Q. What is your athletic background?

A: My athletic experiences began early at the age of nine with football. I played four years of organized football with the Atlantic City Dolphins, the local youth football league in my home town. My involvement in football at an early age was a great introduction to rigorous athletic conditioning. Prior to playing organized football, calisthenic exercise was a regular part of my life (I started exercising when I was five!), but football presented new and more challenging physical experiences.

My athletic journey continued even throughout high school. I played three years of football for the Atlantic City Vikings, and then “hung up my cleeks” for good at the end of the football season my senior year. I decided not to play collegiate football at Virginia Union University, however due to my athletic background and life-long passion for exercise the athletic lifestyle would remain an integral part of my life.

Q. What motivates you to exercise?

A:I am motivated to exercise for many reasons. First and foremost exercise has always been a powerful way to “get high” naturally. What I mean by this is, during and after exercise I feel invincible and super strong and confident. Exercise is a very effective way of getting me in “state”–the peak performance or personal power state that Anthony Robbins speaks and writes about. Exercise allows for me to feel great on a daily basis-that’s why I do it daily!

I’m also motivated to exercise for aesthetic reasons. In my lifetime I’ve come to learn about the relationship between body image and self image. On a personal level, when you like what you see when you look in the mirror there’s a positive emotional insperience that follows. I enjoy the process of developing the body of my dreams and the subsequent boost in confidence as a result.

Of course the health benefits are a major incentive to exercise for me. Making sure I’m optimally healthy now and in the future is very important as well. Preventing disease and decreasing the risk for it, certainly moves me day by day. Exercise for me is a non-verbal way of expressing my gratitude to God for giving me this body–the vehicle that allows me to experience life on earth.

Q: Describe a typical workout week for you?

A: My typical workout week involves a combination of aerobic and strength training exercises. I start each day with a deep breathing exercise I call the lung expansion breathing technique. This breathing technique is designed to build lung capacity by improving the flexibility of the lungs. Jogging, jumping rope, jumping jacks, and shadow boxing are other aerobic exercises that I perform on a weekly basis as well. Weight training is a five to six day a week love affair for me. On most days I’ll do a split routine to ensure that all three areas (upper, core, lower body muscles) receive attention. I have a motto that I live by: If you never get out of shape, then you’ll never have to get back in shape.

Q:. What is your diet like?

A: My diet or the way I eat for nutrition is best described as a whole foods, plant-based diet. This diet is an optimal way of providing my body with all the nutrients it needs. I am a vegan which means that the foods that I consume are exclusively plant-based. I don’t eat any animal sources of protein such as meat or diary products. I eat from all of the food groups that are plant-based which include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. I drink spring water everyday throughout the entire day, and I use soymilk in my cereal and protein shakes.

Q: You describe yourself as a "healthy lifestyle coach & mind-body fitness trainer". Explain.

A: For the last seven years I’ve dedicated my life to helping people–both clients and non-clients–adopt healthy lifestyle practices as an effective way of taking control of their physical destinies. As a Healthy Lifestyle Coach I enjoy educating, motivating, and encouraging people to realize their god-given health and fitness potential. As a Mind-Body Fitness Trainer it is just as important for me to instruct clients in the ways of cultivating inner strength or peace through various meditative breathing practices, as it is to instruct them about the strategies for building aerobic and muscular strength and endurance. Through my Body-Of-Your-Dreams-Program, a health and fitness lifestyle-based personal training program I designed, I am able to introduce my clients to the beginnings of long-term lifestyle change.

Q: What is the most common change people could make to improve their level of fitness? What keeps them from doing it?

A: The most common change that people could make to drastically improve their fitness levels would be in the area of nutrition. I call nutrition the true foundation of fitness, because food literally makes bodies. Fitness starts on the cellular level, and cells need oxygen and vast amount of differents types of nutrients in order to function optimally. Most Americans would experience optimal levels of fitness if they ate with their cells in mind. Nutritional deficiencies and toxicity cause cells to malfunction, and when cells malfunction there is no fitness. I think most people who aren’t fit don’t realize how much happier they would be if they ate healthfully!

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