John Stone
Tue, September 1st, 2009, 07:17 AM
For the September 2009 TSM I've selected forum member Flex (Stephen). After spending most of his life obese, out of shape and unhappy, Stephen decided that he'd finally had enough. While his first attempt to transform was not successful, he did not give up. After stumbling across the JSF web site, Stephen finally saw what he needed to see: an average guy who made a real transformation. While I'm flattered that Stephen connected with my story, he deserves 100% of the credit. His hard work and determination are an inspiration to us all!
Unfortunately Stephen lost most of his pictures to a hard drive crash. Thankfully he made the following video before that happened!
Flex's Transformation video
7PA6GuddgXI
NOTE: “THEN” applies to when I first started my transformation and the “NOW” applies to how I am doing things different while I continue my transformation.
Why did you decide to make a transformation?
All throughout grade school and high school I was overweight, because of this I was often picked on and what I felt to be ostracized from everyone else. I had to change because I felt like crap and my social skills were lacking. I never really talked to anyone, went out, or did anything. I played World of Warcraft most of the time, because in that game I was everything I wanted to be the real world: big, strong, powerful, important, fast. Plus I didn’t feel like I looked very attractive, and though it is not a main reason, studies show that fit people do look better! So, one day I just woke up and said “I’m not living like this anymore”, I assume the same thing happened to John S. when he hit his all time low….and so just like him, my transformation began.
What sort of planning did you do before you started?
THEN: I really did not have any planning when I first started. The only thing I had was a spreadsheet with my weight and how many miles I ran that day. Not planning is planning to fail, and in my first round of trying to get in shape I did. I would often look at these pictures of huge people like Ronnie Coleman, Arnold, Jay Cutler, etc and it would just make me feel small and puny. This feeling transferred over to negative motivation and I stopped working out because I thought it was useless. What I needed was someone REAL, someone who was like me, some fatso loser who turned his lift around (haha sorry John). That is when I stumbled on this website, JohnStoneFitness.com! This was the real inspiration and motivation that I needed to really get things moving. While I look up to the big body builders for their dedication & motivation, I look at their body as a piece of artwork, not something that I am aiming to copy. Why? Because it just is not possible! It would be like me trying to draw the Mona Lisa, I could try and try but would eventually give up because I know I can come nowhere close. I believe this happens to a lot of people, they try to copy these geared up pros they see in muscle mags and stop working out after a while because they look in the mirror and are not seeing the guy they saw in the magazine (a lot of my friends have this problem).
NOW: Today I plan ambitious yet attainable goals for each week, month, year, and 5 year. I keep an eye on my diet, track my workouts, and try to take pictures when I can. This fall I am going to start documenting what I am doing with a lot more pictures and videos.
What were your initial goals?
THEN: To lose weight as fast as possible. That is all I really cared about, getting the number on the scale to go down as fast as possible. The number sure did drop fast, but also I lost an enormous amount of strength during the process.
NOW: My goal today is to be bigger than I was yesterday. I hardly use the scale now, but rather the mirror because it tells you what you really look like.
What was your diet and supplement intake like?
THEN: Just like any young 15 year old starting out I thought that supplements were the key to losing weight and getting bigger. I would go to GNC and buy all kinds of ridiculous crap thinking that it was all magic powder that would get you jacked. I laugh looking back on the days when I was so excited when I bought a product that said “New Legal Formula!” “Muscle Gainer 2000” etc. I would eat a pretty low amount of calories, around 2,200 per day, which was VERY low for my age and what I was doing.
NOW: Today being a student at the University of Cincinnati going into Dietetics and beyond I have a never ending thirst for learning about what is in food, and what it does when it goes inside your body. Understanding how supplements work on a micro level opens your eyes to what these products are REALLY doing both good and bad. For supplements I only take whey protein, creatine, multi-v, HMB, ZMA. I eat around 4,500 calories a day, mostly clean food.
What was your training like?
THEN: My training used to be awful. I would do the same lifts everyday and do way too much cardio on the same day. The fat was dropping off fast, but so was my muscle. I would typically lift for 1.5 hours then run about 4 miles. I was doing way too much. I thought doing more is better. I was 15, I was doing a lot of things wrong!
