Truly inspirational night

Saturday June 22, 2008 Missy and I went to the NPC Junior National Bodybuilding championships. This is a catapult to the NPC USA, which can propel you to professional bodybuilding status. What a very cool thing to attend for me. Missy and the girls gave me tickets for fathers day. It was very exciting for me. I was able to meet some of the professionals I read about everyday in the magazines like Desmond Miller to the right. Look at that guys ARMS!! OH MY GOSH!
I also was able to meet my mentor and trainer Dave Palumbo. Dave has been instrumental in helping me not only lose over 60 pounds in the last year, but also in teaching me tons about nutrition and exercise and getting to know my body. This guy is known as the "GURU" in the industry. Mr. Palumbo's advice is cutting edge and goes against mainstream information at times but after losing over 60 pounds, I would have to say he knows what the heck he is doing! Mr. Palumbo paid me the greatest compliment when meeting me by saying "I didn't even recognize you your face has thinned out so much and you look so much thinner". I send Mr. Palumbo pictures of me every week so it's not like he doesn't see me, just never in person. What an awesome honor to have met him personally.

I was also able to see Don Long (http://www.bodybuilders.com/long.htm), Dexter Jackson (http://www.dexterjacksonshredded.com/), Evan Centopani (http://evancentopani.com/), Bob Cicherillo (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bobc.htm), Trey Brewer (http://www.treybrewer.com/), and Marcus Haley (http://www.marcushaley.com/). What a treat that was for me to see all of these guys. Marcus Haley was chowing down when we got to him of course. I mean really, what else would you expect from a bodybuilder?

It was amazing to me to watch all of these people, even the crowd, and the size of the people there. It was awe inspiring how hard they must work knowing how hard I have worked over the last year. It is funny, just the day before, I saw someone I hadn't seen in a long time and he said I looked like a monster because of my size....funny how small I looked even compared to the people in the crowd...heck, even the women in the crowd!I must say though, I could never have made it even this far without the support of my loving wife and daughters. They have encouraged me from day one to stay on course and keep on keeping on, even through rough times and injuries. They have been my inspiration through this. It has been an even higher honor to see my brother start working out again, and being able to help a few people get their motivation up to get going on their nutrition and excercise as well. This is a long life we get to have, being in shape and staying in shape will make it that much better on us.