Tough Road To Muscle-Building

The path to getting bigger is exceptionally hard. I've played around the gym since 2005 and made many mistakes. I didn't eat after a workout, didn't eat enough protein or calories in general, and focused on all the mediocre-effectiveness arm curls. Since buying a book called "The New Rules Of Lifting", I started to understand the muscle-building concept. But once again, I made a mistake on the post-workout meal. Many people advised on taking more sugar than protein in order to "feed" the protein into the muscles. Big mistake. The sugar actually added inches to my waistline. (I guess it might work for people who don't regularly eat white rice or other carbohydrates.) For the last 4 workouts, I drank the whey protein shake without the dextrose and I'm starting to feel better. As I look into the mirror these days, I realized that my chest and back are a bit thicker thanks to the bench presses, cable-seated rows, and deadlifts. Before this discovery, I was really compelled to quit because 6 years of no results can be quite the turnoff. But now that my goal is clear, it is only a matter of time before I look like the guy in this photo.