part trois!

Ok, so here I am in college. I'm new, still kinda out of my element and I'm trying to fit in. And, I find a descent gym. So, I joined up. Was a good year of training till school was out and I did good gains( not really) lol.I was still in a learning curve and it would be "years" Till I realized what I was doing.All that to say that without going into too much details I was just a gym rat , loving lifting and not really knowing what I was doing. Remember, no internet and absolutely no" personal" trainers. I needed to learn and wanted too, so after school it was time to join a "real" gym.My first experience wasn't great, the place I had joined ended up going tits up within 6 months of me signing up. That wasn't fun. I bounced for a while from one place to another without really finding"a home" Then, And to this day I still have no idea how I found it, i ended up in a small, basic, no bullshit GYM. Thank gawd! I finally felt at home in this small dingy place. It was clean for sure but damn was it a meat head gym. I was home!  The call of the day was free weights and more free weights! That was just fine by me. I met so many dedicated people there. People that were so engrained in the lifestyle, i feel I found myself in this place, with these people and this atmosphere. I still miss this place to this day, 20 years later and I still long for this gym like a long lost love. Go figure! So off I went, the first year was magical. I was mesmerised by this. I truly believe that I found my niche then and there. This was 1988, yep, a life time ago. I was a 20 year old who had just found his mistress. Id always loved training but this, this was different. This is when I decided to try my hand at competition. Believe me, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. I had never even been to a show. Only had seen stuff on vhs, yes, I said vhs! lol. I was giving all I knew, had learned and picked other guys brains about contest prep but was not getting great results. Ohh and yes, being in the" gym" I had met the local dealer who sold me on the " product" lol. Telling me that I'd make great gains and get big on using his supplements. I spoke to my parents about this, yes. they knew, my mother knew EVERYTHING that I was doing. She was my sounding board and my best friend. All she told me was this. Be smart about it, ask questions to others, do research and use the common sense that you have been raised with. Then make your choice. I was never told anything negative in any way from my parents.Believe me, if I messed up I was held accountable, but they had confidence in me from getgo and that has helped me be the man I am today.So, here I am. 20 years old with none to very little experience at all in this venture. I'm a little( ok alot) confused. So I asked Frank, the gym owner ( Rideau Valley Fitness) on what the hell I'm doing. So he tells me this. 2 oranges in the morning with 1 grapefruit mixed in a juicer. 8 egg whites and 1/2 cup oats with honey, then rice and raisins for a mid morning snack. Grilled chicken and more white rice for lunch and supper.and evening snack. Off I go, and I come in pretty damned good for my first show. Now, I did finish second last( actually I tied for 7th out of 8) lmao. but guess What, i was hooked.. I'll post the video and some pics from that soon.
 So for now, that's it. From this point I will go into more of my pre-contest prep and what I'm doing from this point forward. Hopefully you guys won't want to peel out your eyes with my spelling and grammar. I'm 16 weeks out today. Been at it for a month or so. Just trying to get things consistent and routine food wise and training. So far things have been good. I do need to tighten up on the food but I am getting leaner and bigger over the last weeks so that's a good singe. Cheers . be back soon.. Dean