FAMILY
FIRST
Fashion designer/Developer, father, First In Family: John Freedman
Don’t wait... there is never a good time to start. If you wait till after the holidays, then there will be your anniversary, St Patty’s parade, then your birthday, oh wait lets start after that vacation, oh but then there is July 4th blowout, don’t forget the reunion, oh and Octoberfest, lets start after Thanksgiving… oh snap, back to the Holidays again… You will need to be able to navigate and learn how to handle all these situations if you want to be successful. Just jump in!”
Tell us a little bit about yourself...
Age 50
Verona, NJ
VP Product Development, Tommy Hilfiger
Married w/ 3 kids – 17,15,12
What brought you to the First In Family initially?
Tell us a little bit about your background and history with food.
Once the bar was out of my life, lifestyle was greatly reduced but the bad habits were still there.
What was the turning point in your life when you realized you needed to make a change?
My change happened with one phone call.
My friend who had already been working with Jonathan’s old company told me to call them. After an hour conversation, I was asked “do you want to start tomorrow?” and I just started that next day…
What was the journey like and what changes did you make?
There are a lot of unique things that only apply to you personally and only you can figure out what works… being able to do that step by step, enables you figure things out and stay on your personal track.
How do you feel after making those changes?
My changes involved making things easy for myself. Bulk cooking with single ingredient items…eating a lot of the same things day to day. I didn’t have to think about it, I just had to hit my numbers…
What did your friends/family think of your transformation?
A lot of people who would make fun of my tupperware of food at parties. Peer pressure to just “live your life”.. “enjoy yourself”… or my favorite.. “ I miss fat John”….
I have always had support from my direct family, but most people that I introduced to this program didn’t stay. I feel its because they couldn’t trust the process. They couldn’t just follow directions and advice and just do it…
The ones that have are part of my support system and we help each other when things are hard or just to celebrate our transformations.
Were you active or did you workout during your journey?
I used to joke with my trainer that i was the best in shape fat guy he had in his client list. You cant out exercise a bad diet.
What does being First In mean to you?
You don’t feel alone and the more support the better. Being around like minded people definitely helps to stay on track.
What was the biggest challenge or change when you started with First In and how did you overcome it?
Not saying wow look I have abs so fuck it, I can eat like an asshole every once in a while because now I have the secret to success. The key is to eat in a way where you don’t need to eat like an asshole, because you can eat what you want, just not all of what you want.
This is something I still deal with and will continue to work to overcome.
What’s next for you and where do you see this journey taking you in the future?
What are your top "secrets" for success?
2- Don’t worry about the why and how this works… if you want to learn nutrition go back to school
3- Trust the process… listen to your coach and don’t think you know better…you don’t.
4- Ignore the people who are sabotaging you. Avoid people and situations that will move you off track until you are confident and strong enough to handle them and keep the eye on the prize no matter what. Grandma saying “you look too skinny” or a friend’s “what the fuck is that? a scale?”. Surround yourself with people that push you to do better, no drama, no negativity, just higher goals and motivation. Good times and positive energy.
5- Keep your head up… a mistake isn’t the end of the world. Just get back on the horse and do better the next day.
any advice for someone thinking about getting started?
If you wait till after the holidays, then there will be your anniversary, St Patty’s parade, then your birthday, oh wait lets start after that vacation, oh but then there is July 4th blowout, don’t forget the reunion, oh and Octoberfest, lets start after Thanksgiving… oh snap, back to the Holidays again…
You will need to be able to navigate and learn how to handle all these situations if you want to be successful. Just jump in!
Testimonials were given freely and service members did not receive any preferential treatment, discount, or other benefit due to the nature of their service, rank, or position and in no way are the views or beliefs of any branch of the armed forces or uniformed services.