I am 42 years old and have always been active, but not in super shape. I am a partner in an incentive marketing company and do wireless consulting on occasion, so I stay pretty busy. I have 3 kids aged 19, 18 and 9 years old.

I used to like to water-ski, although I don’t get much time or opportunity anymore. I love to boat and fish and live on the water in Tampa, Florida, so I get to do that as often as my family and I make time for it.

2) What were your initial motivations for transforming your body?

I wanted to see if at 40+ years old I could still get to looking really good. I have a very pretty and in-shape wife and quite honestly, I was just trying to keep up! I have also been an individual that likes a challenge and tends to set goals to strive for… so I thought this would be a good one!

3) How long have you been on your program for and what kind of success have you experienced so far?

I went to the gym sporadically for many years on and off and never really got into great shape. I just kind of went through the motions of going… In the last year or so I have gone from just going to the gym, to actually having a plan; a diet and workout that I took seriously.

One thing I found is that you need to go with a goal for THAT DAY in mind; lift more, do more reps, and somehow do better than the last time you were there. Have a singular focus when you are at the gym. I’m not there to socialize. I am there for one reason: to get into shape.

In the first 7 months of eating high calories and correctly as well as working out hard I went from 165 pounds to 198 pounds and got BIG. That was pretty cool. Today I am training to compete in a natural bodybuilding show in November here in Florida.

It’s worth mentioning that when I started a little over a year ago, I never worked my legs and didn’t really know proper form or how I should be doing a lot of exercises. I went from squatting 115lbs (or less) to 275lbs (for 10 reps) today. That is a huge difference and I also think the rest of my body wouldn’t be near as good without the leg training.

Also, I now use dumbbells for flat bench presses and max out at 105lb dumbbells (in each hand) – that’s heavy…. When I started I was using up to 50lbs and shaking like a leaf!

My heaviest weight was 198 pounds (at about 20% BF), at which point, I likely could have kept gaining and getting bigger, but decided to lean down for a show. I am currently 175 pounds and about 12.5% BF. I am pretty shredded right now, but will continue to lose fat and hopefully get down to 4% BF by show time.

Now that is a big change from a year or so ago!

4) How has this success changed your day-to-day life for the better?

Just being stronger all around has helped me get “injured” less in day to day life…lifting furniture, working on projects, etc… I feel great too!

Some other nice benefits are that my wife is digging the body and I know that I get looks from other women as well, even though that’s not the goal (but hey, it’s nice…everyone likes attention). It’s a great confidence reinforcer for me. I always have had good confidence, but I feel even better about myself now.

5) Did you ever experience any setbacks along the way? If so, what were they and how did you get past them?

One thing everyone experiences are those days when you just don’t feel like going to the gym, or you can’t get there as a result of “life” getting in the way (for me it’s business travel). Harder to eat right and find a gym where you are going….it just takes more preparation and planning to make life “work”!

I do get those days where I am sooooo tired or just don’t feel 100% and going to the gym just sounds like no fun at all. I FORCE myself to go and usually come out feeling twice as good as when I went in and am SO glad I did it.

As an “old guy”, I also have terrible tendonitis in my arms and from time to time, I literally can’t do any pulling or curling type exercises (lots of Advil and just waiting it out until I am healed). Those are the days I do extra legs or focus on using machines that isolate muscles that won’t trash the tendons in my arms.

6) What type of training plan has worked best for you?

I am in the gym 6-7 days a week. At first your body will feel like crap, but you need to tough it out for 2-3 weeks until your muscles get used to it. Now, no big deal; but let me tell you the first 3-4 weeks were hell.

For the first part of my training I went as heavy as I could without losing form and tried to up the weight as often as I could or at least up the reps, ALWAYS progressing. I thought I was really intense and working out with all I had….until… I decided to compete in a bodybuilding show. Now I am ALL IN. When you think about being on a stage next to others that have worked as hard or (hopefully not…) harder… then you really step it up!

I am in the gym only about an hour or so for weights and then cardio (as I am leaning now) for another 25-45 min 4-5 times a week.

7) What type of nutrition plan has worked best for you?

To initially put on the pounds I was doing a couple things NON-STOP: eating and drinking water. Initially I probably was eating too much fat as well.

Then I started on a ratio of about 40/40/30 for P/C/F, or at least as close as I could get. When gaining, it was less important than when leaning. Lots of good quality foods – protein from fish and chicken… tuna... man have I seen a lot of tuna! But I buy the albacore, really light tuna, higher protein and less fat as well as it just tastes better and costs only a little more.

If I need to cheat with sweets, I found that Diet Coke, Diet Dr pepper, etc. are good, OR sometimes I can afford to have a skinny cow ice cream sandwich (I don’t think it's even ice cream though!)… Or an ice pop with no sugar and only 8 carbs.

8) What muscle building and/or fat loss supplements have you used? Which ones worked for you and which ones didn’t?

Big fan of Scivation Xtend BCAA's (watermelon flavor is the one I like). I take it pretty much all the time!

The BSN products like Syntha 6 Protein is really good tasting and also pretty long acting as it has a variety of protein source types in it and when I was gaining would even do a shake of that right before bed!

I don’t drink coffee, so in the morning my MRP of choice is Myoplex and/or Myoplex Lite depending upon how many calories I need.

Before I workout, I drink NO Shotgun as it gives me the little extra "umph" I need before my workout. I tried other NO supplements and some of them made me jumpy or upset my stomach.

And of course, simple creatine monohydrate in the morning with my MRP.

One other supplement which was just introduced to me was beta-alanine. It supposedly helps block the build up of lactic acid in the muscle creating soreness. I am amazed at this stuff… I am just taking 1 tab 2x/day of a pretty generic brand, and it seems pretty good so far!

Oh yeah… During my workouts I typically mix up dextrose and water with some Xtend and make my own workout drink. It just seems better than a sugary Gatorade.

I don’t take any prohormones, or crazy pseudo-promised steroid-like products. Number one, they likely won’t work and two, I am just not into putting that kind of stuff into my body.

9) What are your future fitness goals?

I’ve already said that I went from just trying to get bigger and stronger to now signed up to compete! Crazy for a 42 year old… we’ll see how I place. It's funny how you go from building yourself up to actually leaning out and leaving only the muscle and removing all the fat. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done… more mentally than physically, although physically it isn’t easy either!

The thing that was really fun initially was gaining the weight and getting bigger and everyone noticing. Being in shape (the right shape) is really about 40% in the gym and 60% diet. You can crank in the gym, but if you aren’t giving your body the right nutrients it’s all in vain.

10) What are the top 3 tips you would give to others who are interested in beginning a muscle building and/or fat burning program?

Focus. Remember what and why you’re doing what you’re doing. You are the only one that can affect change on yourself.

Changing your physique is not an overnight thing. Be patient! If you do the right things, changes do happen. Most often noticed by someone you haven’t seen in a month or longer (it’s hard to see daily/weekly changes).

Diet is 60%+ of what it takes to make changes, whether it’s gaining or losing. Be VERY aware of what you eat and what the P/C/F content is as it really does make a difference. It’s AMAZING how much FAT is in everything we eat.

I know you said 3 things, but the 4th is a wrap up! NUMBER 4 – there is not ONE THING, but a combination of all of the things Sean or anyone else teaches you to make a difference in your physique. You need to focus on all of them to get the maximum results. Just like anything in life better focus = better results.