They say confession is good for the soul. I have told only a small number of people what I am about now to share with you openly.

Many individuals ask how I became so focused on fitness? What motivates you at 50 years of age to work out? What started you on path of creating, designing and selling your own line of home home exercise equipment?

During my late forties life was very good. Then it became even better! Still married to the wife of my youth with two grown-up boys. Just a few years to retirement living and everything I own paid for! Wow! Sounds like a dream. It gets better. I began to manage my own investments. Ninety thousand dollars in RRSPs flourished into $220,000.00 in under a year. Playing the stock market in a bull market with a lot of analysis was making me great amounts of money. Yet another $60,000.00 was earmarked inside a cash account for my oldest son to attend Chiropractic College.

Then it happened!My dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He'd last approximately a year. My mother followed 14 months later having a heart attack. During this time I became more ambitious in my investments. Going to the bank, I loaned $120,000.00 for further investments. Yes, even my son's college fund of $60,000.00 was committed to boom or bust stocks.

You can guess what happened! Gone, everything in months, four hundred thousand dollars! I was broke. Even the house belonged to the bank. Through tear stuffed eyes I broke this news to my wife, "It is gone, all of it, everything, however i won't rest till I make it all back and more". That commitment to my wife meant I had to think and work my way out of this mess.

Very first on the plan was my fitness! I needed to live long enough and also have enough vigor to make good on my own promise. High blood pressure levels, excess body weight, difficulty sleeping were all caused by my financial carelessness.

Resistance exercising together with aerobics began to clear my head. I needed more than a skipping rope and a few plastic weights.

I integrated pullups and parallel bar dips on some unusual home equipment. As my figure developed so did my pullup bar and dip bar design. The Innovation Center at the University of Waterloo issued me a certificate of approval for my design following a 25 aspect critical analysis. The EasyChin pullup bar and EasyDip doorway bars were created and moved into the market. My self-confidence began to come back.

When things appeared as if they were going to stall I read Bill Phillips book, Body for Life™. "Change your mind, change your body, change your life" is what I wanted. A much better body had become the corner stone of my new life. Physically, I was improving month after month. For 2 consecutive years I began the 12-week Body for Life™ Challenge and quit after some considerable improvement.

It was not till my third try that I completed the 12-week challenge and sent in my photos. Be the best you can be was my new mind-set. Imagine and obtain! At 50 years of age with 5.5% body, fat I model my own home fitness equipment. Whatever promised through tear filled eyes in years past has not come about. No, I haven't made $400,000 but what I really have today is a $400,000 physique. Which is just how much that started me on my journey to a better life for my wife, my family and me.

Oftentimes now when I require some inspiration to work out or to eat right, that amount of money comes to mind.

My physique is a $400,000 physique!