Working Out, part 3

Well, our Myrtle Beach trip is winding down, and when I get back I'll have to really bust my hump getting some work done. So I figured while I had a sec, I'd better finish up the work out post I started. Being here all week with the Parham side of the family has brought a lot of this stuff back to my memory. The twin uncles who first inspired me to work out have been here (I don't think they're in any of the photos I've posted, though), and my aunt Arlene (whose pic I DID post), who later inspired me to get into modeling, has been here as well. Yep, modeling. That's what REALLY derailed my bodybuilding plans. I met a girl when I was a freshman in college, an upperclassman, who told me I should get into modeling/acting. To impress her, I decided I'd try it. My aunt had been a model, and a beauty pageant queen, so she set me up with her agency. Over the next six or so years, modeling and lifeguarding (notice this shot was taken in a pool...those are swim lanes behind me) were what I did the most. Oh I still worked out, but my metabolism was so quick, like I said, that it didn't matter for a few years.

When I transferred to art school, I really hit the gym hard. My partner was a competitive bodybuilder (regional contests), and helped me gain a bit of size finally. Then he started taking steroids, "to go to the next level", and urged me to do the same. That's when we parted ways, and the bodybuilding urge really began to leave me. By this time, quite a few big modeling agencies were interested in me, but I was too big for their clothes. So, I had to drop weight like crazy. And basically starve myself. It worked...I did pretty well for awhile as a model. But that's a different, complicated story all it's own.

Suffice it to say, with all of this up and down, gaining muscle, having to lose it, eating like crazy to gain size, then starving myself, I developed a pretty bad diet, and, of course, as I got older, my metabolism slowed. I had still built a good foundation early on that has somewhat stayed with me, thank God, but I've often thought that modeling destroyed my build to a degree, and have resented that. As crazy as that sounds. But, it was while in that field that I met my beautiful wife, Barbie, so I know that God led me down the right paths, ultimately. Not that there weren't a few unpleasant detours along the way...