption…“Which one is the horse?”

I have always joked that I have a split personality. One is a chubby kid always trying to sabotage my diets, and the other is a bodybuilder who tends to lose to the formers perseverance. I have always been addicted to junk food and I still struggle to this day. I believe my passion for exercise and discovering bodybuilding saved me. What would my health be like if I didn’t exercise? I hate to even entertain the thought.

Kids can be tough, and I definitely experienced my fair share of “bullying the fat kid” while in high school. I chose to harness whatever anger I felt and used it to drive me. My senior year I returned to school at 5’10’’ 160 pounds and a 30 inch waist – most didn’t recognize me. Granted, muscle was not a plenty – but I was determined to work on that.

I loved how the human body could change with effort and determination. Once I started training consistently and reading incessantly on how to have more productive workouts, I became more and more addicted. Health and Fitness was defining who I was.

Unfortunately, that chubby kid came out again and I ballooned up to 235 pounds! So, that is when the bodybuilder inside of me made decided to win his first fight. I did my first competition at 21 and lost 70 pounds to do it. It was awful. I didn’t even place and having to lose 70 pounds sucked! I swore I would never do another show.

But, once the chubby kid inside of me heard that the bodybuilder was retiring – he took over. 60 pounds later, I decided to come out of retirement and use this as an excuse to lose the weight and get back in shape. I ended up doing 12 more competitions – 13 total in my career. The experiences I had from the process of dieting and training for all those shows taught me so much about not just my body but the human body. That knowledge was irreplaceable, more than any certification or class could teach. It would be what I would attribute my success to.

Just like in high school as the fat kid who everyone thought would always be the fat kid. I began my career with not even placing in my first show and finished my career as a nationally ranked natural bodybuilder, won 2 first place finishes, and in 2003 finished top 5 in the country.

I took what seemed impossible as a challenge….losing weight and not being the fat kid, becoming a nationally ranked bodybuilder even though I stunk my first few attempts at it.

When my professor posed that question to us – I immediately answered to myself “exercise”. I loved working out. I loved the fact that you could dramatically change your body by paying close attention to your nutrition and exercise program. I loved helping people, I was always sharing workout routines that I found fun and exciting with other kids in the gym. So, I decided to get certified and became a personal trainer and the rest as they say is history.

The moral of the story is; find your passions and embrace them. I wrote this article and shared these pictures to show I do practice what I preach. I believe in being healthy, no matter how hard it is. When I try to convince clients not to quit, it isn’t because I own the business and am trying to make a sale. I truly believe that you are doing yourself a disservice walking away from something that is so beneficial for your health and well-being. We need to remember the reason for working out is to be healthier, feel good, and live longer – not to just look better. The superficial aspect is just a positive side effect of living a healthy lifestyle.

Whether it’s fitness, family, sports, or just anything in life that makes you happy- embrace it.  Those of us who make a living doing something we love are very lucky. If you’re passionate about getting a promotion embrace it and do the steps necessary to achieve it, the same goes for getting in shape or losing weight – embrace the challenge and achieve it! We all have more strength within then we realize.

First Barbell set, Christmas 1980. It was always in me!