Nutrition Coaching: Part 1

Doing something new for the first time is kinda scary, isn't it?

You don't know if you'll fail or succeed, but you never know until you go for it,

This past February, I was a part of revamping the nutrition program at DEUCE Gym with Logan (it's weird he my boss now). In short, we offer a 101 program which had a weekly call with students and coaching them through their nutrition journey and reaching their goals. We also offer a 202 program, which all-digital based where everything is done via SEISMIC, the digital partner the gym has formed with to use for the nutrition program. Both those programs is a 3-month commitment to make sure that they can be time for room to learn and grow knowledge. As I was a fresh and new nutrition coach, for my first program, 5 clients signed up for DEUCE Nutrition 101 to be coached by me. I was nervous and scared, but also excited all at the same time.

I'm not going to lie, those first 3 months was really tough for me. I would wake up early for calls and either some students wouldn't show up to the calls or had to cancel the call minutes before we were supposed to have our check-in. In the end, 1 of those 5 clients decided to continue on with DEUCE Nutrition 202 as they kept up with their goals, which was to have a healthy relationship with food and increase their health & well-being, then eventually got to tracking macro, and an added bonus was that this student lost 10 pounds without even realizing!

I was a bit discouraged when 4 of the 5 clients didn't want to continue (one wanted to but was making a life-changing move and didn't have the capacity). I thought to myself, "Am I really cut out for this?" But I did have one client who trusted me in the process and they were extremely excited to still continue on with their journey with food.

I did get 5 more clients for my second program with DEUCE Nutrition 101 but I felt down on myself because of my success rate of my students continuing was at the Mendoza line. With my Nutrition 101 clients, if time allows and stars align, I try to schedule a "Get-To-Know-You" call to talk to them about goals and their background. It gave me more confidence that they had the "All-In" mentality with their nutrition journey with their specific goals they wanted to meet.

As I went through the 3-months with the group of my second Nutrition 101 students (and my one 202 student), I gain more confidence and leading them to closer to their goals every week and I couldn't be more proud of those students reaching goals they had told me at the beginning of the program, whether if it was to have a healthier relationship with food, lose weight, increase in performance at the gym. Shoot, two students even lost weight for the first time in a long time, one was about 17 years! At the end of the second program, 3 are now enrolled in 202 and 1 wanted to do the 101 program again.

As I started my first week of my third DEUCE Nutrition 101 stint, I have 7 students who are enrolled in the program and I couldn't be more excited to see their progressions and helping the reach their goals!

It's only been a short 8 months of being a nutrition coach, but it all goes back to one of my first students I had in my DEUCE Nutrition 101 program that stuck it out, continued onto 202 and writes me the most, detailed summary of their week as we call it the TED Talk. I cannot thank this student enough for keeping me going throughout my nutrition coaching journey and making it worth while from the start. The day this student graduates from the program and goes off on their own, it'll be a bittersweet day for me, selfishly.

If you are reading this, you know who you are...Thank YOU!

Keep going.

Jun

Unexpected News.

I don't really write on here as much anymore, but when I do now, I used this as an outlet to let my thoughts out. Most of the times (or I should say 99% of the time), I'm afraid to express my thoughts and feelings to people, so I usually keep it to myself...

Other day, I went to go get dinner with my mom since I really never get to spend time with her besides the 15 minutes I see her in the morning and maybe 30 minutes when I get back home from work.

On the drive back home, out of no where, she brought up my dad.

My parents got separated when I was in middle school and they don't meet eye to eye at all.  My dad didn't live the healthiest lifestyle, smoking cigarettes and drinking every night (like about a 2-3 glasses of whiskey), never went to go workout but went to go play golf once or twice a week as his physical activity he does, which I guess is better than not.

The last time my mom talked to my dad was when he had a stroke back in November of 2018. Last time I talked to my dad was in 2020 sometime where he called me out of no where in the middle of the night saying he's looking to move back from Japan, where he moved back to after the strike, and asked me if I would buy a house under my name so he can live in it. I haven't spoken to him after that day...

Mom asked me if my dad had reached out to me. I was thinking to myself I haven't heard from him about 3 years, and I lost all my expectations of him reaching out. 

I told my mom I haven't heard from him. 

She explained to me that a mutual friend my mom and dad told her that my dad quit drinking, smoking and most surprising of all, golf.

I was in bit of a shock when I heard about this news. My sister's and I would tell him for years that he should stop smoking all together and to also stop drinking every night. He always told us, "One day I will."...

For starters, the reason why he's quitting golf was he was finishing towards to bottom every week when he goes out and plays with his friends. I guess losing that many time would do that to you. I still surprises me even now because growing up, he LOVED the game of golf. He lived, breathe and bled golf. He would tell me when I was younger to stop playing baseball and start to swing golf clubs instead. Every Sunday, he would turn on ABC or NBC to tune into the final round of whatever tournament the PGA was playing. So to hear that was a bit of a shock.

Secondly, the reason why my dad is quitting and smoking is because one of his friends, is hospitalized and is getting fed via enteral nutrition. My dad most likely realized that he doesn't want to be in that state ever, after already having 2 strokes in his lifetime...

I really never talk about my dad with anyone, but I just felt like writing this today because I hope this change brings some good to him. My dad and I weren't that close, but I do miss him and wish I could go to him to ask for advice, to ask for help when I need it, and have conversation I can't really with my mom.

Tell the ones that you love that you love them and hold onto them dearly. Forgive them for their mistakes, we're all prone to make them. Whatever thing you have wrong in life with a person, small or big, let it go. Life's too short not to love, to be holding grudges and being mad at someone, because you never know when the next time you'll see or talk to them.

Keep going.

Jun

My Training and Nutrition Journey

When I turned 29 in March 2019, I sat down on the couch and had one of those deep thought moments about life. Then I came to terms with myself one of my goals was to be “as fit as possible” when I turned 30. With the job I had at the time, I was traveling all over the country year round to work live sporting events for FOX Sports. I would have an “off-season” from traveling for about 3 months, but would be getting ready for the next 9 months of traveling.

April 2019

Few months after I turned 29, I started my work travel to help broadcast USGA Golf events, where I would be gone for a week at a time, maybe more. During my second trip of the year in Charleston, South Carolina, one of my co-workers was on his own journey of weight loss to get ready for his wedding. Whenever I saw him at the office, he would be eating his salad and tell me about how he’s been working out since he knew I trained from time to time. So while Charleston, he told me one day, 

“Why don’t you come work out with me in the morning?”

“What time?”

“I’ll be there at 5 (am).”

“That’s early man.”

“I guess you don’t want it that bad.”

I didn’t show up that first morning he asked and when I saw him at the TV Compound later in the morning, where the trucks would be lined with trailers to broadcast the sporting event, he said, “Man, I’m disappointed in you.”

Not that I felt bad at the time, but I also didn’t want to hear it from him again. So guess what, I showed up at 5am every morning for the next 4 days.

That was the only trip we worked out together/ we did work together the following week at Pebble Beach, CA but we were at different hotels but we kept each other accountable if we worked out or not.

August 2019

When I didn’t have any one else to workout with, I would still kept going to the hotel gyms even if they had little-to-none equipment whether if it was in somewhere along South Bend, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; Stevens Point, Wisconsin or in Starkville, Mississippi.

After the USGA Season was over, I went right into football season. 

During football season, I would only travel for 3 days so I did my best to carve some time out of the day to go workout at the gym I had at the condo I was living at at the time.

For the football season, I worked with a director, who is one of the nicest and also best dressed person in the sports TV industry for 3-4 years where his eating habits was very particular when we went to a work dinner (Asparagus cooked in no butter, no oil is what keeps replaying in my head). He would also make a Whole Foods run before getting to the stadium to bring his own food since the catering wasn’t always the greatest. 

When we would get fly into a city, where we had a game, he would find an OrangeTheory and would religiously go to class, even if he was traveling for work. He made sure he made time for that.

This director, a Texas native, told me in a past life, he would eat whatever was around when he was traveling, but after years of doing the job, his body didn’t feel great. So he decided make a change. 

