It was a slip and fall on my way to Commander’s Palace in New Orleans that finally did it.

It was July 4th weekend in 2011 and I was walking to brunch with friends. A sidewalk that was still sadly twisted from Hurricane Katrina tripped me up, causing all 350 pounds-plus of me to fall to the ground, causing more immediate embarrassment for me than any real pain.

But during brunch it became increasingly clear to me that there was something wrong with my left arm which I had unsuccessfully used to brace my fall. Sure enough, two local doctor friends of mine confirmed that it was broken.

While the fracture wasn’t all that bad – it didn’t require surgery or a cast – I did have to undergo several months of occupational and physical therapy where I had to show up at a hospital twice a week and do exercises to strengthen my arm. Surrounded by so many people at the hospital who were in far worse shape than me, I had my eureka moment. It was time to get healthier. It was a vague idea and not associated with any goals like “I’m going to lose 100 pounds” or “no more Big Macs”. Had I known what I would eventually be putting myself through and the journey I would be taking, it was better that I was thinking in much smaller steps.

Even with my bum arm, I started going to the gym five days a week, walking uphill on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike. I had exercised plenty in a previous life and been active on my feet as a reporter but my desk job at NY1 had been brutal for my health. Looking back, I estimate that I was probably gaining 15 to 20 pounds a year over a seven-year period. That turns a 215-pound overweight man with an unhealthy diet into a 355-pound blob.

As I plodded away at the treadmill day after day, one trainer – Corey MacGregor – approached me. While praising me for my daily appearance at the Equinox gym, Corey gently prodded me into expanding my horizons—which meant using weights and lots of other bells and whistles that had previously scared and intimidated me. But getting stronger also meant that my metabolism was increasing and my body would burn more calories. Corey slowly had me hooked and I started training with him.

With little change to my diet but a new regimen with Corey, the weight started flying off of me at a rate of two to three pounds a week. But just when I broke through my 300-pound barrier in early 2012, he left to start his own gym in New Jersey. I was determined that losing my new guru wouldn’t be a setback. It was already frustrating that I had lost more than 50 pounds and almost no one noticed, I wasn’t going to backslide.

Enter Ed Gemdjian. Ed helped me take everything to a new level by helping me overhaul what I eat and drink. It’s said that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out but that if you slowly turn up the temperature, the frog will stay in the pot until it’s cooked. Ed turned me into that boiled frog (nice analogy, eh?) by encouraging me to make small changes to my diet each week. “Drink as much as you want but no more mixed drinks” was one bit of early advice on that seemed crazy but was remarkably easy to follow. Finding snacks and food that I like was key to my progress. And not having a set goal has been helpful. “What’s your goal weight?” is a question I have constantly heard over the last three years and I’ve never really had a firm answer.

Ed is gone; he moved to L.A. with his wife where he’s a trainer there. I’m now working with John Allstadt, an amazing coach who would have intimidated me three years ago. John’s mantra is form, preferring that you’d perform one pushup perfectly rather than ten pushups that you’d do at a contest in a bar where you’re trying to emulate Patrick Swayze. He also convinced me that I was actually overdoing some of my cardio workouts and had me slow down for two months before building me back up. It’s been a new and challenging journey.

Beyond answering questions that I’ve sort of ducked over the last two years, I wrote this fitness porn column to try to encourage everyone who reads it to try to take a little bit better care of themselves. In the long run, it’s not productive to put yourself on some sort of wacky diet or enroll in a boot camp out of “Full Metal Jacket” where you’ll likely have a lot of early success but then hit a painful wall. Making small but permanent choices is the key to a healthier life. What I eat and drink is far from perfect but it’s also far better than anything I’ve eaten in my life before. And I’m amazed at how so many smart and educated people in our world know next to nothing about nutrition – which is really far more important than exercise for many of us.

I could write pages and pages about health and fitness because of my weird odyssey but I’m going to stop and encourage you to watch “Inside City Hall” at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. tonight when NY1 Political Anchor Errol Louis shows us his own fitness regimen and then talks a little bit with me and my coach, John, and his trainer, Jay Lee. And please no comments on our workout clothes!

 

Bob Hardt


For more fitness stories from NY1 staffers and other New Yorkers, see our Fit Kids February section.