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Interview by: Hayat Ammouri
Starting over means learning to take care of your mind, body, and soul. What you’ll come to find along the way is that your nutrition and diet play a very important role in both your physical and emotional well being. Today I invite you to meet model, actor, and fitness coach Gregg Avedon who has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years. Avedon is the author of Muscle Chow, and The 14 Day Get Lean Diet. He’s also the creator of Truth Diet and an advanced workout and nutrition system called the Goliath Plan.
I had the pleasure of speaking to Gregg about all things health, settings goals, and what it is we can do to start taking care of our body the way it cares for us.
You’re a model, actor, writer, fitness coach. Did you ever have to start over in your life? What helped you?
A: Absolutely. In fact, a few times. Let me tell you about the most recent.
I’ve lived my entire life in South Florida up until three years ago. Long story short; I went to school, then to college, bought a home, raised a family, and everything was going great with work. I was managing a high-end private gym for one of the biggest names in the movie business, training professional athletes, and helping clients from all walks of life find their best health.
But there was one main piece of the puzzle out of place…my wife wasn’t happy. Since the kids had gone off to college, the walls started closing in on her, and the place that we built and called home for the last 26 years wasn’t serving us anymore. It was time for a change. We decided to take a huge leap of faith.
It was our dream to go out west to the mountains of Colorado for as long as I can remember, so we decided to sell the house, pack everything up and move across the country. That meant I had to start from scratch, find a gym, acquire all new clients and make a living. It didn’t happen overnight, there were challenges, but now I’ve got a solid list of great clients, made some incredible connections, I have a new big supplement project in the works, and things are progressing beyond what I could have expected.
The best part is that we live 9,000 feet up in the mountains, in a beautiful home, with spectacular views, our kids have since moved out to Colorado as well, and most importantly, my wife is the happiest I’ve seen her in years.
Everyone will have only a few defining moments in their lives. You can literally count them on one hand. It’s what you do with the moment when it arises. My biggest piece of advice is to listen to your heart (your intuition), and not let fear get in the way of your decision.
What is a good way to motivate ourselves to start taking care of our body?
A: Ask yourself a simple question: WHO AM I? Before you answer that too literally, let me explain what I mean.
Everyone should have a time in their life when they looked and felt their best ever. I don’t care if you have to go all the way back to high school, or 6 years ago, or last year or even 5 months ago. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have a sense-memory to a time in your life when you looked your best. How did you feel? Did you have more confidence? Did you seem happier? What about your relationships with other people? Really think about that for a moment.
Now ask yourself the question: WHO AM I when I’m at my best physically, nutritionally and spiritually?
From my personal experience, when I’m at my best and feeling very healthy, I look my best, and I’m a better person for myself and everyone else around me. It’s a great way to motivate yourself to take care of your body and be the best, well-rounded and balanced person that you can be. It’s easy to ask yourself that simple question and start making good choices that will lead you to a better life, with more confidence, and more potential for happiness.
In the Truth Diet, I loved that you focus on integrity and values. How is this helpful to our diet and how does it affect our body?
A: Integrity in food means eating foods as close to their natural source as possible. That translates to having more plants, more salads, fresh fruits, vegetables, grass fed and humanely raised meats (if you eat meat), cage-free pasture raised eggs, some nuts, seeds and whole grains. It also means having less processed foods, less dry carbs and packaged foods that are far away from their natural sources. The result is a healthier, leaner body with less inflammation, less pain and more energy.
Why is breathing recommended in your plan? How is it beneficial to our body?
A: Breathing is the most fundamental way to quiet the mind, to center yourself and manage stress.
Let’s face it, most of us are guilty for spending too much time on our electronic devices, watching mindless videos or scanning through social media feeds. It’s not good for our eyes, our cognitive function, stress levels and emotional responses. Being consistently engaged with external stimuli and constant mind chatter causes us to lose touch with our deepest selves. That’s why I have short breathing breaks within the Truth Diet plan each day. I find that when it’s written into the plan, people will take a few minutes to focus on their breath and center themselves, which helps reduce stress and cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone that can disrupt your immune system, cause weight gain, cause unwanted skin changes, high blood pressure and effect sleep.
What is more important, diet or exercise?
A: In truth, the two go hand-in-hand, but if given the choice, diet is the best place to start. You can’t always be active, or find time to go to the gym, get out and walk, run or do an aerobics class for example. But you can always choose to eat a healthy diet and make the healthiest choices possible. That’s why the Truth Diet is only a nutrition plan an doesn’t have a fitness component. It’s designed to help people detox, then reshape and learn about healthy nutrition whether you’re being physically active or not. Of course, I always recommend you do something active for heart health, and manage stress to ensure you maintain a well-balanced lifestyle.
What is your advice on not giving up and stay consistent?
A: You should always have a goal. Goals shine that beacon of light to help give you direction and keep you consistent. A goal doesn’t have to be overly challenging, like losing forty-pounds in six months for example. It can be as simple as eating clean, having less dry carbs, more foods close to their natural source, and doing something physically active three days a week for three months.
