20 weeks have gone by and it seems like yesterday I was eating all kinds of junk food. I started this journey at 202 lbs and probably the worst shape I have ever been in. As of today I am 166 lbs and my goal is around 158 lbs but I will continue to drop weight and where I land does not matter as long as I am in my best shape ever. The reason I decided to take this journey was I wanted to prove to myself I can get in my best shape ever and leave no thoughts of what if I did this or that different. I decided to take a full 7 months to get myself ready. I wanted to commit everything I had in being my best. My last show in '06 I thought to myself after the show, what if I took an extra 4 weeks to get ready? What kind of conditioning would I have? After that last show I let myself go physically and mentally. I still trained with weights 3 times per week but I did no cardio and my diet, well was no diet. I ate anything and everything and it showed. I was out of shape! About a year ago my little brother, not little but younger, started to train with me. With him training with me I became more motivated and he pushed me really hard. We were lifting heavy weight but with great form. He has been a great motivator for me and he is a big reason for my gains in the gym. All of a sudden I realized I was bigger than I ever been at 200 lbs, but I was holding a lot of body fat. I started looking at photos from many natural shows and I started to get the itch to enter another show. The reason I chose "Capital City Natural" is because it is close to home and every time in the past I have competed there I was not in shape. In 1999, I did the show but it was a week after a previous show and I was mentally not into doing another show. In 2000, I had just did the "Northwest Natural" in Oregon and again I was not mentally into dieting for another 2 months. In 2004, I did the show with only a couple months of dieting and fell way short of being my best but I was able to capture the middleweight class. So now 5 years later I am doing the show to prove to myself I can be at my best and erase a lot of questions and doubts in my mind. The one thing in this sport you have to have the mental toughness to go through many weeks of dieting and cardio. I feel I was ready 20 weeks ago to take my journey and with 8 weeks left I feel I will achieve my goal to get my best shape regardless of the outcome of the show.

    Here are Week 20 pics at 166lbs. Until my next blog keep training hard and naturally!