About Me
Hi,
My name is Jonathan Fernandes, but you can simply call me Jon. I have been on a long journey to achieve an awesome-positive-healthy life. I have created this website to spread the knowledge I have learned over the past decade.
If you haven’t guessed, I have a medical condition called “Celiac Disease” which means I am allergic to gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, & rye. I also have other sensitivities to foods such as dairy, soy (protein only), eggs & peanuts. My goal here is to help those who are Celiac (& have food allergies) to achieve their goals in fitness. I also like to help people who want correct knowledge of how to be overall fit and healthy. I have done martial arts for close to 20 years and have a strong passion for strength training, bodybuilding, biology, & nutrition. I am in the process of becoming a NASM certified personal trainer. I am also working on a degree for Nutrition/biology.
Let me back track a little bit. My first interests in Fitness was at the age of 12-13 years old. Around this age I was at a height of 5′4″ and at a weight of around 230-240 pounds. Yeah, I was a big-little kid. I had come to a realization at that time that I was overweight. I needed to do something about it. For the next few years I began taking my health, eating habits, martial arts training & exercising more seriously. I have made many mistakes and learned from them.
Over my whole childhood life up until I was about 18, I slowly started to develop symptoms of celiac disease. A big trigger to this is due to the chronic stress I was experiencing on a daily basis. It first started out with weight-gain & lethargy. I also had a hard-time learning in school as a kid, but science always fascinated me. As a teen I started to develop food intolerance issues & depression. During my late junior year of high school, a very good friend of mine got me into strength training & bodybuilding. (Thank you Brian Frank, you are the man.)
When I was 19, my symptoms of CD escalated. I started to experience Chronic Fatigue syndrome on a daily basis. Also acid reflux and a lot of IBS issues. The list of symptoms can go on and on. I started visiting doctors who were misdiagnosing me and giving me certain drugs to take that only made me worse. I battled with being sick like this for close to a year.
Beginning of 2008, I decided to take my health in my own hands and do a self-diagnosis. I finally came across information regarding CD and decided to do multiple cycles of elimination dieting. The purpose of an elimination diet is to stop eating any foods that are considered allergens. One would then reintroduce an allergenic type food to see if he/she is sensitive to it. Over-time, I began to realize and eliminate all the foods I was sensitive to. For the first time in my life, I felt alive. I began feeling like a normal human being.
Also, in the summer of 2008, I came across Lyle Mcdonald’s website, which was my first step in the world of legitimate sports training. His knowledge and books took me away from the lies and nonsense that most people get caught up in regarding fitness. Since then, I have come across very intelligent people in the health & science field who have changed my life. Thanks, you know who you are.
I am still learning new things everyday, life is an on going process of education, I love it.
My view on staying in good health and having a good physique is of a flexible-relaxed mind set. I keep a positive view on life always. Anything you read in magazines , I do not follow. I read books, articles and journals of people who know what they are talking about (and are honest). I also don’t waste my time (or my paycheck) on useless over-hyped supplements and stupid training programs that are only designed for the drugged up genetic freak.
I am a normal average person just like you.
I hope you like and enjoy my website.
- Jon Fernandes