January 15th, 2009 
blacKandi Yesterday afternoon I went browsing through a few sites and decided I should go back to John Stone’s blog, as if I don’t know the darn thing by heart by now…anyway, I decided to send him an email after viewing his starting stats (back in 2003) and food logs and the whole bit. I got curious because he has been so organized with his progress and it looks as if he knew how to change himself from day one, but that isn’t the case at all (I found out later).
So I emailed Mr. Stone, not expecting any kind of correspondence back because I’m sure he gets tons of emails (I know because I read his FAQ). OK now take a look at John Stone, before and after, and then read my question below:
Tanya wrote:
quick answer hopefully…
how long did it take you to research out fitness before you started back in 2003? Or did you research as you did your programs and modified as you went? I’m asking because I’m doing my best to research everything I can in order to reach my fitness goals and I’m just starting getting serious into strength after losing 50lbs. 
I am a fan of yours sir. Keep up the good work.
Tanya
And here is the reply I got back from John Stone. Awesome! I’m glad I decided to send that email from my official email account and not my hotmail account. I’m not sure if that made a difference or not, but here it is:
Hi Tanya,
First of all, congratulations on the impressive weight loss! Excellent work!
When I started my transformation back in 2003 I had very little knowledge about proper diet and weight training. The important thing is that I got started doing something–anything–and then continued to learn and adjust as I progressed.
Thanks for the kind words. Keep working hard!
John
So, the lesson and the point of today’s post is this…you will never know unless you try. Life is full of trial and error moments and we should embrace them, learn from them and keep trying to make the best of our lives.
I am one of those people who is just starting out and I feel like I’m going in circles or I don’t know enough or have enough to go on when it comes to fitness sometimes. I want to become fit so bad that I can taste it. All I know is that when I believe in myself and put forth the effort to accomplish a goal I do. I proved it to myself this past year and it’s real. I have done lots of research and have implemented some of the things I’ve learned and some of those things did not work so I moved on to find something better, but in the process I am getting better. My body is changing and that means that I am doing something right. My ultimate goal here is to never give up when things get rough, seem too complicated or when I feel like nobody cares and nobody is willing to help me.
I don’t have a lot of heroes ( A LOT of she-roes though), but John Stone is one of mine when it comes to fitness. I’ve learned so much by reading his blog that it’s incredible. I’ve implemented some things to my program that he uses that fits me. No one program is going to fit everyone. What I do is take tips from here and there and put it together to fit what I’m trying to accomplish. It’s not easy by far, but it takes time, research, effort, motivation, dedication, implementation and LOGGING/TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS to get it right. It just doesn’t come together over night.
This lifestyle is definitely one that I love and wouldn’t trade it back for that sloppy and lazy lifestyle I had before. No more being a fat girl for me!
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” Henry Ford
Henry is definitely correct. Take heed.
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