By Taroue Brooks
How did you get on this journey of health and fitness?
I have always been an athlete, even as a child, but I got serious about my health after my mother died in 2002 because she was a very healthy woman and it perplexed me how she was able to get sick with cancer and what led to it. I wanted to know what had gone wrong because both my parents worked in the medical field and in principle led a healthy lifestyle. So I started researching the topic and realized that 95% of diseases can be traced back to health and lifestyle choices, our food is our medicine but can also be our poison. I realized that in these current times people were contracting diseases way more often than before and I really wanted to find an explanation. It is the choices we make when we pick our nutrition and our health habits that make a difference between a person being healthy or sick and I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives for the better. That is why I got into this field.
Tell us about your training to maintain your physique.
The preparation to maintain my physique is most of all mental. Maintaining your physique is more of a mental state rather than a physical state. You have to have the right mindset to put in the consistent effort that is required to attain a certain physique and it is that same mindset that will be required to maintain it. You have to abandon the ideas about limitations. If I had listened to all the people that told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t do the things that I still do to this day – for reasons related to age, gender and so on, then I wouldn’t be where I am today. That is the main difference between me and most people, I don’t have limitations, I am unlimited. Most people when they go to the gym they workout. I train. When I go to the gym I go with a mindset of achieving a higher purpose, higher goals and results that take myself to that higher level of training. But it all starts with the mind, if your mind is not ready to take on the journey and the challenges then your journey ends right where it started. I choose to be unlimited, both mental and physical.
Share details about your diet that may empower others.
Your physical appearance is going to be 85% predicated by what you eat. You cannot out train a bad diet and as I said earlier, your food can be the best medicine or the deadliest poison. It is the fuel your body needs in order to perform. Quality in, quality out. Garbage in, garbage out. I eat a well balanced diet of high quality whole foods. No dairy, no refined sugars, no processed foods, no artificial sweeteners. Predominantly, wild caught seafood and lean meats that have been responsibly and humanely raised. Tons of fresh vegetables and fruits, mostly organic. All of this combined with high quality all natural organic supplements such as sea moss, beets, chlorella, spirulina, krill oil, turmeric and ginger, among others. Lastly: tons of water, water, water.
Tell us about the Silver Fox group in Maryland.
The Silver Fox Squad is a platform where a group of older gentlemen have decided to come together to show a positive image of what aging can be. We serve as an inspiration for men our age to free them from the limitations of their minds and we also serve as an example for younger men to show them what they can too achieve and that getting older is not something to fear but something to embrace. The squad is comprised of a diverse group of gentlemen from different backgrounds and origins, different career paths and professional lives that have one thing in common: we are successful at what we do and we thrive by lifting and inspiring others.
What advice can you share with men of a certain age to view fitness as a lifestyle?
Let me start by saying that fitness is not just about being physically fit but, most of all mentally sound. Being physically fit without being mentally sound is useless. A fit lifestyle begins with the mind so the body can follow. Also, fitness is just a part of health and wellness. Remember: you cannot out train a bad diet. So fitness and nutrition must also go hand in hand; in fact, nutrition must clear the path for fitness. That being said, the main advice I would give to, not just men in my age range, but to anyone is to believe in your possibilities and not your limitations. The more you believe in your possibilities and not your limitations you too will become unlimited. If you change your mindset you change your life. Limitations are merely suggestions given to us by society and we choose to accept them. I choose to challenge them. I choose to believe in my possibilities. I choose to believe that I am unlimited.
What’s next for you on this journey of fitness?
Well, I am always looking to better myself and you can imagine what that looks like for someone that believes in being unlimited. I constantly strive to be the best version of myself and that applies to my fitness journey too. My friends and family joke about my targets always being moving targets but that is the basis of being unlimited: pushing your limits and the imaginary boundaries of society. My fitness journey is and will always be one that leads me to being stronger, faster, more powerful and endured. My journey will always take me to where I can further unlock my unlimited potential and thereby inspire others to realize that they too can be unlimited