After I talked to him about his lifestyle and habits, I decided to change my nutrition. I didn’t go too extreme in 2019 but was really mindful of what I was going to order and also how much alcohol I was going to be consuming. I allowed myself one glass of wine per week at a work dinner. 

What also intrigued me was I came across an article on NBA start Dwight Howard on how he changed his diet from eating 24 candy bars a day to taking in very little sugar. He went on a strict diet.

Of course, Dwight Howard is a multi-million dollar athlete and probably has all the resources in the world, but after reading the article, that really made me start my journey of nutrition.

I knew it was going to be a long journey of weight loss at first and had to be mentally tough that it’s marathon, not a sprint.

In November 2019, what I decided to do to start my own journey was to do intermittent fasting, one of the things that was mentioned in the article that Dwight Howard went through. I started with the 16/8 rule, then eventually got to about the 20/4 rule (Ok, so maybe it got extreme). Then, I chose a protein I was going to religiously eat for every meal: Ground Turkey. Lastly, pick a vegetable to put with my ground turkey: Green Beans. My one meal would be right after I worked out. I didnt measure, scale or track anything at the time but ate only until I was content. And if I was still hungry, I would drink a shit ton of water throughout the day.

Mid-January 2020

Of course, when I traveled for work when I started my journey, I may have broke the 16/8 rule, but I was very mindful of what I was ordering and limiting myself to one glass of wine.

Once the football season ended around February 2020, I lost about 20 pounds. I remember going to workout with Kyle Henmi early in the morning one day, he looked at me and said, “You look sick.” I went from about a chub-185 to a leaner 165 pounds, and I still felt good and strong. 

Then COVID-19 hit in March 2020. It was a very unfortunate situation across the world, but as weird as it sounds, it changed me for the good. Being stuck at home and doing the workouts DEUCE Gym programmed relentlessly every single day, along with doing two-a-days with their Delta Bravo dumbbell program, my goal was to keep going with my training any way I could. It also helped my roommate at the time was also in on working out with me. There was a point I worked out for 100 straight days since the start of COVID.

As far as meals, I was still intermittent fasting and limited myself to one meal a day, but a protein shake after my first workout, if I doing two-a-days.

February 2023

What improved most was the amount of sleep I was getting. I would religiously sleep around 10pm and wake up at 6:30am every morning to start my day. Why 6:30am? Just incase work started back up and I wanted to be on a regimented schedule and not try to adjust when it was time to clock-in again.

Fast forward about almost 4 years later, I still follow a similar regiment of eating habits, though I do eating recklessly and might go over in my macros at times (no ones perfect here). Training has been different now that I am training for a competition and moved from bodyweight and just dumbbell workouts to working out (and now working) at a gym. I track my macros and aware of how much I am calories and macros I’m consuming.

Looking back to the start of my journey, I’m glad I relentlessly stuck with my training and nutrition to get to where I am 


today. But the journey doesn’t stop here, I can always be and get better.

I get asked from time to time, “How do I get to where you are?”

My answer: Be committed. Be consistent. Be relentless. And do it for a long time.

Keep going.

Jun

Dumplings

Recently, I was told by a few friends to watch "The Bear", a TV Series about a young chef from the fine dining world that comes back home from Chicago to run his family sandwich shop.

Me, being behind on TV Shows to watch, just finished episode 5 of the inaugural season this morning. I mention this because there is a particular scene where a new dish is being made at the sandwich shop and the head chef makes one of the staff members taste it and the reaction on her face said it all; joy and happiness.

----

I remember my mom sitting at the dining room table, in her orange apron with a cartoon monkey sewed on it, hours before dinner when I was about 7 or 8 years old, wrapping the seasoned ground pork in dumplings wrapper to prepare for supper. There was a time where I sat in the seat right in front of her and watched every move carefully. 

Grab the wrapper.

Put the meat on the wrapper.

Dap water around the wrapper.

Fold the wrapper in half.

Fold the outside of the wrapper.

Repeat.

I would get so hyped up for time to pass by so we can all sit at the table to eat the dumpling. Once it was time for dinner, my mom would get the portable hot plate and would put the dumplings on there once the surface was hot and ready. The dumpling, sizzling each time she placed it, I would patiently stare and wait for the food cook.

