"You have to take that first step... you have to pull the trigger," Kevin Starkes tells me, clear blue eyes looking at me steadily. If anyone knows about life transformations, he does. Mindful Eats loves healthy success stories (when people lose weight, beat addictions, find talent, start cooking, etc.), and Kevin's is truly inspirational since he's done all of it. He turned his lifestyle around, started eating healthy, lost 35 pounds and became an elite athlete. In less than a year.
I met Kevin at the Nike track workouts. He radiates the typical healthy, hyper-awareness of an athlete. I figured the good-looking pacer was arrogant and unaware of us slower beings.
Then the last time I went to a workout, I ran with a faster group than I normally do, and after a few intervals, I dropped down to my usual group which Kevin was pacing. Tired and hot, I figured I would skip the last interval. As I turned away, I heard Kevin call me a weak link under his breath. That pissed me off. I immediately got in line to finish the workout. Then I heard him call me "sucker." The guy was good.
We ran back together, and I was astonished to learn he'd only been running for two years. He came in 120th in the 2008 NYC marathon (out of 38,832) with a time of 2:39:11 (This is very fast. As a point of reference for nonrunners, it's 1.5 hours faster than me).
We talk about his life pre-running. "It feels like night and day," he says about his life before 2007 and after. I'm surprised to learn the runner that barely drinks was a 1-2 pack a day smoker for 10 years. He had never worked out and had no idea he had any athletic talent before 2007. (He's the Grandma Moses of NY running!) Kevin describes his former life as "very social" - 5-6 evenings out a week that often ended in the early morning with greasy diner fare. "All we did was drink and smoke in high school, which led to college, which led to NYC," he explains. "It's funny, my girlfriend and friends now think I'm lying about my life before, and my friends from before think I'm lying about my life now."
I ask him what prompted him to change. "There are times when you're just like, 'I am out of shape'." Ain't that the truth. One day he had that realization, and decided he wanted to get in shape. He tagged along with his roommate to the gym in January 2007. He expected to bench a set of weights. His roommate suggested he bench the bar without weight instead. "I could barely bench the bar - 45 pounds - when I started," he laughs. He could also barely run 1/2 mile. He stuck with it. Three weeks after he started, he ran his first half-marathon in 1:27 (then he went home and slept for 9 hours - a rite of passage that all runners are familiar with). He joined a running club and ended up being hired as a Nike pacer for the 2.5 hour group in the 2007 NY Half-Marathon. "It was the most fun race I've ever done. I ended up pacing a firefighter from Engine 57 - Jimbo - for his first half. I ran with him all the way... that made me really love the running community. What's great is that if you're a runner, everyone's equal - it doesn't matter how fast you run." He'd found a niche and a passion.
Kevin also quit smoking and changed his eating habits in 2007. He swapped take-out for grocery shopping and home-prepared meals. "I got to the point where I was standing in the grocery store and comparing one bread label against another for calories." It was a complete change from the food he grew up eating. "Only turkey and chicken now, no more ham, pepperoni, salami. Egg whites, no more bacon." He observes that he has much more energy now. I can't resist asking him what he'd eaten so far today. "1 banana, 3 egg whites, a smoothie (OJ, frozen raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries, ice and whey protein), turkey on whole wheat sandwich with light mustard,large Hazelnut coffee with steamed milk." Very healthy.
Clearly it was a watershed year for him. He developed body awareness by learning about what his body could do physically, and what effect food had on him. He lost 35 pounds, got healthy, discovered an athleticism he never knew existed, and made new friends. I'm curious about how he did it, since so many people know they want to make a change, but rarely do it as completely as Kevin did. He tells me he hardly went out for a year and purposely secluded himself. This makes sense, because you often have to stay away from your old environment if you want to change your habits (e.g. quitting smoking while drinking in bars is like shooting yourself in the foot before running a race). "But what about when your friends called you to go out?" I asked.
"I had real friends, but I also knew a thousand guys that were really acquaintances. We were 'friends' because we wanted to do out and drink and be idiots. When people called, I said I had six more chapters to finish my book, so I was going to read that night. My real friends knew I'd call them when I was ready." Oh. Wisdom. I make a mental note to myself.
His running career took off. If you're not a runner, all you need to know is that he went from being an unathletic, unhealthy slug to an extremely fast and talented runner that sets really high goals for himself. And he did it with the additional challenge of having the worst possible alignment for runners. His feet are so flat that physical therapists, podiatrists and doctors are shocked he's a runner. Now you can skip the next paragraph.
Running geeks, read on... surprisingly, Kevin had no idea he was fast until he ran his second half marathon in 1:18 six weeks before his first marathon. That gave him confidence, and as he tells me, running is about confidence. He ran the Philadelphia marathon in 2:53. He was such a newbie runner that he didn't realize that breaking three hours is a big deal. After a lot of people told him that it was an amazing time for a first marathon, he decided to get serious about running and asked Jonathan Cane of City Coach Multisport Training to help him. After that he came in sixth at the New Orleans Half in 1:14:11, won the Hamptons Half and a few local 5Ks, then came in 14 minutes faster in last year's NYC Marathon (2:39:11). Now he is trying to become a high-mileage runner (90-100 miles per week) to achieve his goals. Despite all his success, he still doesn't view himself as a runner since he started so late. "I feel like I'm on the outside looking into this world of complete fitness," he says. I tell him he qualifies.
I ask him how he feels. It's a "world of difference. I don't even remember what it felt like not to be healthier. I like mornings now." Two years makes a huge difference.
You may not make the huge athletic change that Kevin did, but you can make an equally dramatic health transformation. All you have to do is take that first step. Pull the trigger.
What to do - Get Healthier Like Kevin
- Commit to getting healthier. Follow the Mindful Map.
- Set mindful goals. Kevin's first one was running 1/2 mile, and once he did that he set mindful (for him) new ones - a half-marathon, a marathon, high mileage.
- Take the first step. Start exercising and preparing your own meals. And stick to it. You can do it! Kevin notes that change happens over time, and that you can't expect instant results. "People want it to happen immediately. If it's not going to happen tomorrow, than why do it? People lose sight of putting in work to accomplish a goal."
- Take care of yourself. Kevin has had an injury every February, when he started working towards a new goal too quickly. His goal for 2010 is not to injure himself in February. Ease into things.
- Isolate yourself from people/environments that are unhealthy. It's easy to slip back under the influence. Kevin secluded himself during his transformative year. Now that he's gotten healthy, he has a whole new niche of running friends and he's still friends with his old crew.
Check out Kevin's blog.
What I ate: green juice, 2 fried eggs + squash, 1 mango, 1 cup strawberries, cherries (yay, cherry season!), 2 lattes, casava chips, Mindful Mix, brown rice + ground flaxseed, steamed tofu + broccoli + green peppers + spinach, flaxseed oil, 12 oz. plain kefir, multivitamin, 40 oz. water
Exercise: 80 minutes Ashtanga yoga