NOW: I do a 14 day split rotation covering a different group combination of body parts each day. I actually first learned about the idea of splitting up body parts on different days from this website.
What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
Last year was probably my biggest obstacle. I joined a fraternity at my college so I was obviously surrounded by a lot of drinking. It was fun, but I did it too much. I was sleeping in until 3PM and feeling really weak and worn out. I was slowing turning back into the person that I once was. During this “catabolic time of mine” I lost a lot of muscle mass. This became very depressing for me (I assume the alcohol made the depression feelings feel worse) and I stopped lifting for a while.
It wasn’t until this summer that I started lifting hard again and now in the best shape of my life. My last summers PR deadlift is now what I do 6x, I love it. I have learned SO much from reading and my classes during my time off that I am progressing a lot faster. When I go back to school here in the fall I am learning from my mistakes and doing things totally different. I have founded a lifting club at my University to get people together to talk about the sport and keep each other motivated. I will also not drink as much – I will still go out and party - but not every night like I was doing.
How has your life changed?
My life has changed in so many ways it hard to even begin to describe. Fit has a feeling, and I am definitely feeling it. You have so much more energy, can help carry heavy objects, and look a lot better. Also you are more mentally healthy when you are physically healthy.
How did JSF and the JSF Forums help you?
I randomly stumbled onto the JSF website a few years back when I was browsing through google. We all have our role models, and I wanted someone real. John Stone was that real person that I needed to really get things going. Being able to ask questions and get real unbiased, unmarketed replies is awesome too. People often speak from real life experiences, which is really useful.
What advice would you offer to others?
Question everything you read. Don’t give up. Stay consistent. Eat big, lift hard, rest long. Results come in time! Don’t expect to reach your goal in a few months or year. Ask questions!!!
What are your future plans?
I am becoming a big fan of powerlifting. I am currently working on reach my all time goal of 600 deadlift.
Any closing thoughts?
Thank you John & all the members at JSF. You guys are awesome. Don’t quit.
Any specific questions about my transformation please ask! I didn’t really know what to focus on and probably left some stuff out & didn’t want to bore everyone with a 8 page essay.
32380
Thanks for your time, Stephen! Congratulations!
Unfortunately Stephen lost most of his pictures to a hard drive crash. Thankfully he made the following video before that happened!
Flex's Transformation video
7PA6GuddgXI
NOTE: “THEN” applies to when I first started my transformation and the “NOW” applies to how I am doing things different while I continue my transformation.
Why did you decide to make a transformation?
All throughout grade school and high school I was overweight, because of this I was often picked on and what I felt to be ostracized from everyone else. I had to change because I felt like crap and my social skills were lacking. I never really talked to anyone, went out, or did anything. I played World of Warcraft most of the time, because in that game I was everything I wanted to be the real world: big, strong, powerful, important, fast. Plus I didn’t feel like I looked very attractive, and though it is not a main reason, studies show that fit people do look better! So, one day I just woke up and said “I’m not living like this anymore”, I assume the same thing happened to John S. when he hit his all time low….and so just like him, my transformation began.
What sort of planning did you do before you started?
THEN: I really did not have any planning when I first started. The only thing I had was a spreadsheet with my weight and how many miles I ran that day. Not planning is planning to fail, and in my first round of trying to get in shape I did. I would often look at these pictures of huge people like Ronnie Coleman, Arnold, Jay Cutler, etc and it would just make me feel small and puny. This feeling transferred over to negative motivation and I stopped working out because I thought it was useless. What I needed was someone REAL, someone who was like me, some fatso loser who turned his lift around (haha sorry John). That is when I stumbled on this website, JohnStoneFitness.com! This was the real inspiration and motivation that I needed to really get things moving. While I look up to the big body builders for their dedication & motivation, I look at their body as a piece of artwork, not something that I am aiming to copy. Why? Because it just is not possible! It would be like me trying to draw the Mona Lisa, I could try and try but would eventually give up because I know I can come nowhere close. I believe this happens to a lot of people, they try to copy these geared up pros they see in muscle mags and stop working out after a while because they look in the mirror and are not seeing the guy they saw in the magazine (a lot of my friends have this problem).
