The Chronicles of “B”

The other day I wrote a blog about how kids growing up today have it so much easier than I did when I was growing up. Of course I was mostly just trying to be funny but it kind of got me thinking about then and now and I realize the biggest difference is that kids these days never leave the damn house. You practically have to throw them outside! When I was a kid my parents use to punish us by making us stay inside.
Kids just don’t play anymore either. When I was a kid, depending on what season it was, there was always a game going on. And I’m not talking about on TV I mean we were gathered out at a field somewhere or at the basketball court playing ball. These would usually be all day events too. I remember getting out of bed in the summer about 8 O’clock…slamming down a bowl of Cap’n Crunch….hopping on the bike and meeting my friends at the local diamond to play ball. We’d play till lunch time…fly back home and slam some PB sammiches and milk and then fly back down to the field. The game would usually wrap up by 3 because most of us had to get home to get ready for a game that night or for ball practice.

Fall would roll around and every night after homework we met at someone’s yard for a quick game of football or at the court to shoot hoops. Saturday was all day football and I remember my mom getting pissed cause I would always come home with torn and grass stained jeans. We were pretty hard core even back then. I remember breaking my finger once early in a game but instead of going home I tore a strip of cloth from my shirt…tied the finger to the one next to it and kept playing.

Even during the coldest days of winter we played outside. For most of my childhood we lived on the banks of the Auglaze River and I remember how we would meet at this one little spot by the woods with our snow shovels and we would clear the ice to play hockey. We’d build a big fire to stay warm and we played all day. It was freaking awesome

One of my favorite childhood memories was once during an Olympic year, I think 1972, we all gathered in the hood and held our own mini Olympics. I won like 10 Gold Medals! How do ya like that shit Michael Phelps!?! LOL!

These days kids meet at one of their friends house and play Guitar Hero instead of taking the time to learn to play a real guitar and if they play any sports it’s in front of the TV on the Wii! Then it’s off to Micky D’s to slam some big Macs and trans fats! Yummy!

Well friends that’s about all I have time for today but don’t think you’ve heard the last on this subject from me. To be continued……

Have you ever looked enviously at a really successful person and thought to yourself, “Damn!” “That guy is soooooo lucky…everything just seems to fall right into their lap.” Or maybe you looked at a really attractive person and said, “Sure I could look that way too if I had their genes…or their money!” It’s easy for us to look at someone and reason their success as just the product of dumb luck or great genetics because it makes us feel better about ourselves and our shortcomings.

Well let me tell ya a little secret my friends….NOTHING!…and I do mean nothing in this world happens by chance. It’s the choices we make that determine our successes. I repeat….choice not chance determines our success!

That is never more evident than in bodybuilding! It takes more than dumb luck or good genetics to build an awesome physique. It takes hard work and determination and along the way you have to make good choices. You choose to go to the gym when you would rather hit the bar with your friends. You choose to choke down that nasty ass can of tuna instead of a basket of hot wings (my personal fav) or that greasy pizza. You choose to spend hundreds of dollars on supplements instead of sending one of your kids to college….hey a prize winning physique require sacrifices too! The kid can always go to community college or technical school.

Anyway kiddies, the moral of the story is this….instead of sitting around whining and crying about not getting anywhere while others seem to have everything handed to them on a silver platter just take a look at the choices you’ve made lately. I’ll bet you can find lots of places where you could improve.

Remember when you were a kid how your parents would lecture you about how easy we had it and how much harder things were when they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning. Uphill…barefoot…BOTH ways and all that garbage? Sure you do. I’m sure every child hears that at least once growing up.

I know I heard it plenty and I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that… I’m over the ripe old age of fifty I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. DAMN! You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves in the freaking card catalogue!! And let me tell ya that thing is a pain in the ass.

There was no e-mail!! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way to the Post Office and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3′ s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ’d usually talk over the beginning and f@#ked it all up!

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal and that’s it!

And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer,
a collections agent, you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances!

We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600!with games like ‘Space Invaders and asteroids and your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen….forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the Channel!
And there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you Hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled. And it’s kind of the same when it comes to bodybuilding. You have fancy ass machines with LED readouts and bells and whistles! What’s wrong with just slinging some iron around for Christ Sakes? Give me old school any day!

That’s right you spoiled little bastards….not only did I walk twenty-five miles to school every morning. Uphill…barefoot…BOTH ways…I had to walk on glass!

HARD CORE MUTHAS RULE! 

Greetings my friends from the Land of Bulk! It’s a gorgeous Sunday morning here and I’m sitting here with my Miami Dolphins coffee cup reflecting on my life. It certainly hasn’t taken long for the effects of the bulk to become evident. I feel my arms becoming more swole (is that proper English) and my abs which were visibly prominent a mere week ago are now safely stored beneath a thin layer of fat where they will remain for the rest of the winter.

