9 Months, 1 Week, 4 Days

Blog Day 1. I've never journaled or done a diary before so I'm going to take a stab at journaling my progress and journey to my first body building competition on October 3rd, 2009 - the Atlanta SNBF in Marietta, Georgia.

So, today is the Monday before Christmas, 2008. I've been traveling the road to a thinner more healthier me for over a year now. I've succeeded in "releasing" almost 100 lbs of weight from my body by following the BFL program out of my house. I bought several pieces of equipment: a set of SelectTech 552 dumbbells, a recumbent bike and a Bowflex incline/decline bench.

Those pieces of equipment took me a long way but I wanted to change things up quite a bit a couple of months ago so I joined a gym. While I was doing that, I decided to hire a trainer for 12 sessions (there was a discount) from the gym. That's how I met Joe. He left the gym to open his own gym with another trainer - a trainer's only type gym. I moved over there with him because we clicked and really like the trainer's only type gym where you could workout there (with very few other people) if you were training with one of their trainers.

I worked out with him for the 12 sessions and found that I really liked having a trainer but I didn't really have a goal. Jeo started talking to me about doing body building in a very casual way and pointed to himself and the other trainers as examples. He's 50 and finished 4th in a competition just recently.

So, I thought about it seriously and I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to go down the road of competing in a body building competition. I told Joe that I wanted to do it and when he thought I would be ready. That's how October 3, 2009 came about.

Today is the beginning of week 3 of the body building workout he created for me. I am loving the workouts and I'm lifting heavier than I ever thought I could. I did 155 lbs on the squat and 360lbs on the leg press.

Tonight is legs and shoulders and I'm really looking forward to coming away wiped out!