My fitness background:

I was always slightly chubby as a kid, but never terribly fat. I played lots of sports when I was younger, and was a competitive tennis player in my teen/high school years and in college, so I tended to be in pretty decent physical shape. Injuries got me away from tennis, and I decided to keep eating the same, so the pounds came on quick! That left me hovering between "chubby" and "kinda fat" for most of the last decade or so.

A little under a year ago, I started doing some research into fitness, particularly with regards to postural correction/muscle imbalances/mobility/flexibility. After finding some fantastic resources, this started me on the path of taking fitness quite seriously for the past 9-10 months. I would urge anybody interested in that kind of thing to head over to T-Nation and read Eric Cressey/Mike Robertson's fantastic Neanderthal No More articles. It's worth reading the entire thing, and the program they outline is a fantastic program for people with many of the common postural issues plaguing people today. I did several cycles of the Neanderthal No More program and it was easily one of the best decisions I ever made.

As my basic posture/mobility/etc improved, I decided the next step would be to develop a solid base of strength. I tried various programs, including Eric Cressey's new Show and Go program (which I also can't say enough good things about. You can find out more about him and his programs at ericcressey.com).

In the meantime, I dropped a bit of fat and had a nice body recomposition, but I thought it was time to really get lean. Well, that's pretty much been a struggle over the last few months. I have improved my conditioning tremendously and my overall fitness has improved, but I have not been able to get under the 15-16% body fat threshold.

From a dietary perspective, I was always a high-carb eater, and have experimented with various dietary options over the last few months, with varying degrees of success (more on that later!).

Tomorrow I'll write about my experience deciding on the plan of attack for this transformation project. It's a very interesting and exciting program, but the decision wasn't easy. Now excuse me while I go foam-roll myself to sleep, as I'm already quite sore from the first few days :).