My friend Anthony Balduzzi is a former Ivy League researcher in metabolic neuroscience, and has won 7 first place titles as a national champion bodybuilder!
His neuroscience research has been published in the prestigious medical journal PLOS One, and his online health coaching business Halftime Fitness has been featured nationally on ABC for his unique habits-based approach to lasting weight loss.
The amount of new health information available can absolutely seem overwhelming at times.
But Anthony stays sane by always coming back to the following truism:
The underlying, time-tested principles for vibrant health do not change.
Eat whole foods. Get sunshine. Drink lots of water. Move your body. Avoid toxic chemicals (and people). Smile. Slow down occasionally.
Most of the research (and complication) simply focused on a small subsection of one of these categories.
If you’re following the above guidelines â it really doesn’t matter to Anthony if you choose to follow a Paleo-type diet or eat Vegetarian. It doesn’t matter if you love to ride bikes or bench press.
You will be phenomenally healthy.
Never lose sight of the big picture.
Anthony feels this core insight is worth more than the $500,000 he’s spent on the finest education the United States has to offer.
Quick Fire Questions:
Book You’re Currently Reading?
In the morning, I read my personal development literature. My current (re)read is Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think And Grow Rich.
In the evening, I enjoy fiction to help me unwind. I just started Flowers For Algernon.
Best Health Purchase?
My first weight lifting workout logbook I purchased when I was 10.
I initially bought the book, because I noticed that an older guy I admired in the gym with an incredible physique used to write down his weights. So, I decided to copy him.
For over a decade now, I have been tracking my workout progress in small moleskin notebooks. I have around a dozen or so now.
To this day, my workout log keeps me accountable, and it’s incredible inspiring to look back and see how far my body, strength, and health have come.
Favorite Health Resource?
Michael Pollanâs In Defense Of Food: The Eaterâs Manifesto.
Biggest Inspiration?
My Father Peter Balduzzi (1957-1999)
His passing when I was 10 years old provided the initial impulse behind my desire to get healthy.
A few weeks after his death, on my 10th birthday, I made 2 sacred vows:
Vow #1: To become so strong and healthy that not even cancer could stop me.
Vow #2: To ensure that my friends & family would never have to experience the pain my father went through, not on my watch.
I haven’t looked back since.
Favorite Health Website?
I’m a bit of a science nerd at heart, and Suppversity does an incredible job at integrating hard line heath & fitness research with real world applications.
Table of Contents
How I Started
Lifelong health is all about managing simple habits and practical behaviors that you perform on a regular basis.
90% of people who find themselves fat, sick, and tired have arrived at that point because of their eating and exercise habits (or lack there of).
For me personally, the main habit that has helped me stay consistent with my health has been developing a strong weekly food preparation ritual.
Each Sunday, I slow-cook my organic meats, quinoa, and veggies in bulk so that I don’t have to think about healthy eating during the week. Everything is already setup.
Most Important Daily Habit
Minutely – focusing on intentional belly breathing. This is an acquired skill.
Hourly – focusing on good posture. This is a silent killer. Most people (myself included) spend a large amount of our days sitting. Posture can make of break your health.
Daily – drinking organic green tea.
Weekly â a once per week 24-hour fasts. I am a huge proponent of short-term weekly fasts for detoxification, rejuvenation, and weight loss. This is a critical component of all of the health programs I create for clients.
Tri-Weekly – resistance training. I love all kinds of exercise. But resistance training (weight lifting) is my absolute favorite form. I love getting pushing my strength and personal boundaries.
There’s A Healthier Way
From competitive bodybuilding, I gained first hand experience of the transformative power of nutrition. As a physique athlete, I quickly learned that the foods I chose to eat directly shaped how I ended up looking (and feeling).
This realization was incredibly liberating. Shaping my body and my energy levels was simply a matter of making optimal food choices.
Today, if I want to gain 20 pounds, I can do it. If I want to lose 20, I can do that too.
Here’s a picture from the bodybuilding show in 2010 – the year I won a national championship.
The images are roughly 4 months apart and 50 pounds in weight difference. In the before picture, I had just returned from living in Florence, Italy. Long story short: U enjoyed a little too much wine and pasta.
16-weeks later: my body was sculpted for competition.
Looking at these pictures, it may seem like magic. But it’s really just a consistent application of perfect nutrition and exercise over time.
I would’ve been Healthier Sooner IF…
Looking back, I wish I would have known about all the pseudo-healthy foods out there to avoid.
A few food selections that come to mind that should be 100% avoided:
- Healthy-Choice / Lean Cuisine type microwaveable dinners â high in phytoestrogens, preservatives, & filler ingredients
- Whole wheat breads usually made with GMO wheat; highly allergenic
- Farmed Salmon/Tilapia (not wild-caught) high in PCBs & pesticides
- All tuna fish, sword fish, sea bass are very high in mercury
- The Dirty Dozen, very high in pesticides
- Granola basically a glorified bunch of sugar
7. Difference Between Healthy And Unhealthy People
This one is actually quite simple.
Healthy people have established consistent food preparation & exercise behaviors. It’s these structured, proactive routines that remove the decision points that often lead to unhealthy choices. When you have pre-packed a hearty mixed greens salad for lunch, you remove the possibility of making a bad food choice.
Obviously, underlying those behaviors is a deep prioritization of ones health, a strong “why” is powerful for getting and staying healthy.
My #1 Health Tip
90% of the foods you eat should only have one ingredient.
Apples contain apples.
Grass-fed steak contains grass-fed steak.
If a food has a long ingredient list, it’s probably not something that will help you thrive.
This is really good stuff, I love this site. Thanks Anthony and David for sharing all of this invaluable health information with us today.