Hi! My name is Bobby Kleinau and thank you for visiting the HealthySelf Nutrition website. Since you are here, staring at this page, that means you must be a tad curious as to who I am and why I created HealthySelf Nutrition. Both excellent questions… and here are your answers:
I grew up on Staten Island, NY as the youngest of four boys. My brothers were a good deal older than I (10,9,7 years older respectfully). As I was reaching adolescence, my brothers at the same time were going through their “growth spurts,” and thus eating a LARGE amount of food (just ask my mother). At 6-12 years of age, I did not have the same relationship with food that an average young child does. As my brothers ate, so did I, thus developing horrendous eating habits. And my weight grew. And grew. And grew. By the time I was a junior in high school I topped out at 358 pounds. Sad, frustrated and depressed, I felt this was the way I was meant to go through my life. My grandfather died an early death from diabetes, and the doctors told me I was heading in the same direction, and that it was just “in my genes.”
In 1997, during the summer after my freshman year at Northeastern University in Boston, I decided to change my destiny. I was tired of not having the “normal young adult experiences” like dating and being able to be the athlete that I knew was inside. So one day I just made up my mind to change my lifestyle.
I lost 90 pounds without doing much physical activity, just simply changing my nutritional lifestyle. I then incorporated a workout routine and with the balance of healthy eating and exercise lost a combined total of 140 pounds in 2 years without any fad diets or unhealthy life practices and have kept it off for the last 10 years!
After riding the corporate wave for the next 5 years after graduation, working for companies such as Major League Baseball and Nickelodeon, I decided that my real passion was helping others live their lives healthier. I became a certified personal trainer and eventually worked my way up to being the General Manager of a well known health club chain in Boston. But I still wasn’t able to influence people the way that I wanted. I decided to go back to school and graduated as a Certified Nutritional Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.
I created HealthySelf Nutrition to give people a better alternative to dieting or taking any extreme measures to feel more comfortable in their own skin. Having someone look you in the eyes and be able to empathize and keep you accountable is an amazing resource that I wish I had when I was going through my own weight loss/better health journey.
I am ridiculously passionate about the work that I do. I know for a fact that there is a healthier person inside all of us. The road to better health is not always the easiest, but it is so worth it! I would love to be your partner in your journey to better health! Let’s do this!
