Yesterday I began the first of a 6-part series of my story from Fat to Fit and what led me to Bodybuilding. We walked through my childhood journey of being overweight and my track and field day that changed my life.

Fast forward to 2000. While I had taken this idea of confidence awoken to my education and was excelling from a student standpoint, I had not honed it towards my physical self. I was still overweight and had still not taken action on improving my self-image. It just so happened that as I went to register for classes for my first year of high school that I saw a line item under classes I had never seen before. “Weight training”. I asked the counselor what this was and quickly signed up after hearing it’s focused on fitness, lifting weights, and muscle building. “Muscles?! That’s what I want!” I thought to my young self.

While some might have looked at that modest weight room in anguish, I did not see that weight room as the converted attic space it was – to me it was the sanctuary for the beginnings of my walk with my confidence being awoken.

I could see the weight room changes in my sport success.

I could see the weight room positively impacting me across all areas

The following year in 2001 I walked into the high school weight room (which was actually just a converted attic back then) for the first time. I would be one of the few Freshmen allowed in with the predominately older student dominated class. It was this class that sparked my transformation from fat to fit in high school, that introduced me to discipline of the iron, and began my journey into weightlifting. I remember walking into the weight room day after day and learning new techniques, new lifts, and new knowledge. The equipment was old, the floors and walls made of plywood, and the space small enough you had to maneuver among each other to get to the equipment you wanted to use. While some might have looked at that modest weight room in anguish, I did not see that weight room as the converted attic space it was – to me it was the sanctuary for the beginnings of my walk with my confidence being awoken.

The weight room was teaching me more than just how to lift iron – it was teaching me how to lift myself.

I remember the Max Out days in which we would push ourselves to our limits to take survey of our progress. For me, doing a max out on the bench press wasn’t about impressing others – it was feeling inside myself that I was moving forward. Moving away from confidence broken. Moving towards confidence awoken. I look back at the experiences and memories of this introduction into weight training and remember everything from learning the basics of nutrition and supplements all the way to watching the planes hit the towers on 9/11 – all in that converted attic weight room. I find it no surprise that my first year in the weight room was the year that I transformed my body for the first time, beginning excelling in athletics,

and started my first business that is now known as The KolbyK Enterprises (16 years and running strong). The weight room was teaching me more than just how to lift iron – it was teaching me how to lift myself. How to lift myself in all aspects of my life.

Kolbyk.com circa 2002

Kolbyk.com circa 2002

“I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention.”

In the years after high school, through college, and into my adult life my fitness and nutrition has had ebbs and flows. At times I was fit, at times I could do good to lose a few pounds (Thanks freshman 15!). However, the disciplines that I was introduced to in that weight room continued to grow and expand in my life. As Henry Rollins states in his famous writing “The Iron and The Soul”, “I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention.” That has rung true through my fitness and life journey in which I’ve found I’m constantly reinventing myself.

In tomorrow’s post, we move to the year 2014 – walking the edge of the cliff with my health.