Robert Glover remembers watching the folds of his belly fat unfold: the pale lines on his skin bore the traces of significant weight loss.
Glover, who lives in Norfolk, went from 325 pounds to 235 pounds in just nine months — following a steadfast regimen of daily 90-minute workouts and a lean diet with as few as 1,200 calories.
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Although he was euphoric about his transformation, the 90-pound loss also marked a plateau that he had to fight through.
“I was under-eating and over-training,” he said. “The scale wouldn’t budge.”
Glover began yo-yo dieting — which caused him to gain back 50 pounds three different times. He decided there had to be a better way, and through a lot of careful reading about diets, as well as ancient philosophy — he settled on the moderate approach to diet and exercise that he is now teaching other people, as a personal trainer and fitness coach.
“I try not to tell them what I did,” Glover said. “It’s not sustainable. I went like 100 miles per hour.”
Long road to getting fit
Glover, now 33, grew up in Brownsville, “one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn,” he said. He was husky and played basketball and football.
“I always had bad eating habits,” he said. “We grew up eating food prepared in less than fifteen minutes.”
That meant Ramen noodles, Kraft Mac and Cheese, hot dogs.
“I think I had my first salad five years ago,” he said.
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After high school, he pursued a somewhat conventional life: He studied psychology at Norfolk State, got married, moved to Los Angeles and back to Norfolk. He had two children.
Then 2013 came, and a good friend passed away. Glover got divorced, and his doctor diagnosed him with high blood pressure and borderline diabetes.
“He told me that if I didn’t do something, I would end up dead in a few years.”
That was March 1. Glover thought about his now eight-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. A big part of his motivation was the ability to train his son in basketball.
Glover had never been much of a reader, but he devoured diet books, cobbling together his own diet from what inspired him. He took a lot from the South Beach Diet, eating a lot of lean chicken and fish, along with brown rice, salads and veggies.
He worked out intensively, too, doing 35 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weight-lifting every day.
His progress was notable. His double chin man boobs disappeared. Other people noticed the change, and “seeing my progress kept me going,” he said.
When that progress plateaued, Glover temporarily lost his intense focus. He stopped going to the gym and eventually turned to reading. He read about people who had been through imperfect fitness journeys that mirrored his own, as well as philosophical tomes — namely on stoicism, the Ancient Greek school of thought that promoted the endurance of pain or hardship and suppression of feelings.
Glover modified the ancient wisdom to suit the practical demands of his body, which called for a more moderate approach to both eating and exercise. He started working out to gain muscle, and not just lose fat, and he allowed himself an occasional “cheat meal” of burgers and fries or ribs at his favorite restaurant, Ruby Tuesday.
Now he weighs 225 pounds, but a lot of that is muscle. He competes in physique competitions. He still has occasional cheat meals, but otherwise his meals, especially during “cutting season,” leading up to competitions, are protein-heavy and low-fat: breakfast is oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder, and five egg whites; lunch is an avocado, red potatoes and chicken, and dinner is a chicken salad. For a snack, he’ll have a protein bar or rice cake with peanut butter.
Inspiring others
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Despite his obvious physical transformation, Glover said the real change for him was internal. “I am most proud of the changes that went on inside,” he said. “I learned a lot of principles of life through fitness,” he said, especially perseverance and discipline.
Glover’s natural instinct was to share what he learned with others, so he became a personal trainer and online coach. He says people like him because he can relate to their struggles, having once been overweight himself. He’s very careful to steer them away from too much initial intensity, he said. “I coach them to have the right mindset.”
Glover houses his teachings and coaching at his website, www.brixfitness.com, which is named after his childhood nickname, “Brix.”
“My grandmother said I was built like a house,” he said.
His YouTube channel, with 118 videos, has over 60,000 subscribers. He’s filmed a lot of the videos at the Gym Downtown in downtown Norfolk, the gym where he goes to work out.
He stumbled in there one day with a day pass, and fell in love with the place. On the top floor of a historic building with exposed brick and an old-school feeling, Glover said the gym has “a cool vibe.”
Gym owner Bobby Wright, who is also a commercial real estate developer, opened the gym eleven years ago as a fixer-upper. “Kind of like an old body, we fixed it up,” Wright said, adding that he also had a personal mission in opening the gym because he’d just had a car accident and needed to strengthen his own core. He still teaches a core-strengthening class at the gym.
When Glover came to the gym, he sensed that he had a similar mission of wanting to help people. “I could tell from his heart where he was coming from,” Wright said. “We have a similar heart for helping people.
“People don’t come to try and pick up a date.”
Wright added that Glover’s videos provide good visibility for the gym. Glover has reached a lot of people, both locally and all over the country. He’s been stopped on the streets of his native New York, or when visiting L.A.
“I get tons of messages all day,” he said. “I feel really blessed to be able to bring this kind of value to peoples’ lives.”
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