The Foodie Who Became A Personal Trainer

It all began when I decided to be fit, again!

All my life I’ve been in a struggle between what to eat and what exercise should I perform to burn the calories?

Being a food lover, I had to try every dish in every restaurant all over Lebanon. My mother, who happens to be a great cook, didn’t make it any easier on me because she made me eat “Sa7nin Tabikh” at night, which was catastrophic! At the age of 18, I decided to hit the gym on a daily basis while playing football. Having been so passionate about this game, I trained with big teams until I had a knee injury and it all stopped there.

For the next four years, I stopped working out at the gym but I couldn’t but play a couple of football matches with my friends. Looking at my old pictures and my big belly, I decided to run the 10km Marathon which was in 10 months. Being knowledgeable in sports didn’t help much with my weight problem because I had to lose 27kgs (107kgs to at least 80kgs). I phoned Jessica Abou Harb, a dietitian and my very own guardian angel, who helped me a lot and together we achieved my goal. After 10 months of full dedication to my weight loss program as well as my sales job, I became fit and ready to run the marathon with an almost recovered abs injury. I ran the marathon in 63 minutes.

I was living a happy life, where I could devour all kinds of burgers and salads while staying fit. But life was not always on my side. We all know that football is a physical game, so this time I injured my hip. Doctors said that I will never be able to play football ever again, which was somehow depressing. At that point, I wanted to share my food experience with everyone, so I created Yummy Lebanon’s page. Having fun experiences with food made me forget all about my injury for a short while, and I started playing football again.

One day, as I was surfing the internet, I noticed that my friend “Muhammad Baydoun” has been certified as a Personal Trainer at Inspire academy (known as 4 actions Academy previously) ran by Patrick Bejjany. Knowing that sports can heal, I decided to take up that Personal Fitness trainer course as well.

Here is where the struggling began, for I had to eat junk food, get back in shape and help heal my leg. It did heal eventually and I started playing football again. But the weight problem was still there, especially with me having to take cortisone during my resting period.

Balancing my diet was the best choice, because undergoing a strict diet won’t work with my precious yummy Lebanon blog. A Balanced lifestyle is what I need to become fit and keep the enthusiasm on yummy Lebanon’s page. This means, 3 days for fatty meals and 4 days for healthy ones.

For a healthy breakfast, I would go for Labneh on crispy toast and a bottle of Aquafina water. Why Aquafina? Well because in Lebanon, and unlike other countries, Aquafina is low in sodium and it helps me get rid of any excess water. Labneh isn’t light but it surely contains all the nutrients I need to boost my day.

When it comes to cheating meals, a burger with fries would be a great choice but I have the choice of eating all my fries or just half the quantity. It all comes down to our willpower. If you’re convinced that something is of great benefit to you then just do it. My favourite place for a cheat meal was MR International.

When I’m invited to foodie meetups, I can’t order what I desire but I can eat responsibly by sticking to salads and a small bite from each plate in order to write a constructive review and maintain my balanced diet. My favourite place to have balanced meals/Sandwiches was Miniguette

I’ve been on this balanced lifestyle for almost 2 months now and I lost 7 kgs so far (11% fat loss and 3% Muscle gain)

That’s it for now, stay tuned for more motivational stories.