About John Roman
The Embarrassing (but true) Final Phase Fat Loss "Origin" Story:
Hi, John Romaniello here.
I want to begin this story by telling you a little bit about me.
I’ve spent the last 8 years helping people change their lives and bodies, AND...
I am also very hot.
There, I said it. I know. I’m an arrogant, conceited jerk, right?
Well okay, that may be true…sort of. But you know what? It’s true, so screw it. There, I said it!
More importantly, the only reason I get to make a statement like that is because I worked my butt off for the right to say it.
You see, I wasn’t always hot. In fact, I actually used to be in pretty bad shape.
Then I eventually got sick of hating the way I looked, so I made a change. And finally, years later, I figured out how to make changes even faster.
More importantly, I help people get hot.
H-O-T!
That’s kinda my thing: I create hotness.
Oh sure, there’s that whole bit about health and longevity. And sure, this program is also good for athletes looking to increase performance.
The truth is though, those things are all well and good, but let’s be honest - that’s not why you’re here.
You’re here because you want to look better - A LOT BETTER - than you do now.
And I can help!
But first, let me tell you a quick story.
Having been a fat kid for a good part of my life, when I finally got in shape at the age of 19 I was determined to stay that way. I got lean and fit by learning everything I could about training and nutrition, and practicing those habits each and every day. This led to a great career as a trainer, and a small but growing number of jobs as a fitness model.
By the time I was 23, things went a bit more fluidly. I felt I had things down to a pretty decent system. I had programs for when I wanted to gain muscle and others for when I wanted to lose fat…sort of a “slow and steady wins the race” type of approach.
Well, unfortunately, even the best of us can kind of fall off track. I was in a muscle gaining phase, and “slow and steady” sort of turned into “big and lazy.”
Sure, I put on size, but because I wasn’t watching my diet carefully, I gained WAY more fat that I should have.
Summer was approaching, but truthfully, I wasn’t too worried. I’d done this before. I’d just have to diet for about 12-16 weeks (like always) to lose the fat and then I’d be lean again.
Yes, I’d have to miss a few weeks of beach weather to diet down, but that wasn’t a huge deal.
I had time to get lean, right? WRONG!
A few weeks into my program, my buddy Evan called. Being in the middle of a binge-fest, I missed the call. No, seriously.
However, the voicemail he left had GREAT news.
You see, Evan had rented a big beach house in the Hamptons with a bunch of our friends from high school. It was going to be a huge party with people I hadn’t seen in years, which sounded great until he mentioned the date.
It was only 6 weeks away.
I took a look in the mirror, and I had a surreal experience.
All of my insecurities from my childhood and adolescence came rushing back to me in a heartbeat. Suddenly, I was no longer the guy who had been in fitness magazines…I was just the chubby kid again.
Do you know what I mean? There is something about people from your past that ties them to who you WERE, instead of who you ARE.
Let me ask you a question:
Have you ever felt like your body does not
reflect who you are?
I’m sure you have. We ALL have at one point or another - and it’s not a good feeling.
It’s like, your body is supposed to be the physical manifestation of you, right?
Well, I was educated and knowledgeable about diet and training, as well an experienced fitness professional. There was just one small problem - I didn’t look like any of those things.
Ever since I’d lost the weight and gotten fit, I hated anything that reminded me of my life before. And here I was, confronted with it at the worst possible time.
I looked back in the mirror to assess the situation.
I needed to lose at least 15 pounds of pure
body fat... probably more.
And worse, it was those last pounds that had always been the hardest for me and taken forever. I was used to taking my time and losing fat slowly. So, I knew I would never be ready in time - there was no way I could lose the fat. NOT with my traditional methods.
I didn’t know what to do.
Could I really skip the party? Was I really that vain?
Maybe...
Okay, probably.
Was I really that insecure? Almost definitely.
I started to think about who would be there.
Now, keep in mind I lost all of my weight while I was in college. These were people from high school, who knew me before “the big change.” And yet, despite the fact that I had not seen most of them in years, most of these people had heard I’d gotten fit, done some modeling, and was doing well as a fitness professional.
I felt like there had to be some expectations, and the idea of not living up to them made me feel worse than I’d felt in high school.
More importantly, and this is very personal...
this was NOT the reunion I had always pictured.
I never wanted to run into people and be the “big” guy.