Looking back over the last few weeks of my contest prep I’m beginning to wonder if I have the genetics to be successful in bodybuilding competition. I mean my body responded extremely well to cutting. I was amazed how fast I leaned out but the muscle definition I had hopped for fell far short of my expectations. Make no mistake…there was muscle…just not enough to suit me. I’ve also come to realize just how long and how bad I’ve wanted to reside in the land of hugeness!
I remember reading those Charles Atlas ads in my comic books when I was a kid and dreaming about how cool it would be to get that huge and visit my wrath on all those sand kicking bullies of the world. I also remember pouring over old muscle mags with articles about my early BB hero’s like Frank Zane and Larry Scott.

I really regret not pursuing BB back then but I was more into the dream of being in the St. Louis Cardinals outfield or taking over the reigns of starting QB for the Dolphins from Bob Greise but some dude named Dan Marino beat me to it. Those dreams paid big bucks and brought with it the admiration of thousands of adoring fans. Even though I admired bodybuilders most of John Q. Public at that time looked at them as freakish. That was pre Arnold of course. Anyway…as much as I admired my BB hero’s and wanted to be like them I was no dope….I was going with the fame and fortune!

I’m so glad I’ve found my way back to the iron if for no other reason then the health it’s brought me. Plus it’s awesome to have kids in their 20’s guess my age at mid 30’s! Bodybuilding has truly been a fountain of youth for me but I want more from it than that.

I’ve come to realize that I still crave that admiration so that’s why I pursue the dream of competing. I want to win contest and inspire others of all ages to pursue their BB dreams. I want to be in magazines and show the world that 50 can be the new 25! I would love to meet my BB hero’s and shake their hands and tell them how much they inspired me. I know these are big dreams but if you’re gonna dream what not dream big. Don’t doubt me! Now if I can just overcome those damn genetics!

Ok as much as I hate to say this I’ve decided I’m not going to compete on Oct. 4^th. I busted my ass and gave it a great effort but to be honest I just don’t feel that my body is contest ready and I am not about to step out on the stage and embarrass myself. It was a tough decision but for me it’s not good enough to get on the stage just for the rush of being up there. I decided right from the beginning that if I didn’t feel I could make a good showing then I wasn’t doing it. It makes no sense to me to put all that time in the gym killing myself…choking down nasty food I don’t really want, and spending hundreds of dollars on supplements just to finish last and say, “It was a great experience.” Screw that! Hard Core Muthas don’t train for second place. I really wanted to make this show and I’ve made some big time improvements but right now I look more like an aerobics instructor than a bodybuilder and bottom line is that just won‘t cut it. I don’t feel to bad about it though. I knew that it was going to be tough to get ready when I made the decision to compete with only 16 weeks to prepare so it‘s all good.

All is not lost though…I learned some valuable lessons about contest prep. I got to see how my body reacts to being carb depleted, I learned about posing without looking like a total dip shit, and I totally learned what it’s like to be completely dedicated to something heart and soul and to see it through to it’s conclusion. I also found out just how brutal contest prep can be and how freaking awesome it can be when you stand in front of that mirror and see the results of all your hard work. What a fantastic feeling. I mean why should I hang my head? I went from a chubby 248 to a lean mean 210 and actually had visible abs for the first time in forever. Nothing wrong with that. Besides I’m not through with competing I’m just shifting gears. I feel lack of size is what’s holding me back so starting today the bulk begins. I’m on a mission to gain as much quality mass as I can between now and January. Then in January I will look for a contest in March or April that will allow me 20 quality weeks of prep. That will probably be an NPC event in Northern Kentucky in March or a show in Toledo in April or both. So I don’t consider this a failure just a lesson learned. I’m not stepping on stage till I’m the absolute best I can be.

I want to thank everyone who stopped by to wish me well and who took an interest in my contest prep. It’s that kind of support from my BodySpace friends that keeps driving me on…this site kicks ass. I especially want to thank Susan for everything she’s done to help me train and for always taking the time to talk to me about bodybuilding and being my training partner…and my wife Maggie for cooking me special food and putting up with all my crap especially on low carb days. Without my support system I could never do this. I can’t wait till Spring! Bring on the bulk!

Just showing you what I do for cardio.

"B" answers more questions like it or not!

"B" answers questions about his contest prep.

Sorry for the sound quality guess I need to speak up

I just wanted to write a quickie blog to say I have reached a personal milestone.  As of today I tip the scale at 210 lbs.  That’s down from my all time high of 248 not to very long ago and is the lowest I’ve been in over 3 years.  The cuts are starting to come out…my abs are beginning to show…and people are beginning to notice and make very nice comments.  I am very pleased with myself today.  Progress pics soon I promise.

Till later…Lift Long and Prosper

"B"…real or B gone