901. A Transformative Approach to Health

Angelo’s first client was 60 years old and lost about 55 pounds in 9-12 months. She asked Angelo to take on her younger friend who had a few more pounds to lose than she did. Her friend was a person that was, by and large, eating what I asked her to eat, exercising when I asked her to exercise, and doing everything that all of the education of the day, all the books I’d read then, and what all the gurus tell you to do. She was doing exactly those things her friend did, but she lost only five pounds. Yet her older friend was able to lose 55 pounds. That’s what inspired me. I had to know why two people doing the exact same thing, got two polar opposite outcomes? And that’s what basically started my passion. Or, if we’re being honest, obsession. Remember, since I was a little kid I liked to know how things worked. I had to know how changing your body worked.

1. “I was always entrepreneurial. When I was 17 or 18, I actually started a business. I was a window cleaner. But if I was going to do windows, I figured I might as well expand. I had a few trucks that were going out with a crew and we would do windows all up and down Northern California. It was a good little business and I got it to a point where I was able to sell it off and get just enough seed money to buy my first gym set-up from one of the chiropractors for the 49ers. This was years and years ago. So, I had a little home gym, nice professional set ups, small but professional. And I started working with clients because I was always passionate about nutrition and the science to transform.”

2. “I was washing the windows on a Curves that was very, very popular back in the early 2000. A woman came out and said, ‘Hey, you look fit. You look like you know what you’re doing. I’ve been wanting to actually do some free weights. Have you ever thought about teaching someone? Would you be willing to take me on?’ I set an appointment to meet her the following week a gym, and we started working. I never thought of really being a personal trainer or a nutritionist or any of those things before this. I was just interested in it personally.”

3. “This woman, my first client, was about 60 years old. And about 9 months later she had lost just over 55 pounds. She quit smoking. She completely transformed. She ended up marrying her high school sweetheart. It was literally the fairy tale story. But that’s not what inspired me.” (See “The Most Impactful Turning Point” above.)

4. “I had a few clients I started training out of my house. But there was a problem. My lack of experience, and I injured myself thinking I was young and immortal. I had to have multiple back-to-back surgeries and multiple bouts of pain management.”

5. “That’s how I ended up on this current journey. I realized that I was going to be stuck with this cane and stuck with this lot in my life. And I didn’t want to change professions. I didn’t want to leave the career path and the industry that I was so passionate about. So, I decided to learn as much as I could about every technique imaginable and neuromuscular reeducation. That’s a fancy way of saying posture and alignment. Getting your nervous system, your muscular system to all work together, the way it was designed before injury changes your symmetry and your joint position, before atrophy or disuse. That also led to my study of nutrition and my study of the biochemistry of how our bodies work and real life application.”