In the mornings they would wave orders of French toast or fresh doughnuts under his nose, tempting him to “just have some.”

At lunch they would thrust an overflowing plate lunch his way, asking, “you like some?”

For 25 weeks Honolulu police officer Richie Langit would tighten his resolve, put his cravings aside and decline his fellow officers’ largesse.

Then he’d resume eating his usual chicken breast and greens or egg whites.

And this past weekend on a stage at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he was crowned the 2013 USA Bodybuilding Championships bantamweight champion, Langit got his just desserts.

“It was all worth it,” Langit said. “I feel on top of the world.”

After four tries at a national amateur championship and vowing this would be the last one if there wasn’t a breakthrough, the 39-year old won the title that had eluded him and earned a much-sought-after pro card.

In what had become a 16-year quest, he’d been second a decade ago and, since then, fifth, seventh and 12th. This time the sweat-soaked “Back with Vengeance” T-shirt he often wore during training was testament to doing whatever it took to reach his goal.

“I put everything I had into it,” said Langit, who dropped more than 40 pounds while painstakingly chiseling his 5-foot, 4-inch, 143-pound frame.

Mostly, he’ll tell you it was a time-consuming routine of a pre-dawn trip to the gym in the morning, going to work and then returning to the gym again that tested his discipline and commitment.

“That was the hardest part, the time,” Langit said. “Sometimes there wasn’t much sleep.”

On those occasions, by way of warning, he would wear a “Beware of Diet” sweatshirt at the UFC Gym or Powerhouse Gym as he buried his head in a towel and plodded away on the cardio equipment.   

But friends and family pitched in, shopping for him, helping out and encouraging him.

“I had a lot of people behind me, pushing me,” he said.

Then there was the memory of watching his father, Richard, compete in the Paradise Cup years earlier. When Richie began going to the gym, “I’d look up to those guys,” he said. “Just seeing them, I thought, ‘I’d like to be like them (some day).’”

After several top-10 finishes but no title, he retired in 2008. Four years later, after enough people had asked him to help them prepare for competition, Langit was reenergized himself.

“I started getting into it again,” he said. “I wanted to compete again.”

Then came a 12th-place finish in 2012 and a vow that if he was going to invest the time and effort to get down to 143 pounds, “I was going to put everything into it. If I didn’t get my pro card (as a champion) this time, that was going to be it for me. I was focusing everything on (winning) the USA.”

Which is why victory, when it came, tasted so sweet.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.