Stephen's Story- What Got Him Into Fitness

"How and why did YOU get interested in Fitness and Nutrition?" I tell you what got me into it, and hopefully you'll join in on the BEASTcomments below or throw it under the facebook comments of this link. The cool part about this question is that everyone has to have a reason of why or what got them started.My story goes like this: I started in 2003, I was a 17 year old senior in high school who played Varsity baseball. I had played all of my life and was an above average player but never worked out or took it too serious. Instead, I spent most of my free time challenging friends to burger eating contests and impressing them with my fast food intake. I weighed around 215 the whole year until I was diagnosed with cancer right before graduation. What doctors thought was mono or strept-throat was actually a case of Non-Hodgkins Lyphoma. Treatment for this disease consisted of 6 sessions of intense chemotherapy that left me weak and fragile. During the treatments, I was stuck in the hospital for 7 days at a time and then I'd be out for 2 weeks before going back for the next session. The days out of the hospital were almost worse than the ones in, because I'd be sick for about 11 of the 14 days which then gave me 3 semi-decent days before having to go back in. I didn't have any energy, couldn't concentrate long enough to read anything, and the only real exercise I did was the 15ft walk to the bathroom. It sucked seeing friends play sports and even just walk around freely. I remember trying to read a fitness magazine and thinking to myself that I should come up with a workout plan and eat burritos post-workout everyday so I could get bigger and stronger once I was all done with the treatments. Not the best plan, but it was something that did run through my mind and maybe the thing that got me started. After my last session of chemo in November of 2003 I weighed myself at 167lbs. I don't even know what my body fat percentage was, but I definitely had no muscle, so I'll let you do the math. At this point, I figured I had 3 options: So what do you think I did? To be continued.... Stephen Obar (@OBARmuscle) is a writer for various fitness publications, a personal trainer, diet coach and a cancer survivor. Stephen currently spends his time hitting the weights as well as continuing to soak up all he can on the newest and latest bodybuilding and nutrition studies and news.  When he is ‘relaxing’, you can find him in the kitchen, and overseeing his little brother’s nutrition and training as he is a sponsored Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete.