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CNN Live At Daybreak
Chef Who Lost Nearly Three Hundred Pounds, Trainer, Discuss Getting, Staying Fit
Aired July 03, 2001 - 07:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Some 20,000 people took the Philadelphia mayor's challenge to lose weight. Health clubs have been offering discounts. Businesses have been sponsoring workouts during lunch hours -- that kind of thing. Restaurants are also offering leaner fares.
Let's talk now with someone who has actually taken the mayor's message to heart, or perhaps, more appropriately, to his waistline.
Joseph Schilling is a chef and director of culinary arts at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He joins us now. A few years ago he weighed 507 pounds.
Mr. Schilling, that's hard to believe. How did you lose it?
JOSEPH SCHILLING, CHEF: Well, good morning.
It was an effort of, basically, controlling what I ate and understanding what I ate, and it was not something that just happened overnight. I think that's something that people have to understand. I try to tell people it's a lifestyle change where you want to eat right. It is not a diet you do for a couple months.
MCEDWARDS: Now, since the mayor issued his challenge, how much have you been able to lose?
SCHILLING: On the mayor's challenge, I've lost 21 additional pounds. I just weighed in recently at 222 pounds. I was at peak weight in my lifetime at 507 pounds, and over 16 years, I've been able to lose quite a bit of weight.
You can see me: That's the big one in the big picture over there.
MCEDWARDS: Wow -- congratulations. How did you do it? I know you've said that you can make food taste good. And I know a lot of people who diet, that's their big complaint. They think they need that fat, they need the sugar, to make food enjoyable.
SCHILLING: Well, I say this to many people, and why I got really involved in this: If you're trying to lose weight and you go to a doctor, you feel like you're sick, and that's not a mental push for you to help you out. You do it with a nutritionist, and they start talking to you about omega-3 fats and saturated fats, and you look at them and say, What language are you talking? When you talk to a chef, and they say to you, Wow, good food, things that taste good, things that smell good, things you're going to enjoy, I think that's the key to it.
You know, we're a city that sizzles when it comes to some of the best restaurants in the entire country. We have great chefs here, and we've just decided to make a commitment back by offering alternatives when you go out to eat at a restaurant.
MCEDWARDS: So can you give me some examples of those, because I think people might want to hear some of them, to maybe get some ideas of their own, in terms of how they can cook at home, but also how to order smartly in a restaurant.
SCHILLING: Well, the key thing is, hopefully, that a lot of the menus are marked for you, that can help you out, but you're looking for things that are full of vegetables and fruits. Those are very important to you. Water vegetables, fresh herbs and things. Fish is a great alternative; it has those omega-3 fats I mentioned earlier. But when you're out to eat, you want to eat at quantity of the portion too. I mean, if you're going out to get a large steak or a large portion of something, you're not helping yourself at all. Moderation is very important when you're out eating.
MCEDWARDS: All right, how do I make my vegetables taste good when I'm cooking them at home?
SCHILLING: Well, you know what, one of the best things is -- and I'm going to rob this right out of the basket here -- fresh herbs will make things come alive. This is right out of my garden this morning before I came in. And you know what, one of the other things I talk about is to buy local ingredients. Local ingredients are full of a lot of nutrients and a lot of vitamins that you need. For instance, tomatoes right off the vine with some fresh basil on them. You know, acid in tomatoes, the acid in fruit helps to fight fat.
And another key thing, when you're picking fresh ingredients, and you're trying to make sure that you're getting the best ingredients you possibly can buy, is make sure that you understand what you're buying. A lot of people will buy it, cook it to death, and it's like you've lost everything in it. It doesn't taste great; you want to keep that in mind too.
MCEDWARDS: All right, Joseph Schilling, thanks very much -- appreciate it.
SCHILLING: My pleasure.
MCEDWARDS: Congratulations to you again. Joseph Schilling, a chef, someone who's had some first-hand knowledge of this weight-loss thing.
SCHILLING: Thank you.
MCEDWARDS: For more firsthand knowledge, we want to go over to Carol Lin.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Colleen.
Can you hear me? Are we up? Yes, we are. Sorry about that.
I'm here down at the Turner Athletic Club and, you know, eating well is one thing but you've got to exercise in order to lose weight.
And joining me right now is Ladell Hill. He's a training here.
LADELL HILL, PERSONAL TRAINER, TURNER ATHLETIC CLUB: Right.
LIN: He's been a professional trainer for the last 15 years,...
HILL: Twelve, 15 years, correct.
