About

Patrick

I’m a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Registered Dietitian Licensed in Pennsylvania. I received my training certification in 2016 and have worked with a wide variety of clients in both private and group settings. I graduated from Youngstown State University’s Coordinated Program in Dietetics in 2020. I had many experiences during my internship including a year of clinical rotations as well as food service management, community nutrition, and long term care. I passed my RD exam in 2021 and have worked as a clinical RD in a hospital setting as well as counseling clients through my private practice.

Besides running this business I have many roles, responsibilities, and interests in life. I am a husband and father. I also work as a bartender/bar manager, having worked in the restaurant/bar industry on and off for over 10 years. I am a truth seeker and love diving deep and questioning the narrative, which is helpful in navigating all the misinformation (sometimes from “credible” sources) about human health out there. I could go on, but I’ll save your time and mine by including pictures of some of my favorite things:

I have come a long way on my personal health and fitness journey. Keep reading to see where I started and the trials I overcame to ultimately lead me to where I am today. It sure beats where I could have ended up!

My Health and Fitness Journey

Growing up I was thick, and not the good kind like thiccc. I ate whatever tasted good and way too much of it; spaghettios, sugary breakfast cereals, ice cream, and the chefboyardee pizza were a few of my favorites. I don’t recall eating fruits and vegetables or lean sources of protein at all. I also drank around 2 cans of pop per day and was not very active. I was a spoiled little dude living with my grandparents who loved to feed me (which I would not trade for anything by the way). Their knowledge of nutrition and health was limited (and remember, this was before the internet era where you could just look stuff up) but they did the best they could for me and my brother while my mom worked a lot to help provide for us. It was a great time with countless memories made, but the poor diet combined with lack of physical activity resulted in me being overweight, out of shape, and having a low self esteem for many years growing up.

My single mom, little brother, and myself moved out when I was about 10 years old, and shortly after that my future step dad moved in with us. Although we still visited Grandma and Grandpap a lot and they would naturally spoil us with sweets, overall our diets improved greatly as my mom and step dad were very proactive about meal planning and making sure we ate dinner together as a family. This along with being more active by riding bikes and playing sports with neighbor kids a lot helped me shed a little bit of the excess weight.

By the time I hit 8th grade, I started playing football and was much more active than I had ever been. Being outside more plus daily practices and running helped me lose a lot of excess fat. I played through my sophomore year then threw javelin on the track team my junior and senior year.

I had lifted weights a little bit with the football team, but I started getting more serious about it around age 17. That’s when I bought a pair of adjustable dumbbells from Walmart and started lifting at home after school. In addition to lifting 5 days a week, I was doing cardio every other day-riding my bike, running, or jumping rope for at least 20 minutes. I was consumed with it and I started watching YouTube videos and reading magazines like Muscle and Fitness in my spare time.

However, this didn’t last too long. I worked out pretty regularly for about a year. I remember being able to see my abs but after that point, my teenage angst and brain took over- I quit working out and started partying. Next thing you know I was 19 and in college. For the next 4 years I regressed. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, binge drank almost every weekend, and my diet was not good. I was not consistent with anything and whatever gains I had made from high school slowly faded away.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely had some fun times and made lots of memories, but those fun times came at the expense of my health- mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. I was not happy with myself and those long forgotten self esteem issues I had as a kid reared their ugly head once again. My habits were disgusting. I let my work ethic, in all areas of life, slide. I had no direction in life, no goals or ambitions. I was just existing in this state of mediocrity. I gained 15 pounds of fat during this time and was very out of shape. I specifically remember at one of the many jobs I went through being out of breath after going up a flight of stairs. That was a real eye opening moment for me.

After a few years of treading water I decided I needed a change. My girlfriend and I had moved out on our own and it was time to grow up. I was also totally disgusted with what I was letting myself become. So one day in July of 2014, I decided to quit smoking cold turkey. I also started planning and completing workouts consistently again. Changing all those bad habits I built up was hard. Most days I wanted to just quit. But I decided not to give up and kept pushing through. I had created a vision for myself and my future that I kept in mind through it all. Having that vision really helped on those days where it felt impossible.

And here I am now a few years later. Since then I have exercised consistently, don’t smoke or binge drink anymore, eat healthier food, trained for a powerlifting meet, ran a few 5 and 10k’s, became a personal trainer, and finished college to become a Registered Dietitian.

The best part about all this is I am nothing special. If I can do this, anyone can! You just have to make the choice to do so and put in the work.

I know what it’s like to start from behind the 8 ball with no experience. I also know what it’s like to relapse back into unhealthy behaviors and have to dig back out of a hole. I was undisciplined and not willing to accept responsibility for my own health and circumstances. But I eventually made the decision to do so and that process has taught me a lot about myself and what it takes to achieve success.

I believe we all should strive to be the best we can in all areas of life, and taking control of your physical health is a great place to start.

Now that you know about me and my journey, I want to know you and yours! My goal is to help you by designing smart workout and eating plans, helping you change bad habits, and empowering you so that you may live a truly healthy and happy life.

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