A couple of years after winning the Mr. California I had a major injury to my lower right leg. My foot had become wedged in between a car tire and the slippery curb and 6 fractures later an orthopedic surgeon put it back together. He said heavy lifting was out of the question and a friendly bet ensued “I will win the Natural Mr. USA Championships, next year”.
Training for this show was easier than it had been for the Mr. California. The supplement world had again changed drastically. No longer just vitamins, minerals and protein powders it had become scientifically founded sports nutrition and I stayed on top of it.
The USA Championships was a great contest and I was ready. I had allowed my weight to only get up to 215lb in the off-season. It made it far easier to get into show shape than in times past. Anyone’s who’s been knows your first time in Las Vegas presents you with a different world. At the weigh-in I did the last step of winning, sizing up the competition. I had trained as hard as possible and knew the contest was already won or lost during training. I had come in very lean at 4% body-fat and was ready.
The trick for any of us with Type1 at a competition is controlling blood sugars on contest day. Since blood sugar too high or too low can drastically lessen performance, I make sure I monitor consistently 15-40 times in the hours before a contest. I took my class and the overall easily and called my kids who were waiting for the call. I acted like I had lost the contest followed with “Psyche! We won!” They screamed some of the best sounds a person can hear.
I had begun speaking again at various children’s conferences. One of the world’s best is the Friends for Life conference by ChildrenwithDiabetes.com. It has a multitude of educational and sports related events ending with a trip to Disney World or Sea World. While here a friend from LifeScan introduced me to Lance Porter, the publisher of the magazine Positive Health at his booth. Lance’s vision of pursuing the good, regardless, aligned with my beliefs and the message I had been delivering to people facing obstacles. This photo session was in the gym, working out and by far my preference. Photo sessions in the gym can last forever but after a few hundred shots and 3 hours of training it was finished. This was the photo I thought the photographer should have used but she said the 7 calics in my hair rendered it useless.
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