Meeting With Mr. America

Had my meeting today with a guy named John DeFendis.

Turns out he was only Mr. USA in 1988 and considered a legend in the bodybuilding industry.

His list of accomplishments are too many to fill this page. His list of clients, the famous and the ordinary, too long to recite. His television appearances too numerous to watch in a short period of time.

And he is volunteering to help me.

John and I exchanged emails way back in the early stages of this whole deal, but at the time I told him that I wanted - needed, really - to do it on my own. I needed to prove to myself that I could start something like this and stay with it long-term. I needed to find the motivation to finally put the failures behind me and do something about my ridiculous weight gain over the last 22 years.

Now, however, roughly nine months into it, it's time for help.

As I've said recently, I am in unchartered territory here. I have kept at this program longer than any other. And though the last couple of months have been sketchy, by and large it's been a success.

But ultimately I'm not going to maintain long-term weight loss on a low-carb diet. And we all know that exercise - which I have shunned with a passion - is essential to getting all the excess weight off and then keeping it off.

So, Wednesday I go meet with one of John's trainers in Anderson. We lay down a meal plan. He begins training me 3-4 times per week. And, if all goes well, my goal to be half the man I was in December gets catapulted into a whole new stratosphere (I reason that if I'm twice the man I used to be, as I tell people, don't I want to become half the man I already am? Chew on that one for a while).

In any event, for the next couple of weeks I won't be posting weigh-in totals. It will take that long for my body to get acclimated to the switch in diets. But when I do start posting again, it will take into consideration the weeks I skipped.

I will also be drawing line - literally - separating Week 37 from Week 38 and below, signalling the start of this new phase of my program.

As much as I hate the idea of the gym, I'm actually excited about this. Talking with John and Vernon - his top trainer - today, I got the feeling I was important to them. That I mattered.

And most importantly that I'm not going to be taken advantage of by either of them.

In the grand scheme of things, you can't ask for any more than that.

I will keep blogging during the next two weeks. So keep reading.

And keeping offering up the comments and emails of support. I need all of them I can get.