I leave "celebrity" and "famous" for the tabloids. I'm just a passionate and hard working person who is lucky enough to be able to do what I love to do. Being on TV and being more recognized has changed my life because it's made me be more accountable to myself and my word.
I want to set a positive role model for people, especially children. Having kids and parents come up to me on the street, shake my hand and tell me how inspiring I've been to them, has really shown me the "ripple effect" and how truly important it is to "pay it forward" when you have the ability to do it on a national and global scale. It's also made it hard to grab a frozen yogurt or slice of pizza without feeling like I need to put on sun glasses and a wig ;)
People turn to me for Abs because I get results, bottom line. Helping people get in-shape and lean is an art form. It takes years of experience, knowing the science of training and nutrition, the mental and emotional "buttons" to push and most importantly, leading by example. If you don't live what you teach, if you are not an example for people to look up to and learn from, if you don't have a six-pack yourself...let's be honest, people will go somewhere else if that's what they seek.
RevAbs came about from the owner of Beachbody, Carl Daikeler. Originally he liked my "reVamp" health and lifestyle program, but I decided not to give that up. He knew he wanted an Abs training program and combined the "reV" and "Abs". To me, the name has many meanings - REV can mean super-charged like "REV'ing" an engine or "REVolution" which is what you become a part of when you commit to the program.
I couldn't afford a gym membership as a pre-med working in a lab and applying to med school. I applied to be a boxing instructor so I could work out for free.
I eventually switched careers and started working in finance for a hedge fund. After a year in finance, I realized both the medical and financial fields were not my "calling" and asked my father for his advice. He said, "find something you love to do...it will never feel like work and either the financial reward will come or it won't matter to you". That was the best advice he ever gave me - I looked him straight in the eye and said "the one thing I look forward to every morning is teaching my fitness classes." I haven't turned back since.
Walk Your Talk. Always.
About 5x/week. I'll try to do two-a-day workouts when I know my travel or filming schedule is getting hectic and I won't be able to workout that often. A lot of my training involves bodyweight and definitely makes my workout regimen unique - spinning, sprints, suspension training, swimming and my fav...capoeira. The capoeira martial art and all of the very unique conditioning drills is one thing I'm known for.
A LOT of my time is spent on my iPhone - doing Social Media and continuing to build the on the opportunities that have been given to me. True downtime is spent listening to House music on BPM and Electric Area on SiriusXM radio in my car, reading and traveling to different parts of the world.
Definitely into fitness fashion. I tend to combine lifestyle and sports specific clothing rather than the typical major brands. G-Star for my outdoor jackets. Burton and other snowboarding brands for my indoor jackets and hoodies. Brasilian Capoeira uniform for my pants. Pearl Izumi and other cycling brands for my tops.Tiger Onitsuka martial arts shoes for my sneakers.
Capoeira pants.
Something that accentuates their natural beauty, curves, colors etc. If they feel comfortable in it, they will have confidence and confidence is very SEXY.
The level of education of the fitness professional. There are a lot of pseudo-certifications and weekend-certifications that many fitness professionals take for a "quick fix" to get working as soon as possible. It's a short term gain for them, but a long term problem for the Industry.
Not Waking Their Talk. A LOT of trainers are not as "in-shape" as they could be in my opinion. If they lived what they teach, this wouldn't be the case.
Look out for me on:
Thursday, Feb 2nd and Feb 9th [2012] at 10pm EST/PST on the Food Network
I'll be starring in a new health and weight loss show called Fat Chef. It's a docu-series that follows the lives of 12 different obese chefs in 3 cities around the country and shows their struggles and triumphs of trying to lose weight and regain their health, while under the supervision of me and 2 other health consultants.