Late 2007 I finished up a pretty disappointing competition year by placing 5th in the Men's Masters 40 + and 5th in the Men's Open Middleweight division at the OCB New York State Natural in November. I had started my pre contest diet at around 205 lbs. at least 18 weeks prior to my last show. The dieting never met my expectations and my conditioning just started to get to where it needed to be by the time I did my last show.

I committed to myself that I would not let myself gain an excessive amount of weight over the winter and that I would compete again in 2008 in my best condition ever. I managed to succeed in the first part of the equation. I ended the 2007 competition year at around 173 lbs. and I never went above 178 lbs. by April 2008. I was slated to judge the 2008 OCB Spirit of America for my very good friend Sean (Sully) Sullivan. I had judged the show the prior 2 years and always wished I was in competition shape to do the show. At the last minute (literally), I decided I would compete in the show. I wasn't quite in competition shape, but was in excellent shape none the less. I competed and placed 5th in the Masters 40+ and 6th in the Men's Open Class B. I felt completely deflated. I thought I may actually end my competitive career at that point. Instead of competing during a summer in which I stayed in competition ready condition, I judged several shows and bided my time. Finally, the passion slowly came back and I decided it was time to get myself back on track. I started to train for the OCB Cape Cod with everything I had. I dieted hard, did extra cardio and just plain worked my ass off. I had decided I would do the OCB Maine event which was two weeks earlier than the Cape show as a tune-up. I had noticed my weight loss and sharpness had been slowing down for a couple of weeks prior to the Maine show. I was a bit concerned, but figured it would all work itself out. My diet had consisted of chicken and green beans for 6 meals a day for at least 2-3 weeks. My cardio sessions were up to 2 a days with a 5 mile brisk walk in the morning and elliptical work at night.

The day of the show I was feeling pretty good and had already decided that the show would be a measuring stick on how much work I had left before the Cape show. Well.... all I can say is that I found out that the stick was long, and I had allot of work ahead of me. I weighed in at 172.5 lbs. and felt that I probably needed to lose another 5 lbs. for the Cape. I didn't place badly, but it was clear that I was probably more like 3-4 weeks away from being able to compete with the likes of Jerry Marsella and others. They were already ready for the Cape with two weeks left to get better. I took a couple of days to absorb the reality of it all. Mentally I decided I couldn't be ready in time for the show, and would probably skip the Cape and just do the NGA Granite state show instead (which was a couple of weeks after the Cape show). Surely this would give me enough time to get it all together. My good friend James Carron found out I was planning on passing up on the chance to compete in his show and convinced me that I wasn't as far out of condition as I thought.

So....... I decided to hang in there. I made one huge, potentially disastrous change though. My diet had pretty much stopped working and I was feeling really crappy from the low carbs. I decided to start eating just chicken and white potatoes. I didn't count nutrients, but rather, just ate when I was hungry. I didn't know what to expect, but figured it couldn't hurt. Long story short...... I lost 9 lbs. from the Maine show to the Cape Cod show. I came in at around 163 lbs. and was in the absolute best shape of my life. The carbs not only  helped me lose the weight, but also filled me out. I got tighter as I got leaner. I placed 2nd in the Masters 40+ class 2 in a very close decision to my great friend Jerry Marsella, and placed 2nd in my open class to the eventual overall winner of the show. You can be sure I will take what I learned this time around into my next contest which will be the sometime, somewhere in 2009