Education is why, we do this.

I had a very steep learning curve with bodybuilding, the wisdom I acquired about nutrition has been the most mind-boggling. I realized that there is no such thing as ‘healthy food.’ It was all just made-up garbage. Sorry about the profanity, I mean ill-understood. Like most things in life, the answer to what is healthy is not quite black and white; it's many shades of grey. It's basically the wrong question. Here is what I think the right question is - how healthy is it? What might be deemed a healthy meal for a 6-year-old may not be healthy for a 45-year-old diabetic mother of three.

There’s a story I read recently about a sad kid who had a puppy covered in ticks, and his grandma advised him to feed the puppy garlic. When the puppy refused to eat it, the grandma suggested wrapping the garlic in ham, which worked, the puppy ate it all up and got rid of all the ticks.

I decided to wrap the garlic in ham!

I picked the humble banana bread and, together with my wife, we set about to see if we could strip off the calories. This 30-week exercise was no joke. We spent countless hours experimenting with the texture, appearance, and flavour of this bread. 6 months later, we finally managed to get the crust and crumb right, and in the process, stripped about 40% of the calories.

We then created many versions of this banana bread, dark chocolate, coconut, walnuts to name a few. All of these are available to buy in slices or loaves at our Banana Bread Shop. We are located in a cozy book themed cafe at Village Green, Kenthurst Dural. Our Boutique Banana Bread Store is called Cafe Saturdays.

Find out more about our cafe at cafesaturdays.com.au. If you’d like to take it up a notch, we’d love for you check out our loaves online, you can find us at the thebananabreadshop.com.au. Every ingredient is carefully weighed out and the macros are published on myfitnesspal, so you can track what you eat.

What was my journey to get here?

Since my high school days, I have been an avid bodybuilding enthusiast, frequently confronted with one recurring question - "How do I get away with indulging in 'non-healthy' eating and still manage to retain good body composition?” Nevertheless, the question's premise has never appealed to me, and my response has seldom satisfied the inquirer.

I started weightlifting in a gym when I was 16. Like most 16 year olds, I had no idea what I was doing. I was fuelled by the belief that lifting weights and consuming copious amounts of meat were the key to building muscle. How did I know this? Let’s take a trip down memory lane for a moment. Imagine the year 2005-2006. Fast Internet is abuzz along with with this other thing called Google. So my conviction was founded on the wealth of google information available on nutrition, fitness, and bodybuilding during the early 2000s, with articles, websites, and blogs aplenty. However, sifting through this vast sea of knowledge posed a challenge - whose advice should I trust? I knew that I had to take action. So I made observations of the common denominator. What was everyone saying about improving body composition and packing on muscle - LIFT. EAT. 

And that is what I did. Armed with this knowledge, I enrolled at the local gym. Asked mum to stock up on plenty of chicken. The nervous 16 year old, gathers all the courage and walks into this establishment that’s got pictures of an Austrian-American Bodybuilder everywhere. I instantly recognised him as the terminator guy. I rushed through a quick workout with whatever I could find and got back home to eat a lot of meat, as planned. At this point, I knew that protein in my diet is what is going to get my muscles to grow. Every opportunity to get some protein from whatever source, I never missed. Well, it worked. In 6 weeks' time, the thin lanky kid blew up! So, I never stopped.

Sixteen years later, I am still going. Over the years, I have tried my hand at everything. I always loved a challenge, and I always loved pushing myself. I had the urge to know what my breaking point was. Interestingly, there was never one. In the earlier years, I did a lot of powerlifting. After sustaining some injuries from it, I then moved to strength training. Then, I did functional and conditioning for a while. Finally, I landed on hypertrophy or high-volume training, which I learned through the last couple of years that I actually enjoy the most. 

Over the years, I would intentionally put on a ridiculous amount of body fat and then drop to a 6 pack. I have done this about 2-3 times and I have done it over a duration of 4-7 months, depending on how aggressive I was with my diet. My co-workers, friends, family were always curious about the magic pill that I was eating. 

My answer was too simple and boring - Count what you eat and move a lot, every single day. Consistently. That’s it! It’s not they answer they wanted, but it’s the answer they got. 

To wrap it up, my bodybuilding journey has been characterised by navigating through misinformation prevalent in the realm of fitness and nutrition. With dedication and exploration, I not only achieved my fitness goals consistently but also came up with an exquisite product line (our delicious banana bread) that could be used to inspire others on their personal paths to wellness. More on that later.