When Culinary School Meets P90X

         What do Culinary School and Losing weight have in common? Absolutely nothing, for most people. For myself it was more than just losing weight it was a change of life and attitude.

         It was freshmen year at Johnson & Wales University, my morning began at 5:30 am with a quick breakfast, and coffee togo. On my way to school I was obviously nervous but full of excitement. I was one of the first to arrive into class, I quickly notice this was not just another college.
First our uniform, it had to be pressed and shoes shined, we had to be clean shaved, we all had cloth caps, which had to hide all of our hair. Each morning we lined up military style, and the Chef, just like a drill sergeant, would size each one of us and confirm our uniform was up to code. Rules were if you are on time you were late, if you were early you were on time. If you are late two times it’s an absence, one absence you are withdrawn. My first class was Skills of Meat Cutting. The class was about 37 degrees fahrenheit it was basically a huge freezer, it sure felt like it. I absolutely loved every moment of it, I was so thrilled to be going to culinary school. My first couple of months were great I was learning so much everything just came easy to me, and I had all of this food around me it was awesome! Needless to say I quickly gained weight and this is where I knew I needed to make a decision in my life.

         Chef’s have a bad reputation of being overweight, alcoholics, and drug users. While not all chef’s fall into these three categories a large number do. I was not going to fall into that statistic. I never had any issues with the ladder of the three as I have never done any drugs or have abused alcohol but over eating was my issue. I come from a family line that suffers from diabetes and heart conditions. One of my beloved grandmothers past away at a young age of 60 because of diabetes. I made the tough decision of not letting it happen to me.

         Enter P90X, the extreme home fitness DVD program. I heard of P90X in the past, but it never dawned on me to actually try it out. It all started late one night after I finished my homework I was falling asleep with the television on as I had the custom of doing. I would try to watch some television to keep up with what was going in the world as my daily schedule was school, work, homework repeat, while fun it was exhausting. A infomercial came on about P90X and it claimed to to get you ripped in 90 days. I started to wonder could that really be true. I started to self evaluate myself and I knew I wasn't where I wanted to be health wise, I knew I had to take a step somewhere. The next morning while talking to Anna I mentioned the infomercial. Anna liked the idea and said it was something that I should really consider. About a week later I made the call that changed it all. It was a Sunday morning I was getting dressed for church and the infomercial came on again, I felt it and I knew it was time. The Following months were the most life changing moments of my life. I never worked so hard mentally and physically. Everyday I was being pushed to my limits but it did not matter. I was driven to do my best at school and do my best at working out and eating right. But how did I go to Culinary School, which one of the main objectives was to taste food and enhance my pallet, and lose weight at the same time? The next part of this post I'll give insight on how focus and determination changed my life and how it could change yours.