Once my mom said the food is ready to eat, I remember grabbing the first piece off the hot plate, dipping it into a sauce mixed with soy sauce, chili oil and rice vinegar, then biting into it.

Every bite brought me joy and happiness.

----

Certain foods, like dumplings for an example, brings nostalgic memories for me. That moment and that time, there was nothing to worry about except to enjoy the food. Though my mom was exhausted are prepping and cooking the food, she was probably happy to see the smiles on our face when we ate her food.

I've made and cooked my own dumplings in the past but never really shared it with a lot of people. So the other week, on a NFL Sunday, I decided to bring over a few dumplings over to a friend's house where she was having people over to watch the games.

As I was prepping the few dumplings the night before (about 100 pieces), I kept on having that nostalgic memories of my mom at the dining room table prepping food for our family and hoping I can deliver on the taste and quality of the food.

As Sunday came along and as I was cooking the dumplings at my friends house, not on a hot plate, but on a frying pan on a stove, I was nervous how the dumplings would turn out, maybe because my friend Emily was watching my every move of cooking it the entire time.

As I finished cooking one plate of dumplings, Emily and I went for a taste test. I took the first bite and was happy with it. Emily went second and the reaction she gave was exactly what I was hoping for.

Joy and happiness.

As others came over to watch the game, I finished cooking up the 2nd batch of dumplings and served it on the picnic table where a spread of food was out. When every one took a bite of the dumplings, the reaction was the same.

Joy and happiness.

----

My mom always took pride in the food she made (like every mom in the world) and I always looked up to her (and still do) when it comes to cooking. Hell, I called and asked her for a curry recipe once before and wrote it down on an index card back in 2016. I still have the same index card until this day. 

Even with the recipes my mom gives me, it seems like a never ending journey of perfecting a meal like mom does. But as long as it's really damn close and could bring people joy and happiness, I'm alright with that.

Jun

Do You Believe In Love?

A few weeks ago, I pulled up into the parking lot to a friend’s office to drop off some belongings after being a part of a photoshoot

As I got out of the car, a random man, with his dog started yelling at me from stairwell about 50 yards out. 

“Can you read the sign?”

“What sign?” I asked. I thought I was getting in trouble because I just had parked in the reserved spot.

“This. Right below me.”

It read LIFE IS NOW.

It was one of the murals that my friend had in front of his office.

This man with the dog, introduced himself to me and asked me if I believe in it, pointing at the “O” in NOW, which read "LOVE"

“That sign?”

“Yeah man,” the man still pointing at the mural. “Do you believe in love?”

---

Love is hard, isn’t it? Well, at least for me it is.

Growing up in a Japanese household, we didn’t really show any affection, like giving hugs when we haven’t seen each other. Also my parent’s didn’t meet eye to eye, got a divorce when I was in high school. And now, they don’t talk to each other at all.

When my parents first separated, I was in middle school. I had just come back from a baseball tournament in Hawai’i. Talk about being on Cloud 9 to being kicked to the ground. I asked my mom, “Where’s dad?” Then in disappointment, she told me that he had left her.

Couple months later, and now looking back, I think my parents agreed to live together again for the sake of my sisters and I. Then one morning before school, I heard my mom begging in tears to my dad not to leave as he was walking out the door to leave my mom for the last time. 

I rushed to the front door and I said, “Dad?”

He paused for about 3 seconds at the steps of the door, and proceeded to walk to his car and drive off out of the driveway and rarely saw him after that.

I still remember every second of that moment until this day. 

That moment you can say scarred me and I never wanted to be in the situation that my mom or dad was in.

---

Fast forward to today, the journey still continues to share life long moments with. Sure, I went on a few dates, some that I dove in harder that others and got heart broken. 

But I sit here in the woods of Yosemite, where I was going to take a trip by myself to reset, but then ended up going with a friend, and his girlfriend, and thankfully they came since it gave me a sense of hope. Hope that there is something special between two people, whether if that special connection takes a while to build or even if it’s long distance. 

