Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

today I took my lil brother to the gym and to my surprise this guy comes up to us cause he recognized my brother and said hello to me. I had no idea who he was...then slowly I realized he had cut his hair. This guy was actually an old friend of mine from highschool!

back in highschool I had taken this kid under my wing. He was very unpopular, long hair, had some teeth/jaw problems and was overweight. He used to be teased on for being overweight. He was a metal kid like me. He was god on guitar and he was the one that inspired me to start playing music. Well back in highschool I decided to start weightlifting and he lifted with me. I whipped him into the best shape ever. we hung out practically everyday and our workouts were intense. that yr I went from 140lbs to 175lbs. and he had dropped a tremendous amount of weight and gained muscle.

okay so how does this fit in now? I thought he had joined the marines, but due to some facial surgery (fixed his teeth and jaw..he looks great), he had metal plates and stuff in his face and wasnt allowed to serve. So anyway here he is in the gym, and he looks in great shape....proabably about as big as I am. and he thanked me for getting him into weightlifting and that I have influenced him to stick with it over the years, and he wants to go to school to become a personal trainer. which is quite ironic, cause he was the first person I had trained, and once I realized how awesome it felt to help someone get in shape, he inspired me to become a personal trainer. so here we are, still metal kids, gonna jam together, workout together, and possible both go to personal training school together. it feels great to have an old friend come back into my life.
this is the exact thing I need to help me bulk up. someone who will push me to lift heavier.

all about the metal....whether im playing it....or lifting it.

That is awesome man, thanks for sharing that story. I always believe in doing nice things for people (as many of you know from reading my bio and articles). I always look for ways to bring people up and I never expect or even hope or wish for good things in return; I just enjoy bringing joy to others.

This sounds a lot like what you were doing. You saw someone who needed a bit of uplifting, you took the time to get to know them and found out that you had similar interests and a few things in common and then later on down the road, it all comes back and you are there to help each other.

I think it's a great story of good deeds coming full circle. All it takes is that little effort to go out of your way to make others' smile.

Thanks for sharing that on here. And best of luck to both of you. I'm glad you have a training partner now too! That should be a lot of fun for you guys to train together.

him and I are pushing each other like there was no tomorrow. we're both gonna be huge!

Youre a good guy and thats good to hear that you saw him at the gym. Are you guys gonna be hitting the gym together from now on?

yep we're gonna be working out together from now on, as much as we both can (work schedules, etc.). Ive already noticed a phsyical difference in my size. this is pretty rad

Friend Support is Great!

One of my best friends I've ever had lives in Bulgaria but we've spent lots of time together working on cruise ships. Her name is Desi and she is one of the most wonderful people I've met.

She is extremely supportive of everything I do. I spoke with her days before I won my recent contest and she was wishing me luck, telling me she was sure that I would win.

Living so far away it's hard to always hang out, but we keep in touch over the phone and hang out for months at a time working with kids on a cruise ship.

Here is a photo of us hanging out in Norway wearing our Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness shirts. Our ship is in the background.



There are a bunch of photos of us during our travels on the main image galleries page located here:

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/images.html

One of the nicest weeks I have spent was last year in Las Vegas when my wife and I met a high school friend of mine.

We hadn't seen each other for 20+ years. He was getiing married and invited us. I never thought I would be eating dinner behind the Fountains of Bellagio, but that's where we ended up.

I think he is coming up to Idaho this summer for a visit.

His dad was the first person who impressed upon me the need for optimal nutrition. He was into the Pritikin Diet, and one day a popped of, "Hey Doctor O. why do you eat like that, you're going to die anyway."

He grinned and replied, "I know, but it's the quality of life up to that moment of death that is important."

I learned a valuable lesson that day. One that I haven't always remembered.

Jon