Even though I was small, I was skinny fat at a bodyweight of 118 pounds when I graduated from high school, and I was never able to see my abs. I hated the feeling of people being able to take advantage of me at will, I hated how I looked, and this ignited a fire within me to change, no matter what it took.

involved the Charles Atlas program, which I ordered through an ad in a “G.I Joe” comic book. The program involved using a series of isometric muscle contractions, but it didn’t work out the way I had initially hoped or give me the body I was searching for. I got a bit stronger from the program, but other than it only served to make me hungrier for the physique I was craving.

This was followed shortly after by my first weight set, a York Barbell set with plastic plates and collars, and a cheap bench that I got from my parents at the age of 14. 

I was elated, and convinced that this was my ticket to the physique I wanted, and the power and confidence that would come along with it!

I really had no idea what I was doing, and I found myself following the program that came along with the barbell set, which was printed on a large poster in black and white showing the various exercises.

that came between me and my fitness goals began in earnest in my last year of high school. I had dabbled with drugs and alcohol on and off since I was 13 years old, but I jumped into that world with reckless abandon when I turned 18. 

I spent most of my evenings with friends, drinking beer and smoking pot. We would drive around the back roads out in the country, listening to music, getting high and talking about ridiculous theories regarding the world and the universe.

After high school, I moved in with a couple of friends, and our evenings of partying eventually turned into days as well, and I started selling drugs to be able to finance this lifestyle. 

Pot gradually turned into LSD, magic mushrooms and cocaine, and I began to drink more heavily with each passing day.

My parents sensed the road I was travelling along, were justifiably concerned for my well being and my future, and for my 18th birthday, they bought me my first gym membership. 

This kick started my fitness and fat loss goals once again, and while I didn’t stop partying, I slowed down and stopped selling drugs.

I had made a conscious decision to give my life to Jesus and follow Him shortly after this point, and I felt called to focus on this area of my life once again in response to the difficulties and struggles I had become faced with. I decided to travel to Europe and attend a Bible school in the Austrian Alps for a couple of months to get my feet back under me again.

my drug habit only became stronger and stronger, and while I thought I I was living a “healthy” lifestyle because of the time I spent in the gym, I gained a lot of weight from a terrible diet that consisted mostly of fast food, microwave burritos and Mr. Noodles.

My drug habit slowly began to consume me as well and I felt like I was trapped, with no hope. I was secretly terrified that my drug habit would end up killing me, and I repeatedly cried out to God to deliver me from the grip of this horrible habit.

This issue came to a head at the age of 33, when my wife and a couple of friends confronted me about it, and convinced me to kick this habit.

At the time I was making my own “backyard opium" through sources and methods I had researched on the internet, and I had a monster sized habit. I decided to kick the habit cold turkey, and the first night, I became so terribly sick that I needed to check in at the local hospital emergency room.

We had 2 small children at the time, that we had to bring to my in-laws house on our way to the hospital. When we were checking in at the front desk of the hospital, I passed out and woke up in a hospital bed, hooked up to a bunch of monitors and machines. 

My son would go into rages where he would destroy his bedroom and break things, he would scream at us that he hated us, and life became a living hell much of the time.

Add to that the fact that we were unsure if he would even survive, and we had to face the very real fear that cancer might take our oldest son away from us.

At this point I had plenty of reasons to abandon my fitness goals, but I refused to take this as an excuse.

After all, if I didn’t make the time to take care of myself, how could I expect to take care of my family properly?

How could I expect to be an example to my wife and kids if I just gave up on the things that were important to me?

How could I inspire my clients to take care of themselves and prioritize their health and fitness in the face of difficulties if I refused to do the same?

While I did make the time to train and eat properly, I completely changed how I approached my training and distilled everything I had learned over the past few years down to the absolute basics, so that my training time was compressed and optimized for the maximum results in the minimum amount of time.