MAINTAINING FAT LOSS – My 35 Year Journey As A Fit Foodie

This post will be a little more biographical and less scientific than all previous writing I have done on this blog. I’d like to share my story with you and hope you will take a deeper and broader view of the process that happens when you try to make a change in your eating, exercise and lifestyle habits.

[I am still passionate about maintaining a healthy, lean and muscular physique.]

The Things I’ve Learned In 30 Years Of Living A Healthy Lifestyle

My life as a master chef is long behind me, but the passion for cooking, eating and shopping still remain my # 1 passion. Although I live the idealized life of a personal trainer, a bodybuilder and master athlete, if asked to choose between an eternity of exercise or eating I would choose the pleasure of good food.

My Love Of Food Began In The Early 1960’s…

…in my Mom’s small rowhouse kitchen where I would help her make cakes and prepare our nightly family meals. Although we were typical Philadelphia Irish Catholics on a small budget, mom always had the creativity to turn simple and sparse ingredients into imaginative and wonderful meals. Nothing fancy or “gourmet”, but not the usual “Irish fare” of canned vegetables and over cooked meats. She was always trying new recipes from the women’s magazines and newspapers as she still does today at our regular Sunday family dinners. The love and care she put into our food is my fondest memory of growing up and inspired me to appreciate the magic of cooking and sharing food.

By High School I Was 60 Pounds Overweight

My love of food and lack of exercise had caught up with me. I did the GRAPEFRUIT diet and lost 60 pounds in about 10 months and from that moment I was hooked on living a healthy lifestyle, vowing never to back to eating twinkies and Ho’s Ho’s again. I read a 1970’s popular diet book called “WHITE DEATH” – the first of many books about the dangers of flour and sugar in the diet. I started eating yogurt, granola and tiger milk energy bars- all of these things were considered oddities back then. I shunned fast food, watched reruns of Jack La Lanne and cooked healthy recipes from Rodale’s Prevention magazine. I became a runner and joined a NAUTILUS fitness center in 1978.

During College I Started A Catering Business

I cooked for others those fancy gourmet foods I secretly loved but avoided myself. I began to recognize that I had two distinct but opposing factions inside my brain – a Gourmet “foodie” and a disciplined athlete. Finding the balance between foodie and athlete is what my life has been about over the past 35 years. It has taken equally long to figure out how to make it all work. How can I have my cake and… you know the rest.

It Wasn’t Always Smooth Sailing

After college I went to culinary school and became a master chef, started a catering company and gained about 25 pounds. With daily food tastings, stress, and little time for exercise I found my self defaulting back to old habits and uncomfortably tight clothing, (although I hid it pretty well in my chef whites). Feeling burned out and fueled by the recession in the late 80’s I closed the catering business after 7 years and went on a quest to find a new career that combined my talents and passions.

I Found Personal Training In My 30’s

I figured out how to combine my culinary talents with my love of training. These are usually considered complete opposites but I wanted to help others enjoy the pleasure of the culinary world and lose fat and stay healthy. How can anybody live on a steady diet of Boneless chicken, plain broccoli, cottage cheese and brown rice? This was the regime of the dieting bodybuilder and professional dieter back then.

The Fit Foodie Is Born

From that point on I dedicated myself to training myself and then helping others to live a healthy and balanced life by eating delicious food and still looking lean and fat free. I have written 2 recipe books (The Fat To Muscle Challenge, and Good To Go – A Book Of Portable Foods), a book of lifestyle tips for men over 40, and I appear on local TV to do healthy cooking demonstrations, give regular seminars and workshops on how to eat well and abundantly without deprivation and bland, or boring food choices. My next book- The Midlife Body Makeover will outline my 35 years of experience into a compilation of effective fat loss strategies that are geared for the active baby boomer who loves to eat.

Note: In Part 2 of this series I will give you my Top Ten Nuggets of Wisdom distilled from the hundreds of clients I have worked with. Although I have numerous certifications in nutrition, personal training and coaching, nothing speaks truer than the results the clients have seen using the techniques, strategies and routines in the MIDLIFE BODY MAKEOVER PLAN.
Stay tuned for more!

Next Post- How To Have Your Cake And Eat It Too!