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Success Story : Tony Beller

How did I achieve the best shape of my life after 30?

For many years I tried to bulk up and look cut, basically look like those guys in magazines. In my quest for the perfect body, I worked out 1 to 2 hrs a day and spent enormous amounts of money on all kinds of products. I tried every single product there was on the market. I tried all the diets and workout routines in fitness magazines. On top of all this my job required me to travel Monday through Friday, staying at hotels and eating out for every meal. Obviously, this was not optimal to try to stay in shape but I was determined to do so. I would travel with an extra bag filled with all of my supplements and protein shakes. I think at some point I had gym memberships at four nationwide chain gyms such as Gold's Gym, Bally Total Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, World Gym and other small gym memberships for those towns where I couldn't find a chain gym. After several years of spending endless hours at the gym and thousands of dollars on gym memberships and supplements, I had gained plenty of muscle and weight but I still did not look like those guys in the magazines. Needless to say I was frustrated. Then I turned 30 and my metabolism started to slow down. I started to gain a lot of body fat from eating all the time and I was moving more and more away from having the perfect body. Then one weekend while working out at my local gym, I met Ron. Ron not only had a chiseled physic but he was a competitive bodybuilder, over the age of 40, had a full time job, and has two kids. Ron was a true inspiration. This is when I decided that I wanted to try to compete and get in the best shape of my life. I asked Ron if he would train me to get into competitive shape. Ron agreed to train me but he also warned me that it needed a lot of dedication and discipline. I had finally met someone who not only had the physic I've always wanted but he was also willing to share his vast knowledge training and bodybuilding.

Ron started with taking my measurements and stats. My body fat was 19%, I weighed 185 pounds and my waist was 33 inches. In order to compete I needed to get down to single digit body fat. If I wanted to compete in a lightweight division I needed to get down to 144 pounds. I had five months to get this accomplished. I was still traveling every week, leaving on Monday mornings and returning on Friday nights.

Ron gave me a very strict diet and a full supplementation program. The most challenging thing was the diet. Not too many restaurants or hotels serve sweet potatoes, much less egg whites and boiled chicken for breakfast. Fortunately, I made good friends with the restaurant manager at the hotel and they accommodated my diet. The next thing was my protein shakes and supplements. Every Sunday night I filled plastic bags with protein powder for my shakes and the exact count of pills for every day of the week. I also found a gym right across the street from my hotel which was great because I didn't have to drive. Because of my job, I have to attend a lot of lunch and dinner meetings with customers. This made it hard to stick with the diet but I would always order a grilled chicken with no condiments and steamed vegetables with no salt, pepper or butter. There were many times that I was tempted to get off of my diet, but I was determined and I knew this was something that I really wanted to do/accomplish.

After five months of hard training and dieting, I began to see my body change in an amazing way. Not only did my body fat drop to single digits but my waist went down to a size 31. The most amazing thing to me was to see the physical transformation. Ron had me take pictures of myself every month so I could see how much my body was changing. Not only did I look great and feel energized but people also thought I looked younger. I started getting carded at restaurants.

One week before the competition, I weighed 154 pounds and only had 7% body fat. Although I did not win first place in the competition, I felt like I had achieved a major milestone in my life...I had achieved to be in the best shape of my life. Here are my pictures...

June 2004

August 2004

Sept. 26, 2004

Nov. 2004