LIN: ... working in all the major cities, including Philadelphia...
HILL: Exactly.
LIN: ... and he trains here professional athletes as well as some CNN managers.
HILL: Exactly.
LIN: I don't know who's harder to train, but we might get into that a little bit later.
HILL: Right.
LIN: Anyway, Ladell, we're talking about starting a workout program. What is the biggest mistake that people make when starting a workout program?
HILL: I think people don't have discipline, and I think they're going in to working out looking for a quick fix...
LIN: Quick fix.
HILL: ... and that's the biggest problem with going into a weight - working out with weights.
LIN: OK. My assumption is, let's say if I want to start a workout program, the easiest thing for me to do is take these hour long aerobic classes,...
HILL: Right.
LIN: ... I'm going to get on the treadmill, I'm going to go for it. Is that going to be enough for me to lose weight and lose inches?
HILL: You need more. You need more. Your body gets adapted to just cardio. OK, you're going to burn the calories but you're not going to work on the muscle. And in order to make changes in the body, you must work on the muscle and that's when weight training has an impact on changing the body.
LIN: See, but I'm thinking calories. So if, for example, I'm sitting down here and I'm looking at a reasonable set of weights, 5, 10 pound for me,...
HILL: Correct.
LIN: ... if I pick up these weights,...
HILL: Right.
LIN: ... I'm thinking, you know what, I'm not doing very much here. I'm not burning a lot of calories, my heart rate's not up and...
HILL: Right.
LIN: ... I'm getting a little bored.
HILL: OK, it depends. It depends on how you train and how much you do. When you're going into it and that's when a personal trainer comes in hand. He's going to basically tell you and instruct you on what you need to do. You're going to burn actually more calories than you would doing cardio. And that's...
LIN: How with a five-pound weight? Show me.
HILL: Because you're going to be doing repetitions. The more repetitions, the more sets, the variation of exercises is going to burn the calories.
LIN: How does a - how does a weight actually work, though, to help me lose inches, because I think, as a woman, I'm going to build bulk?
HILL: No, you're not going - it depends on how you workout and dieting has a factor also. You know you must go into this eating properly. OK. Your body is no different than an automobile. What you eat or how you put - like, say for instance, you're a Mercedes, if you put regular gas in it it's going to run off of regular gas. If you put super unleaded, which you would probably do if you have a Mercedes, that's the performance you're going to get.
LIN: OK, I'm a high-octane client.
HILL: Right.
LIN: I've got a five pound weight, I've never lifted weights before,...
HILL: OK.
LIN: ... what can I do here? Show me with this. What can I do here to make a difference in my upper body strength?
HILL: Lots of different things. You could do curls, such as this right here. This is working the biceps. You can also do shoulder presses, which is you turn your hands around, come straight up and down just like that. Different variations of shoulder workouts, OK, also you can do flies - shoulder flies just like that.
LIN: How many different muscles is this working?
HILL: You're working your shoulders, you're working your biceps. You can also do triceps exercises also. OK.
LIN: Kickbacks.
HILL: Kickbacks, exactly. Just like that and you can also do back exercises.
LIN: All right...
HILL: You can...
LIN: ... but, Ladell, do I need you to tell me how to do this? I mean if I watched somebody, this looks pretty easy to me, why do I need a trainer?
HILL: Because a lot of times people get discouraged and you have to do different variations of exercises. You just can't come in and do the same thing. If you do the same thing, your body will get adapted to it and it will not make any changes.
LIN: So if I had one session with a trainer and the trainer runs through all right do 15 curls, 2 reps, do this, do that,...
HILL: Right.
LIN: ... why can't I write that on a piece of paper and say, all right, this is what I'm going to do every other day?
HILL: Because, once again, you have to set goals. You have to come in, you have to work on a certain program for three weeks or six weeks, however you want to do it, and constantly keep increasing your intense level. The more intense you get, the more your body will change (INAUDIBLE).
LIN: All right. And essentially, how do I get smaller when I see people building bulk lifting weights?
HILL: Once again, diet, cardio, working out with weights. You must do - you can start off if you want to strength train, heavy weight, low reps. High repetitions is pretty much for toning and that's where women get discouraged. They think if they come in to a weight room they're going to get bulky.
LIN: Right.
HILL: That's not true. That's a myth, OK.
LIN: That's a myth.
HILL: You can come in and you can get definitely toned up just by doing light weight and doing high repetition.
LIN: OK. Well, Ladell, we're going to be answering e-mails with you.
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