My name is Jeffrey Todd Horen. I have had the Chales Atlas book for five years now. I have found that in the past I always got started on the first lesson and never made it past, too bad for me.
It was my loss. I read the books first chapters again this week after being away from it for quite some time. It made me realize that if I had been dedicated, I would now have the body of a miniature Greek God. 
This is frustrating, to say the least. 
However, I thought back to the time I first bought the book and realized that I did it because after a full childhood of reading comic books and seeing "The insult that made a man out of Mac", my reasoning had been sound at the time. I simply wanted to have a better looking and healthier body. I will also say that it would be nice to be handsomer too.
I know this program will do it for me. I must now begin anew and dedicate myself. This is ironic, because when I recently started a new job with the phone company, one of the trainers defined the word "character" as the ability to follow through with a goal after the initial excitement has worn off.
This being the case, I know that the initial excitement has been renewed and now I must follow through with the dedication and hard work necessary if I am to meet my full potential with this program. I know, also, that I have what Charles Atlas would have described as harmful habits. I do not drink, but I do smoke, perhaps twice per day, and I drink a lot of caffeine. I probably would not have much trouble breaking these habits as I know I will lose the urge for my moderate smoking in three days and I will wash out the caffeine in five.
To put it simply, I no longer expect overnight results from what Mr. Atlas would have called "Weak, spasmodic efforts." I will also say that this begins this morning when I wake up with my first return to the exercises.
I am willing to wholeheartedly dedicate one year of my life to the program and see where it takes me.
There is no doubt in my mind that if I do this I may very well have the most improved body of the year by that point, and I may very well enter the contest. I will be posting my progress approximately every four weeks.
I am five feet four inches tall and currently weigh more than 184 lbs. needless to say I am far from attractive. I am firm in my belief that this will have changed in a year.
Who knows, by then, the girls, or should I say women, being that I am 41 years old, may even think I'm cool.
Wish me luck,
Jeffrey Todd Horen.