You can also use an event to help motivate and keep you consistent. Like taking a cruise that’s planned in a month, or going to a wedding, vacation, a trip to the beach in two weeks or an appointment to shoot pictures in two months. It’s always good to have a strong anchor (goal) that helps raise the stakes, pushes you take it serious and gives you something to reach for.
What are the vitamins and supplements you recommend we start taking?
A: Everyone is different, but there are a few basic supplements that I can recommend while staying on the conservative side. It’s for this reason that I’m only going to recommend four things.
A multivitamin is a good place to start. If you’re a woman, look for a woman’s multivitamin according to your age. The same holds true for a man. Personally, I like taking a one-a-day multivitamin because there’s only so much that they can get into a single vitamin capsule or tablet. That way you’re not mega-dosing. Instead, a one-a-day multivitamin will give you blanket coverage to fill in the gaps while mostly relying on healthy foods for your nutrients.
Vitamin D3 and MK7 (K2) in a mix is good to add into your daily regimen. These two nutrients are excellent for bone health, arterial health, immune health and more. I personally take 5000 IU’s of D3 and 100 MCG’s of MK7 daily.
Fish oil is excellent to take for heart health, brain health, skin, hair, and a host of other benefits. Again, I like to keep it relatively conservative and only take half of what the suggested dosage on the bottle says, especially if you’re already eating fatty fish like salmon for example.
Is it true that it’s harder to lose weight as we age, or this a myth?
A: Yes, as we age our hormones decline and our metabolism slows down. This can make it harder to lose weight as easily as it was when you were younger. The good news is that you can always get results no matter what age if you’re eating a healthy diet and staying physically active.
It’s also important to challenge yourself. There’s a saying, “Challenge creates change!” Doing the same things every day and expecting change makes it harder to consistently lose body fat and weight. Find ways to challenge yourself by changing the aerobics class that you’re doing, do a HIIT class instead of a spinning class (or vise-versa), try some new exercises, increase the duration of your cardio by adding an extra 10 minutes, cut carbohydrates for a few days while increasing protein, only have one cheat meal a week. Try creating changes by doing things both physically and nutritionally that challenge you in different ways and see what happens.
When is a good time to start a diet?
A: Now! Seriously, it’s best to start eating clean healthy nutrition as soon as you can. Why wait? The Truth Diet always begins on a Monday, which seems to be a good starting point for most people. So, if that’s an easy way for you to get your mind wrapped around starting, make the choice to begin this coming Monday and go for it.
What are the benefits of detox? How is it necessary before we start a diet plan?
A: Doing a detox is a diet plan. Anytime you’re changing your nutrition towards eating healthier and making better choices, that’s a diet plan. But let’s change the language from “diet” to “healthy” so it doesn’t sound so restrictive. The bottom line: eating healthy is the name of the game. We want to find a way to make this your new norm. It should be something that is sustainable for the long run and not just a short period of time. That’s how you’re going to find the ultimate success.
The benefits of a good detox plan include weight loss, reducing inflammation which can help with joint pain and other aches and pains, less bloating, improved digestion and gut flora, more energy, improves skin look and glow, liver health, and more.
You don’t have to detox for long periods of time either. A few days to a week or two can give you good results, and there are different kinds of detox that you can do. Juice cleansing, intermittent or regular fasting, calorie reduction, adding in fasting teas, and cutting processed foods from the diet are some basic effective ways.
What are your 3 most effective new habits for weight loss?
A: Let me make it as simple as possible.
1. Drink more water. I’m not talking about liquids like fizzy drinks and teas. Plain H20. I find that most of my new clients are dehydrated. They simply don’t drink enough water. The rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces.
2. Cut dry crunchy carbs out of your diet. This would include chips, crackers, cereals, breads, cakes, cookies and pastries for example.
3. Eat plants and lean proteins. In other words, don’t get too creative. Have salads with plain baked chicken or fish on top and only a little olive oil and vinegar. Make a healthy vegetable soup with extra firm cubed tofu tossed in for dinner. Bake a pan of mixed veggies lightly drizzled with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Have lean proteins like eggs, chicken, fish, and turkey. Think simple, keep it simple, and get great results!
To Connect with Gregg on instagram, please click on the links below:
Gregg Avedon has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years. His dedication throughout that time as a professional model traveling the world and personal trainer have earned him unparalleled success which is why he stays in shape year round. Gregg Avedon has been on more covers of Men's Health magazine than anyone in history with over 20, has written for Men's Health, which includes a monthly column that was eventually spun into his popular book Muscle Chow. Avedon also has another book, The 14 Day Get Lean Diet, he's done television segments for Discovery Health, and was named among the top 5 best bodies in the business by People magazine. His passion for helping others in health, fitness and overall wellness is evident the moment you meet him. Be sure to check out Gregg’s TRUTH DIET: a 2-PHASE six week plan that will help you detox, cleanse, lose body fat, reshape and renew to feel incredible and create your best body ever! You can also check out his new advanced workout and nutrition system called the Goliath Plan.
