Let the transformation begin!

Backstory

It was in the spring of 2010 that I decided to transform my body, but we'll get back to that part in a minute. I was living with my parents in Maine, running a hops farm, and a 100ft x 100ft outdoor garden. We had moved there in 2004 from Massachusetts. In 2006 I took the food out of the fire; meaning I switched to a "raw vegan" diet. At that time I was weighing about 160lbs of skinny-fat at 18 years old. Fast forward 3 years of eating like that; all of my food under 118 degrees; consuming basically no salt, no table sugar, no coffee. I mean literally nothing processed or cooked. Then, another year of eating raw "80/10/10" at a caloric deficit. 80/10/10 is 80% carb, 10% protein, 10% fat. So we arrived at a 115lb, prepubescent looking 22 year old. I think the lowest I saw on the scale was 112lbs! I'm 5'11.5

2010 – 115lbs (cooked vegan)

That picture was taken July, of 2010. About a month before that was taken, one of my father's childhood friends who I had known since I was a child came over. I always remembered him for being very passionate about Bruce Lee and martial arts. When he saw me without my shirt on after the 4 years of not seeing me while I eating raw food, all he could do was ask, "What happened?!". I was in a state of dysmorphia (as I am now) and was actually surprised by his comment, as It was the first time anyone had brought my weight loss to my attention. He said, You look like how Bruce Lee looked; on his death bed.

That was that! After that visit I started to incorporate cooked foods back into my diet again, but I did remain a vegan until some time in 2013. The very next day after that visit I started doing bullshit; hill sprints, pulling big tires up hills, sledgehammering tires, handstand push ups, pull ups on trees, body-weight routines, and making make-shift things to lift, press, and pull; there were some ridiculous moments. Next, I made (in retrospect) the mistake of doing the workout program called, "Insanity". First off, that program is insane, second, if you are a 125lb male who is almost 6ft tall and trying to gain muscle; yeah, don't do Insanity; especially twice in a row.

2011 – 135lbs (cooked vegan)

So I wasted some time, but It was April, 2011 that I got my first gym membership. I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what a deadlift was yet. I got online and researched as much as I could about gaining size and strength. For the first year I pretty much trained according to an excel spreadsheet workout plan that was given to me from a friend upon my asking for advice. It served as a great foundation. Here are some pictures from October and November of 2011, after about 6 or 7 months of training.

October & November 2011

Once I started seeing the small gains in the mirror I was hooked, and it made me even more inspired to learn more; to grow.

2012 – 155lbs (cooked vegan)

Fast forward to 2012. At this point I was still eating a cooked vegan diet. I would eat tofu scrambles instead of eggs. Lots of peas and pea soup, lentils, legumes, rice, nuts, seeds,fruit, vegetables, sprouts, and tofu. I was also supplementing with Garden of Life protein powders.

Here is the progress I made by February of 2012

March of 2012

July of 2012

November of 2012

2013 – 175lbs (cooked vegetarian)

Started to get a little more serious in 2013 after seeing some gainz in the mirror and feeling so much better all around. Sometime in the middle of 2013 is when I started to eat vegetarian foods again; not eggs though. I didn't try eggs again until 2015. It started with adding cheese, yogurts, and primarily whey protein.

March of 2013:

April 2013 – 2 years of gym membership.

June 2013

August 2013 – Getting shredded here. My appetite always tanks during the hottest months.

September 2013

Here are a couple of examples of the types of meals I was eating at the time:

2014 - 190lbs

Still not eating eggs. Ate nuts and cheese for almost a year straight for breakfast. Played around with carb backloading. My main focus up until this point had been solely gaining size; hypertrophy. I wanted to hit 200lbs by 2015, and I did.

February 2014 – Nuts and Cheese; Nuts and Cheese! (and too much pizza & candy!)

May of 2014

June of 2104

September & October of 2014

2015 – 205lbs (cooked vegetarian / junk food connoisseur)

Enter the year of powerlifting. I definitely did some dirty bulking this year until the point where my abs basically disappeared!! I was eating a large pizza and a pint of ice cream a day... yeah, I know, whatever, that's what it was, lol. My metabolism is fire though, so I easily stripped it off in a few months. This is the year where my goals shifted. I started to care more about strength than gaining size. I felt weak in comparison to my size, and I met powerlifter who I began best friends with name Anthony Mureno. Check him out on instagram. I gained a lot of strength this year. I got to meet Marc Lobliner and Ronny Coleman that year too. I also hurt my self pretty badly this year, again. I had a bad back injury and I slit my Achilles tendon in 2014 too. From the 2010-2016, there was probably collectively at least a 3 month span of not being able to bend over enough to touch my knees, never mind tie my shoes.

February to April of 2015

May of 2015

June and July of 2015

September and November of 2015

I did lots of programs over the years; blood and guts, hellraiser, fst-7, 5x5, mi40, mi40x, Arnold blue print, 531, boring but big, other black iron beast variants, russian squat program etc. It's hard to remember when each one was done. I also kept switching between carb backloading, carb binges, not caring about diet, IIFYM, and strict caloric monitoring; never full keto.