Blake’s Journey of Viva Fresh Clean Eating Challenge Week 1
Blog 1 : My Hypocrisy has no bounds
Blake La Grange
I have worn two hats for the past 30 years. I sell produce by day and teach baseball by night. I like to think about it as doing my part to feed the world by day and feed minds and bodies by night. I have a passion for helping others, teaching, training, and service in just about any form. It keeps me grounded with the correct perspective or at least that is what I’ve always thought. WRONG. I forgot about someone… ME. I cannot help others if I am not around for them, especially my family.
I have gone from being a former 4 sport athlete in high school, two sport in college and a brief professional baseball career to being over 100 pounds overweight or as doctors call it, morbidly obese. In attaining that extra 100 pounds, many not so Bueno things came with it like metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint pain, neuropathy and being sick and on 10 different daily meds. Recently, my doctor said that I have 5 co-morbidities which does not make me a very good candidate for life insurance policies or for life at all for that matter.
On average, I work 80-hour weeks between produce and training college and professional athletes. People constantly tell me that they have no idea where all my energy comes from, if they only knew, I’m only holding on by a mere thread and a literal ticking time bomb to not waking up on this side of the grass.
One of my mentors in the business, Rich Dachman, has been preaching that we should “live our business” for years. He is absolutely right. How can we grow and peddle fresh fruits and vegetables with life sustaining micro nutrients yet not eat them ourselves? If we truly looked at how many servings of fresh produce, we consume daily I’m sure we would be shocked at our complete hypocrisy or at least I am. “Food is medicine” is a moniker that has been floating around in my head since Rich started preaching this very important message and call to action for our industry. Now the Texas International Produce Association and Viva Fresh are driving this message home by introducing the Clean Eating Challenge and having our business step up and “live our business.” The first 5 pioneer produce industry professionals that took part in the very first Clean Eating Challenge inspired many of us to make some important changes to our diets and more importantly, our choices of what we stuff in our face.
My own hypocrisy takes this to a much higher level unfortunately. I train professional athletes every single day. I created my training protocols, systems, drills and programs for my athletes, and they have attained tremendous results and advanced far beyond expectations at the world’s highest levels. This is training that is extremely advanced, proprietary, and cutting edge that the general public will not hear about for years to come. I know and teach more about nutrition, muscle hypertrophy, neuro muscular patterning and am a certified sports hypnotherapist, certified bio mechanics trainer and certified velocity / arm care specialist. So, how in the hell am I not the poster child of health and fitness? I can sit here and explain the unfortunate events that led up to my poor health that are legit, but the bottom line is, we ARE IN CONTROL of our health. I could have made changes, I could have gotten my act together and pulled up my bootstraps and all that other self help guru garbage but I didn’t. It was much easier TO BE A VICTIM and stay in the comfort zone of doctors throwing pills at my conditions rather than to hold myself accountable. Thanks to The Clean Eating challenge and Rich’s message always running through my head I now have a catalyst to take charge, stop being the victim and take control of my situation. I have fellow produce industry professionals to hold me accountable, a mentor that was one of the Pioneers of the first clean eating challenge, Michelle Cortez, her team of other industry produce cohorts that have also stepped up to “live our business.”
I have committed to writing this blog weekly with more information on my progress but more importantly, I will share with you insider training secrets that we use for our professional athletes in their nutritional, mental and physical training. In my next blog, I will introduce you to the Power of the Compound Effect and how to apply that to our pursuit of getting healthy.
Dream, Believe, Achieve,
Blake La Grange
Val Verde Vegetable Co.
Power Alley Velo
That’s awesome. 🥦🥬💚