So love hard whenever you can. And when times get tough, love harder. Never give up. It’ll be impossible for someone to forget that.

---

So, as the man with the dog points to sign and asks me, "Do you believe in love?"

100%

Jun

Sip of Experiences

Recently, I told my friend I needed a new book to read. He opened his backpack and handed me a book he had on him. “Setting The Table” by Danny Meyer. I’m only through the 3rd chapter, but a section of the book resonated with me, as I drink a cup of coffee…

About 6 months back, I moved into an apartment in Venice, CA where I started to befriend the folks at the local coffee shop next door to me, Little Lunch Coffee + Snacks. I told the owner, Chris, I’ve always been fascinated by the technique of latte art and wanted to learn how to do it one day.

One morning, I went into the Little Lunch and Chris and his business partner, Jordan, who knew about my interest in doing latte art, told me to come in a little later in the day and they would help me out.

So later that day during my lunch break from work, I went back to Little Lunch, where Chris first showed me his charts and diagrams of how to make the perfect espresso for the latte. It measured everything to the dose, gram and seconds to extract it depending on how old the roast is. It’s truly an art form.

Then, Chris proceeded onto explain how to steam the milk. He said not all milks are the same and you never want the milk to bubble too much (That, I still have yet to get even close).

As Chris steamed the milk because I couldn’t get close for the milk not to bubble, he made me his puppet trying to mimic the technique of how to pour the milk into the espresso. As we finished the pour, Jordan said, “Nothing like a good penis latte art.”

I’m grateful for the opportunity Chris and Jordan gave me. Learning from experts that took time to master their craft was unbelievable. 

But there was something else that stuck with me more than the tutorial of the latte art.

After extracting the roast for the espresso, Chris told me to take a sip of the coffee, which he made very potent and bitter, but the aroma was at its strongest.

“Can you tell what the taste the hint of the roast?”

“Mmmm. Not really”

Chris then proceeded to name off the flavors in the coffee and nailed every single one of them. He then picked up the bag of the roast and said, “Yup, I was right.” Maybe he already knew what it was, but then why would be look at the bag if he knew?

I asked him how did he know the flavors.

One, he said from years of being a barista. 

Sure.

Two, he said from past experiences. He says whenever he drinks new coffee, he tries remind himself of something, whether if its a favorite memory, grandma’s homemade cookies, the strawberry fields, or home

As a coffee drinker for a while now in my short life, and been drinking my coffee black since 2010 (Thanks Logan and Danny), I never really thought anything of it expect to wake me up in the morning.

Looking back, drinking Folgers dark roast hotel room coffee that tasted like motor oil will remind me of when I would stay up late night for work and texting my friend that was in another city as we were starting our journey as a Broadcast Associate at Fox. 

Kirkland’s Keurig Breakfast Blend watered down coffee will remind me of drinking coffee with my former colleague at 3 pm on a Saturday during 10-12 hour day in the TV production truck trying to get through the work day.

And currently, as I sip a filtered coffee on a rainy Monday morning at local coffee shop in Santa Monica, CA, this flavor at this coffee shop will remind me of a time I asked someone we should meet up for coffee, at a place I've never been before (rolled the dice on this one).

Making coffee drinking an experience has completely has been a game changer since I stepped foot into Little Lunch that day. I realized that there’s an infinite amount of things to experience out there still.

So when you try out a new coffee or go to a new coffee shop, let every sip of coffee bring you new experiences.

Jun

COVID-19 Quarantine: Day 51 - 5/6/2020

Day 51...

It's been a while. 36 days while.

Nothing's really changed.

I still wake up at 6 am PT every week day.

I still workout every day. Twice a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I did get a new roommate, Trevor, so I have to think of a new name for the place.


But something that's really changed, I feel, is my inner peace.

I was watching a TV show one day and by the end of it, I was sitting on my bed, staring at the wall, drinking the 15 Year Glenlivet I just have bought earlier in the day, thinking about a recent hardship I went through. I thought I finally was getting towards the end of the pain until I got reminded of it again. It put me in a different state of mind and I had to find a way to cope with it.

A week later, I still think about it, but I feel, more so, in peace.



Jun