Pre-contest training
at Golds Gym Venice, CA,
Dec. '06

Steve is interviewed for The Bodcast by Danny Lemos at Golds Venice, Dec. '07 

 

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the author
Steve Perkins

For a guy not exactly blessed genetically and raised humbly and in a cloud of second-hand cigarette smoke, my dream of having a muscular body seemed impossible ... nothing more than a pipe dream. At age 50 a devastating HIV-related health crisis nearly clinched the deal forever.

Indiana-born, corn-fed and raised, schooled in everything but physical fitness or nutrition, the passion for bodybuilding was there all along; the body just got a late start. Weight-training eventually became a potent career tool, a motivating, life-sustaining, life-affirming force. I call weight training, 'my visceral glue.'

In the late 90s I stubbornly refused the new modality of HIV treatments lacking confident in their efficacy, trying every other alternative to no avail. Personal losses heaped upon professional misfortunes, three eye surgeries, failing hearing, vertigo problems; my usual keen rationality took a vacation. Then depression sank its talons in and took its toll. I'm not proud to admit it, but at one point I really just gave up.

        
* 1999: Convalescing, 135 pounds

A buddy scooped me up partially-conscious, emaciated and dehydrated, on the brink, not cognizant., non-conversant but cooperative, not that I remember any of it.

Two hospitals and four months later, I began g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y to resurface. My mind was a such dense fog with only sound bytes and a few flash frames of where I'd been and nothing to cement them together until I read my medical records 6 months later. Medicinally, per my advance directives I was put on an HIV two-drug protocol, Neuronton, et al, via California's MediCal convalescent care; they saved my butt!

Eating was my favorite thing back then ... the only thing I was good for. I craved hot cereal and seconds if I could get it. In between chatting ineptly with a few regular chums, someone always delivered medication dosed in-person; nursing interns  periodically lifted me out my wheelchair to change my dirty diapers and towel-bathe me. I was so out of it.

Things progressed pedantically over five months' time. I learned new dimensions of patience as I slowly regained more memory bytes. I hated all of it, where I'd wound up, but had no other choice. I helped things along by asking for physical therapy, reading everything in sight, helping other 'inmates', earning the staff's trust so I could 'train' unattended in the PT room with the parallel bars and cable machine; I did yoga wherever I could find carpeting. I insisted on regular morning walks around the block (staff-attended, per the rules) behind an up-graded walker and demonstrated my progress shamelessly, blatantly in front of any staffer within ear-shot. Greasing the release-process wheels however I could, because it was such a depressing place to be for any length of time, I knew I needed out of there as soon as humanly possible if I was going to have any chance of fully recuperating, to get back into the real world and on with my new self.

If I was aware of anything it was that I HAD been reincarnated after all! I was actually given a second chance to start over from scratch. I got what I asked for. The whole story, written in first-person, the real account of my sob story and what I did to recover is entitled, "The Blotto Time."

Blotto Time: Pleasant, but Confused
by Steve Perkins, CDN
PDF format

2001: Colorado, 150 pounds

 

FLASHBACK: Idly reading a bread wrapper, I wondered WHY the flour needed to be refined and enriched? What were they doing to it in the first place? That started a lifetime of head-scratching and questioning food processing practices. Why did they blithely put chemicals in everything? For over thirty-five years I unwittingly pioneered the current smarter FDA-sanctioned food pyramid, always fine-tune my eating and supplement regime week to week. Ultimately, I know in my gut that tenacity saved me when all the chips were down.

2005: age 59, 178 pounds

FLASHFORWARD: I owe my recovery to several factors: first and foremost, support (family and friends, even strangers when they heard my story), eating well before, during and after my trauma and being proactive in my healthcare throughout. Part of the latter came about serendipitously - I found a book called "Built to Survive" by Michael Mooney and Nelson Vergel, which delineated complimentary treatments for HIV/AIDS including judicious, monitored, prescribed use of anabolic steroids to prevent AIDS wasting, facial wasting as well as a lot of savvy nutritional advice. YES!

For decades I weighed 155 pounds - nothing I tried or did changed that by more than a few pounds one way or the other. I certainly wasn't able to lift heavy or begin to think of physique competing.

When I returned to California, setttled into the healthcare system and found the right doctor who was HIV-savvy, a bodybuilder himself and lo and behold, HIV-postiive too, I knew somehow all this was meant to transpire.

I asked specifically about low-dose, anabolics, combined with the HIV medications du jour. Yes, they were part of my prescription plan too (MediCal, ADAP, Medicare). The right steroids, used properly, cycled, regularly monitored can be very helpful for some HIV-positive people. I am one of them and no regrets whatsoever.

Within a month of weekly injections of testosterone and deca nandrolone, I gained 15 pounds, mostly muscle. I trained harder and ate even smarter. What I saw in the mirror approved; I felt amazingly better, more vital, my self-esteem and spirit rectified. I felt healthy and happy again. My HIV lab results confirmed that these were helping my general health and stability as well.

I continue the regimen, weigh generally 180, train a five-day routine (1-2 days rest). I still get told I look better than a lot of twenty-year-olds. That's scary, but of course, very flattering. I must be doing something right, huh?
___________

BOOK JACKET BLURB: From an emaciated virus-ridden beanpole at death's door, I know now it was HIV-Related Dementia that nearly got me. You usually don't recover from that. It took five years of focus, resolve, big attitude shifts, hard work and lots of patience and diplomacy, but I willed myself stronger, more vital and more muscular. If I am a medical-miracle personage, I hope at the very least that Itestify to self-advocacy and aggressive proactive nutrition. I just want to share my zeal with the world.

There is hope IF you fuel right!

–Steve Perkins, CDN
(Certified, Diploma in Nutrition)

PHYSIQUE - CONTEST PHOTOS

'06 GAY GAMES | '06 MUSCLE BEACH VENICE

2006: EXCALIBUR, DEC. 2
3rd Place, MASTERS 60+

 

MISC. 2007 PHOTOS

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HISTORY: So many people asked me over the years, "How do you do it? How do you look so good for your age? I hope I look half as good as you when I'm your age. Spill all the tips and secrets, please!" .... etc.

I AMASSED THE materials, scrutinized shaping them, formalized. The first version was printed, definitely a rough draft in order to get some feedback, marketing surveys and reality checks, of course.

THEN the web site evolved, and continues to evolve.

WEIGHING the marketplace for similar titles it was blatantly clear that just another muscle-oriented scheme wouldn't be very important and it skirted the one big element in my personal success that is now key to future versions of this project. I'm HIV positive and a bodybuilder and a nutritionist and a graphic designer. Minimizing my 'cooties' status would be a huge disservice to my own resolve, reality and honesty itself; but more so to all those we've all lost and continue to loose to the virus. I'm one of lucky long-term survivors, so far. The Muscle Kitchen must pay homage to those special compadres.

"The Cooking Buff"
often in the kitchen making muscle-health magic.

NEXT The 2nd edition of the book is available here and at Amazon.com
ORDER a copy for yourself and your friends using PayPal.

EVENTUALLY an e-newsletter subscription program, a TMK© brand product line... tell me how I can help, my crystal ball's in the shop.

Don't worry, I won't ever sell the list to anyone without asking your advanced permission first. I HATE when that happens to me. Deal?

PAPERS: There are formal credentials under my belt as of early 2008: a certified diploma in "Fitness & Nutrition." The learning and awareness never end, I'm eyeing a Nutrition Educator certification course this fall ('08).