In my head, whenever I’d thought about running into those people who hadn’t seen me, I wanted it to be a big shock, wanted them to see the tremendous change. The big reveal, if you will. I had spent so much time thinking about that moment, I needed it to be right.
I wanted all of the guys who looked great in high school and had (probably) gained weight in college to feel what I’d felt, just for a second. I wanted the girls who I’d been too insecure to even make eye contact with in high school to look at me and be too nervous to approach me.
Sound familiar?
Okay, I probably spent a bit more time thinking about that moment than was absolutely necessary. But whatever! This is my revenge fantasy…shut up and let me enjoy it.
You see, I wanted to be at the party looking so good that when people looked at my body, they would either get turned on or pissed off…not be unaffected. That’s not what I’d worked my (fat) ass off for.
And so I decided not to go. I dreaded the idea of calling Evan back and telling him.
I was mortified.
Not only would I miss out on a great time with people I hadn’t seen in a long time, but I would have to call one of my closest friends and make up some lame excuse not to go. Could I tell him the truth? That I was a trainer and strength coach who was too fat or too insecure to be shirtless at a beach? And a fitness model on top of it!?
I’d never been so disgusted with myself. I felt like a joke, a total fraud.
How could I, as a professional, let it get this far? The bodybuilding was a nice excuse, but it was just that - an excuse. Although I wanted to gain muscle, I realized at that moment I was being lazy. I’d taken the easy way out and eaten everything in sight, instead of having a structured, sane diet.
And look where it got me: fat, frustrated, and freaking out.
I could not bring myself to make the call. I was too embarrassed (truth be told, at the time I was not very good at confrontation), so I decided to put it off for a day (I was, however, awesome at procrastinating).
I didn’t realize it at the time, but not returning that phone call was a decision that completely changed my life, the way I look at fitness and fat loss, and even my approach to training my clients.
Over the course of the evening, I started to think about everything I knew about fat loss and training, and all of the different programs I’d written and read over the years.
I thought of many methods, and having tried them all, I knew they all worked. Some worked better than others, but none worked well enough, or fast enough.
I knew from experience that all of these training
programs had downsides.
One was only good if I was already pretty lean.
One worked okay but it caused a lot of muscle and strength loss, which I wasn’t ready to sacrifice.
Another worked well but it took more time than I had in order to see results.
Then I had a crazy idea:
That night, instead of
sleeping, I dreamt up a program that incorporated
the best aspects of all of these methods.
I took everything I tried, and I made it BETTER. I used the strength of one program to cancel out the weakness of another. And I knew I had something special.
There was only one thing left to do…test this bad boy out.
And this seemed like the perfect time!
I only had 6 weeks, and I knew with 100% certainty my typical fat loss training was NOT going to cut it.
I had nothing to lose.
If it didn’t work, it didn’t matter anyway, because I knew in my heart I wouldn’t go to the beach house. But if it did work, I had stumbled upon something incredible.
So, the following morning, with zero sleep and a frenzied desire, I hit the gym and tried the first workout.
I felt incredible.
I knew I was onto something BIG, something radically different.
For the next week, I was so wrapped up in the program and the results I was getting, I had almost completely forgotten about the party.
At the end of the week, my friend called again. But this time, I picked up and I told him I’d see him at the party. And I spent the interim creating, developing, testing and ultimately perfecting the workouts that would become the Final Phase Fat Loss training protocol.
Six weeks later, I got to the beach house and was greeted by the astounded stares of people who couldn’t believe I was the same guy they used to know.
Through this experience, I learned two
very important lessons:
1) It doesn’t matter what your reason is
Call it vanity, insecurity, ego or whatever. It’s no less important than health or well being. If it lights a fire under your butt and gets you to change something, then that reason is amazing.
2) It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional trainer, someone who works out casually, or even if you haven’t worked out
We’ve ALL been in that place where we want to lose fat FAST and aren’t sure the best way to go about it.
And the conclusion:
It doesn’t matter if you’ve made some mistakes and tried
to get incredible results with a mediocre program, or if
you’ve been stuck doing extended cardio sessions that
don’t get you to where you want to be.
It’s NOT Your Fault
And I want to share with you WHY that is, and help you get past it.
The fact is this: busting through a fat loss plateau, fixing slow fat loss, and/or losing those last pounds of stubborn fat doesn't have to be an incredibly difficult task when you understand and address how your body works and the very specific issues we face in these scenarios.
Click *HERE* and I’ll fill you in on the details.
Talk to you soon,