Lean Times

Lately I have been aware of my internal timekeeping. One is my heart rhythm: 70 beats per minute while active, 52 or lower while I sleep. The other is my inner clock, the one that tells my mind more time is behind me than in front of me.

These constant reminders fertilize my imagination, instilling emotions such as nostalgia and melancholy. They bring up questions about a life well lived, knowledge acquired, knowledge passed on.

I have spent the better part of thirty years in the fitness industry, and I have watched the fads come and go: Atkins, Eat More Weigh Less, giving way to high protein diets and intermittent fasting. I have watched the sorcerer’s stone passed from Jack LaLanne, Jane Fonda, Suzanne Somers, Richard Simmons, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to an endless array of YouTube gurus.

The onslaught of information I have to decipher from all these gurus is a daunting task. Most take it as truth without doing the work to check it. We have reached the pinnacle of the information age, but as far as I can see, we have learned nothing.

What Have I Learned?

The questions that were asked thirty years ago are the same questions being asked today. How do I lose weight? How do I stay healthy? What should I eat? When should I eat? How much should I eat? What supplements should I take? Ad nauseam. In my effort to understand my life in fitness, I found myself returning to simpler times. I asked myself questions like: When did I feel my best? When was I the leanest? What is different now?

My answers to these questions are simple, though controversial; they fly in the face of everything the experts say. And I want to remind the reader that while I do not hold advanced degrees in the sciences, I do hold deep, hard-won knowledge through thirty years of practice and mentorship with some of the best to ever practice in the field of fitness and wellness.

Health is Hard Work

Before I reveal these truths, my truths, let me affirm: health is hard work. There is no magic bullet! Supplementation, whether through hormones, peptides, or steroids, still requires maximum physical effort to be effective. Nutrition is still a key element of the game. While our devices keep track of every move we make, most of us are powerless to change the metrics. You have less power to control your HRV than you have to pull a car up a hill. Your sleep cycle has more to do with nutrition, consistency, and breath than it does magnesium, or lack thereof.

So let me answer the questions I posed earlier. What is different now for me than, let’s say, forty years ago? Why did I feel better? Why was I leaner? Why did I feel more energized? Barring disease, metabolism stays far more stable than we’ve been led to believe. A landmark 2021 study in the journal Science, led by Duke anthropologist Herman Pontzer and drawing on data from over 6,400 people worldwide, found that metabolism slows by roughly 3% a year from infancy through the late teens, then holds essentially flat through adulthood, from twenty all the way to sixty, before declining by less than 1% a year after that.

If metabolism itself hasn’t betrayed me over these forty years, then the answer has to live somewhere else — and for me, it lives at the table.

In The Beginning

I grew up in a single-parent home. My mother woke up at 5 am and came home at 5 pm with a daily bag of groceries consisting of whatever she could afford. Vegetables were plentiful, as were beans, rice, and pasta, although my mother was cognizant of too much starch in a diet — go figure, she didn’t need a doctor to tell her. Protein was expensive but varied: whatever was cheap, on sale, or that no one else knew how to cook. Organ meat, shin meat, marrow, and head fish of all types were a staple in my household. We ate at 6 pm and were done by 6:30. Dessert consisted of whatever fruit was seasonal and cheap, and the beverage of choice was water or jug wine, limited to one short glass. We ate our biggest meal in the evening. My school lunch was a slice of bread baked on Sunday with whatever vegetable was left over from the night before; a piece of fruit was a treat if we had any left over. Times were lean, and so was I. Mind you, I felt no hunger.

Lean Times, Again

I left home at seventeen, landing a job at the Fulton Fish Market and a one-room apartment with the tub in the kitchen. Money was always tight, rent was high,  but as my mother did, I would bring home the freshest and finest I could afford and cook it on a cast iron pan, which I still have today. At twenty-four, I was accepted to a conservatory program for the theater. I used Pell grants and student loans to pay for school, and the grueling hours the curriculum demanded left no room to work. Food was tight once more.

Common Denominator

The common denominator in these snippets of my life is food. I needed very little, and because my body had less to process, I was leaner, more mentally alert, healthier. I slept like the dead, moved with grace, recovered faster, regenerated quicker. All this is in sharp contrast with what we are being told today. Bear in mind that everything you ingest — from food to supplements to anabolics and/or peptides — requires processing, and while you are being fed information about what naturally occurs in your body, the truth is a double-edged sword. Yes, some things naturally occur or are produced in your body, but the levels at which they should be present are a crapshoot. Push an engine past its redline, and it will run faster today, but it won’t last as many miles. What you gain in the short term may be spent out of a longer account — and what’s taken might be the very thing you’re searching for — the holy grail — longevity.

The Bottom Line

So what do I believe? What have thirty years in this industry, and in my own self-practice, taught me that I can pass on to you? What could possibly be so controversial? You don’t need any of it: not your body weight in protein, not a fistful of supplements, not excessive salt to level your electrolytes, not a diet void of carbohydrates, not steroids.

You want to transform your body and mind? It’s simple:

1. Eat well — real, whole foods.
2. Prioritize sleep.
3. Move — and challenge yourself.
4. Be still.
5. Listen to your body. It will tell you all you need to know.

Contact me today for a free consultation:  [email protected] or call: 1-917-817-8373

Sponsored Links

About The Author

Giuseppe Ciccolella

Giuseppe Ciccolella, NSCA-CPT, CSCS, MES, is an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and a certified Medical Exercise Specialist, as well as a USA-certified boxing coach. He has over 25 years of experience helping people of all ages and abilities achieve their wellness goals. He heads Fitness Incentive’s Advanced Trainer Certification and Education programs.

Next Article

More From Fit to Print Autumn 2026