First of all, I would like to say that I understand that this may not exactly be on the topic of what we’re suppose to be writting about, but I would like to take the time to say this anyway.

Have you ever done something just because someone pressured you into it, or they made you feel self concious. Maybe it’s something simple as loosing a few pounds, or even gaining some. Then again, it could be something very big, or even dangerous.

Growing up I was pretty overweight. Being the only kid in kindergarden who’s 4′9 and one-hundred-eighty pounds wasn’t the easiest thing. The part I hated most was being shaped into a bully. I had no friends, no one liked me. I was told by a bunch of six year olds tht I needed to go on a diet. Sound like fun?

Well, I was like this until my sixth grade year. My dad came home one day with a weight bench. He said that he needed to get into shape, but if I wanted to I could use it too. I was pretty excited, as I had always wanted to lift weights. I had always seen people with big arms, and wanted to have those too.

I started bench pressing. Thats the only thing I did for a very long time, as that was the only thing I knew you could use to get big(I didnt know much about weightlifting back then). I liked the idea of being able to increase the weight every other week(I could only lift the bar when i started). I also liked the one-seventy I started to see on the scale. Most people would say that ten pounds is nothing, but I thought it was the best thing I had ever done.

At the end of sixth grade, I decided to start running. I got tired of being called nasty names(all of what start with fat and are to inapporiate to list), and of being known as one of the biggest kids in the school, as most kids were skinny. At first, I hated it, but after about two months, I started to love it. It was my favorite thing to do. I started to feel realy good about doing it, as I got a huge runners high when I was finished(not really a high, just the release of natural endorphanes that make the body feel good). I even stoped weightlifting just so I could run that much longer.

School started, and nobody knew who I was. I was 5′6 and one-hundred-fifteen pounds. Try that as a transformation! However, there were two things that started to realy bother me. The smallest(but probably the biggest one) was that I was actually blackingout at least three times a day(worst being seven, in which I had the corner of a table smash into the part of my spinal cord that goes into my head), and the biggest(but also the stupidest) was the fact that everyone was telling me that I was to skinny. That was confusing. They were even starting to call me names and make jokes about how skinny I was. so I stoped running and started to weightlift again.

I had a hard time getting big until my eight grade year. One of the kids I always made fun of became by best friend. We had private competitions together to see who was the strongest. I was always stronger than him until he gave into peer pressure and started doing steroids(at the age of fifteen). Seems hard to believe, but thats what happended. People where noticing how much stronger than me he was getting, and urged me to do something about it. They had me to go so far as to benchpress everyday for a month straight(worst thing I’ve done to my body so far). After all that I was majorly depressed.

I found it hard to deal with all the stresses that all of these things caused me. I started smoking and doing drugs(peer pressure had it’s way in that too).

Skip ahead two years: My back feels like Im at least thirty, I wake up in the morning with sore knee joints, my sternum still feels like someone hit me with a bat, and my inner chest is aggervated by all the countless hours of running I did. Just wait until I’m in my late thirties(god help me). I’ve stoped smoking, and I workout on a regular basis, but not stupidly like I use to. Best part is, I dont do what the kid next to me is feeling, I do what I am feeling. And most of all, I couldn’t care any less about what people thank about me anymore. I’m still disapointed at myself for whasting three years of my life caring about what others said about me, and being pressured into doing things I didn’t want to do, but I guess I had to learn the hard way. And i can’t wait to send a movie of me winning Mr. Olympia to all of those who called me fat(being only sixteen, I still have a long way to go).

So remember, you dont have to be pressured into doing something you dont want to do. Dont listen to what other people have to say about you, especially youre friends. Besides, if there really going to tell you what you need to do, their not really youre friends anyway.

Just remember this: The next person who calls you fat may be the next fat person looking at you’re picture in a modeling magazine(even if Its ten years from now).

And for those who want to know: I am now about 150lbs, with about 16-inch arms.

The best product i have got mad results off of is n.o. shotgun. I was taking muscletech’s nitrotech hardcore, but the added dextrose gave me the runs realy bad. And the best workout that I’ve had is when I do squats with benchpresses every other day (I’m just trying to get strong right now, and I’ve gained fifty pounds on my bench and fourty on my squat in about a month).