NOW: Today I plan ambitious yet attainable goals for each week, month, year, and 5 year. I keep an eye on my diet, track my workouts, and try to take pictures when I can. This fall I am going to start documenting what I am doing with a lot more pictures and videos.
What were your initial goals?
THEN: To lose weight as fast as possible. That is all I really cared about, getting the number on the scale to go down as fast as possible. The number sure did drop fast, but also I lost an enormous amount of strength during the process.
NOW: My goal today is to be bigger than I was yesterday. I hardly use the scale now, but rather the mirror because it tells you what you really look like.
What was your diet and supplement intake like?
THEN: Just like any young 15 year old starting out I thought that supplements were the key to losing weight and getting bigger. I would go to GNC and buy all kinds of ridiculous crap thinking that it was all magic powder that would get you jacked. I laugh looking back on the days when I was so excited when I bought a product that said “New Legal Formula!” “Muscle Gainer 2000” etc. I would eat a pretty low amount of calories, around 2,200 per day, which was VERY low for my age and what I was doing.
NOW: Today being a student at the University of Cincinnati going into Dietetics and beyond I have a never ending thirst for learning about what is in food, and what it does when it goes inside your body. Understanding how supplements work on a micro level opens your eyes to what these products are REALLY doing both good and bad. For supplements I only take whey protein, creatine, multi-v, HMB, ZMA. I eat around 4,500 calories a day, mostly clean food.
What was your training like?
THEN: My training used to be awful. I would do the same lifts everyday and do way too much cardio on the same day. The fat was dropping off fast, but so was my muscle. I would typically lift for 1.5 hours then run about 4 miles. I was doing way too much. I thought doing more is better. I was 15, I was doing a lot of things wrong!
NOW: I do a 14 day split rotation covering a different group combination of body parts each day. I actually first learned about the idea of splitting up body parts on different days from this website.
What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
Last year was probably my biggest obstacle. I joined a fraternity at my college so I was obviously surrounded by a lot of drinking. It was fun, but I did it too much. I was sleeping in until 3PM and feeling really weak and worn out. I was slowing turning back into the person that I once was. During this “catabolic time of mine” I lost a lot of muscle mass. This became very depressing for me (I assume the alcohol made the depression feelings feel worse) and I stopped lifting for a while.
It wasn’t until this summer that I started lifting hard again and now in the best shape of my life. My last summers PR deadlift is now what I do 6x, I love it. I have learned SO much from reading and my classes during my time off that I am progressing a lot faster. When I go back to school here in the fall I am learning from my mistakes and doing things totally different. I have founded a lifting club at my University to get people together to talk about the sport and keep each other motivated. I will also not drink as much – I will still go out and party - but not every night like I was doing.
How has your life changed?
My life has changed in so many ways it hard to even begin to describe. Fit has a feeling, and I am definitely feeling it. You have so much more energy, can help carry heavy objects, and look a lot better. Also you are more mentally healthy when you are physically healthy.
How did JSF and the JSF Forums help you?
I randomly stumbled onto the JSF website a few years back when I was browsing through google. We all have our role models, and I wanted someone real. John Stone was that real person that I needed to really get things going. Being able to ask questions and get real unbiased, unmarketed replies is awesome too. People often speak from real life experiences, which is really useful.
What advice would you offer to others?
Question everything you read. Don’t give up. Stay consistent. Eat big, lift hard, rest long. Results come in time! Don’t expect to reach your goal in a few months or year. Ask questions!!!
What are your future plans?
I am becoming a big fan of powerlifting. I am currently working on reach my all time goal of 600 deadlift.
Any closing thoughts?
Thank you John & all the members at JSF. You guys are awesome. Don’t quit.
Any specific questions about my transformation please ask! I didn’t really know what to focus on and probably left some stuff out & didn’t want to bore everyone with a 8 page essay.
32380
Thanks for your time, Stephen! Congratulations!