WHo I am
I am a personal trainer and online coach based out of New York City.
I always 🫢 …uhh…occasionally… scream at my TV while watching Knicks and Giants games 😅.
I love listening to trance and jazz music, hitting the weights, watching movies, and taking walks around the city.
I first got hooked on fitness when I did a home workout program called P90X. The greater peace and calmness I found after each workout kept me coming back.
Since that summer in 2009, I’ve kept fitness in my life in one way or another.
It was the one thing that I knew I could control in my life. If I got my workout in, and if I ate healthy, I knew I’d be better equipped to handle my issues.
Fitness continually gives me confidence, as the daily task of caring for my body and health is a huge accomplishment in itself. Looking and feeling good doesn’t hurt either!
I understand that change is hard. It’s not always as easy, exciting, and captivating as the “30 day” or “secret trick” type of quick fix transformations that are rampant in the fitness industry.
Change can be long, boring, and repetitive. However, putting in the effort and patience to make long lasting, sustainable change will ultimately be worth it.
I’d love to help you experience the wellbeing that improving your nutrition, fitness, and health offers whether that’s through 1-on-1 coaching, my website articles, social media posts, or just a chat!
my transformation
2008
2020
It took me a while, and I still have so much more to learn. The journey will always continue. The transformation is neverending! Here are two things I discovered along the way that I wish I had known at the beginning:
1. Getting the body you want won’t necessarily make you a happier, or a better person.
One of the initial reasons I got into fitness was because I wanted more attention and respect from my peers. I thought people would like me more and life would get easier.
When I started getting results, people noticed! They gave me the validation I wanted.
However, the effect of this validation quickly wore off, and I was left with all the problems of low confidence, social anxiety, low self worth, and all the other worries I had prior to achieving my results.
In some cases, my problems were magnified because I felt like an impostor in a body that didn’t belong to me.
So what’s the point? Why go through the trouble of getting fit and healthy?
Well, it all comes down to your intentions. Why do you want to achieve your health and fitness goals?
Is it solely because you want to impress other people? Is it to challenge yourself to expand your limits? Is it because you have to address problematic health concerns?
It’s your intentions that will determine the level of happiness and satisfaction you’ll attain from the process.
If I had to advise a younger version of myself on how I could increase the chances of coming out of this a better person, here’s what I would tell him:
⭐️ Do this because YOU want to do it, not because it’ll make you look better in front of others.
⭐️ Learn to enjoy the process. Notice, acknowledge, and appreciate all the health benefits you gain along the way.
⭐️ It’s the character qualities that you develop through your health and wellness journey that are the real prize: patience, consistency, faith, long term thinking, problem solving, continued learning and improvement.
2. There are no secrets or shortcuts for long lasting results.
It’s the boring stuff repeated over and over again that tends to produce the best results:
✅ Eating mostly whole, minimally processed foods: vegetables, fruits, fresh meats, fresh fish, eggs, beans, nuts, legumes, etc.
✅ Tracking your calories and macros.
✅ Drinking mostly water.
✅ Getting enough sleep.
✅ Training basic foundational movements in the gym.
✅ Doing cardio.
Rinse and repeat for several years and voila! You have your transformation. And once you achieve your transformation, you gotta continue doing the things that got you there!
I got fooled by a lot of “too good to be true” marketing during the start of my journey. How couldn’t I? I didn’t know any better, and even if I did, my curiosity still needed to be satisfied.
I’ve tried the trendy stuff, the “secrets”, and none of them produced results like the boring stuff did. So if you come across any magnificent claims for amazing results in a short amount of time, be skeptical!
In fact, these fancy diets and programs will most likely be some repackaged form of the boring fundamentals in nice gift wrap with a pretty bow.
My guess is that you probably know about 80-90% of what you need to do to achieve your goals. The other 10-20% you can figure out by a quick internet search.
The information is easy to come across and learn.
The hard part is doing the work consistently, over a long period of time, while balancing all the other things you’ve got going on in your life, and maintaining a positive attitude about your journey.
There will be many ups and downs, and if you can weather the storms and continue pushing through, you’ll be stunned with what you can do!