While home helping my family for a month, I had an epiphany, which was aided by a tough conversation with my father. He pulled me aside amidst my grandmother’s illness to share his concern for my health. The irony was palpable. It was like foreshadowing, although he did not say it, I knew where he was going…unfortunately my genes are not in my favor. I look at pasta and put on a few pounds couple that with a devoid of exercise, basically I was looking “death” in the face. Sound extreme…maybe, but, true. I had been diagnosed with high blood pressure at age 27 and I was not obese, but I was definitely on my way there.
On my flight back to Orlando, I had a couple of hours to think and write a list--first up join a gym. I knew I had to counteract my genetics. I mean it would be great if I could eat whatever I wanted and didn’t gain weight, but I was not blessed with these genetics. Plus, just because you are skinny DOES not mean you are healthy. It is unrelated. I started off joining Gold’s Gym and doing a ton of cardio...cardio…cardio. I was a regular on the elliptical and in the Latin cardio classes…the initial 15 lbs. came off quickly and I felt great! During this initial transformation I also decided I wanted to be closer to my family, so I started a job search back in the northeast. The exercise gave me the confidence to begin and follow-through on a job search. About seven months in to my search I was offered a position to stay with my company and work from home in the NYC area. It was a perfect scenario…what I did not know at the time was how it would change my life in so many ways!
I moved to a small lively town in NJ- Hoboken, which boasts about 30,000 young people in a mile square. This was a far cry from the bedroom town of Orlando. The first three months, I was walking more than I did in the nine years in Florida; I was continuing to lose weight without a gym- it is amazing what walking can accomplish! After about three months, I found a beautiful gym to get my workouts in. I continued to focus on exercising (without paying much attention to my diet). In addition to working out I made a bold move- I decided to join a ski club. I had skied once before in college, but decided that it would be a great place to meet people. Also, due to my workouts I had the confidence to try something that was foreign to me. Again, this decision has significantly changed my life.
While in the ski club I came in contact with a number of fit, healthy people one of whom challenged me to a triathlon. She assured me I was capable, even though I didn’t believe it. She encouraged me to sign up for a sprint tri for that September; we had about three months to train. I was able to convince another friend (a marathoner) to join us. We trained together - which totally made a difference and helped with motivation. You know you are not going to "dis" your friend for the 6 am run while she is waiting at the corner. My first tri left me with such a sense of accomplishment. With one sprint tri under my belt, I was hooked. I went on to complete three other tris over the course of two years. One in Harriman, NY, one in Malibu, CA (it was breathtaking and had both J Lo and Matthew McConaughey as participants) and one in Miami. I had found a “sport” that I really enjoyed and helped me continue my quest for a healthy lifestyle. I had lost a significant amount of weight since my time in Orlando, but knew I had not reached my full potential.
Soon after my third triathlon, another ski club friend invited me to participate in a CrossFit class (www.crossfit.com). I admit I went to the class with a bit of a chip on my shoulder- I mean I had just finished my third tri and was super fit, right? Well the class kicked my ass. I could not do any of the exercises, I was in so much pain that night I kept waking myself up every time I moved my arms. I could not believe it, how could this be? I was a tri-athlete, but I couldn’t do a pull-up, had to scale my push-ups and had trouble with squats. I went back to the gym the next day with cash in hand to sign up!
While I was training at crossfit- where we do things like dead lifts, burpees, and cleans I learned an invaluable lesson- you cannot out train a bad diet. What does this mean exactly? You cannot eat bread and pasta and sugar and expect to 1) get more fit and 2) see a major difference in your muscle tone. I was doing crossfit for about two months when someone made a comment about my arm muscles. BTW- even after the triathlons- no one mentioned my arm muscles.
Crossfitters tend to follow two nutritional theories- Paleo (http://robbwolf.com/) or Zone. I leaned more towards the Paleo diet, which preaches limiting your sugar and processed food intake to a minimum, if at all. Meats, veggies, nuts and berries are accepted food types. Sugar, pasta, bread, cereal, rice and corn are not. Now, I am an Italian, which means every single one of my meals has a carbohydrate focus. Growing up, we had pasta more than once a week and bread with every meal. At first I could not get on the Paleo band wagon for so many reasons- but mostly because what if it actually worked? But then I remembered my grandmother, who recovered from, but still takes an innumerable amount of drugs, has to check her blood sugar and continues to have health issues, what if she stopped eating processed foods when she was in her thirties, would she be in such pain now? Would she have a better quality of life? The questions were enough to push me to try Paleo.
I started to become acutely aware of all types of products and started to think about efficiencies that I wished existed in my life. I was trying to adhere to the Paleo diet and found that there were not sufficient breakfast and snack options that fit into the "non-processed" category on the market. In trying to follow the Paleo diet and after a futile search for healthy, ready-made options led me to the creating Nutcase Crunch. The nut-based crunch provides a suitable option for those who are allergic to gluten, have gastrointestinal compromises or are otherwise victim of metabolic derangement.
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