That's about 13lbs of lean body mass in two-ish years just using 'the basics', which is pretty commendable, IMO. I take it you weren't spoon fed every little trick in the book to make your gains either (i.e. you learned everything on your own).
I think guys like Ronnie say they're 'all natural' because they do not want Johnny Nevertrained getting the impression that steroids are the only way to get results because they're not. They're especially not the first thing a person should use. I didn't start doing cycles until I had been training for almost 8 years.
Actually, if you want to get technical I've been 'lifting' for 5 years. The first 3 years were coupled wih incredibly poor training, only training 1 time a week, dreadful diet, and too much alcohol.
Haha, around August 2005 I started thinking to myself,
"hm, I've been lifting for 3 years and only gained 1 lb. I must be doing something wrong."
At that point I started doing more research myself and printing out every single printable exercise table on bb.com to use at the weightroom.
I just started going through all those papers and eating better. Even still I overtrained quite a bit and still made a ton of mistakes. Up until this point I'm still continuing to learn and try new things, but I've really got a handle on things now....fortunately.
I remember I asked at least 20 different ppl through when I first started up until the end of 2006 to give me tips and help me out in bb'ing that were in it. No one ever really took time to explain anything to me or whatever. Still kinda pisses me off until now. But anyways, so yeah if there's a will there's a way and I just sorta figured it all out.
Now that I think about it, Ronnie Coleman says he's natural b/c he's a cop.