Hi! I’m Fabian Colussi.
Like so many other people, I spent most of my life overweight. But up until about 2005, only moderately so. In fact, most people who knew me saw me as pretty average. But I didn’t. My problem was that my body carried excess weight around my waist, so ever since I can remember I had a belly and love handles, and I hated it.
Part of the reason that people couldn’t really see my weight was that back in my high school days I developed the habit of sucking my stomach in wherever I went, whoever I was with. It just became normal for me, so much so that I even did it when I was alone, out of sheer habit.
My Misguided Youth . . .
Growing up I was never an athletic or sporty person, so I was never all that active. I hated sports and PE (physical education) at school. But I did start and stop exercising and dieting to lose weight more times than I can count. In fact I spent quite a lot of time devising my exercises and equipment.
I would occasionally jog around the block wearing a black garbage bag, with holes cut out for my head and arms, under my t-shirt. I figured the more I sweat, the more weight I would lose.
As a teenager I used to make my own exercise weights with pieces of steel and wood, and containers filled with sand or water. But my exercise programs never ever lasted; I just couldn’t tolerate the feeling of sore muscles, so I always gave up very quickly each time.
When I was old enough to afford one, I bought an ab crunch machine. I used that diligently for about three months, but that didn’t work either, I still couldn’t manage to lose my belly, despite what the TV commercials promised.
Every diet I tried was also based on my own design, they were all pretty simple – just combinations of starvation and avoiding fatty foods. I would often actually lose weight, but of course I would then put it right back on each and every time.
The First Step . . .
What first got me interested in the world of fitness a bit more seriously than my previous efforts was when I started training in martial arts in 1998. I began learning Jeet Kune Do, or JKD, a fighting concept developed by the famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Two years later I quit JKD and switched to Thai boxing, or Muay Thai, a much tougher and more physical martial art.
Interestingly, despite training three nights each week, I still didn’t manage to lose much weight. Not enough to improve how my body looked. Looking back, the main reason for that was that I still wasn’t eating very well, the fact is I really didn’t know much about proper eating at all.
One of the great things about training in Thai boxing however was that I did get to learn a lot about fitness and conditioning, since, because it’s a competitive sport, that is an integral part of learning the art.
I have continued to train in Thai boxing off-and-on to this day, but unlike some of the amateur and professional fighters I have trained with, I’ve never actually competed myself. I’ve always simply trained for fitness and out of interest in the art, and have also acted as assistant instructor to some of the students.
More Serious Weight Battles . . .
In 2005 my weight started to increase significantly. Having been on average 90kg to 95kg for my entire adult life up until that point, my new average gradually crept up to 100kg to 105kg, and then 105kg to 110kg.
The reason for the weight gain was very simple, I was spending less time being active and I was being lazier with my diet. I got into a bad habit of overindulging in fast food.
For several years my weight went up and down. It was the same story again, exercising and quitting, and dieting and quitting. I would lose anywhere from 2kg to 10kg and immediately shoot right back up to 110kg.
This went on for a few years until in 2009, when after not weighing myself for a while I stepped onto the bathroom scale and was devastated when it read 114kg. I knew then that I had to seriously do something or my weight would go out of control.
By that time Gloria was heavily into fitness and had already lost a lot of weight herself, so I called her and asked for her help with my diet. I knew a good deal about exercising but had never really bothered to learn much about eating correctly.
With Gloria teaching me what I needed to know about proper diet and nutrition and helping me to design a weight loss program for myself, the end result was that my weight dropped from 114kg to 88kg in about eight months or so, a loss of exactly 26kg.
New Horizons . . .
As part of my weight loss journey I changed my whole lifestyle in terms of my diet, as well as working out regularly. This is where my love for and interest in fitness really began to take off. So much so that since then I’ve worked alongside Gloria researching fitness and weight loss, and helping her to educate and motivate women who are interested in turning their lives around and getting into shape.
Because of my background, what originally interested me the most was the science of metabolic and functional conditioning for Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, as well as other martial arts, and how it applies to both weight loss and fitness. MMA is an incredibly demanding sport that has been exploding globally over the past 15 years or so, and the training techniques used are just so innovative and rapidly-developing, it really is becoming the pinnacle of fitness.
Since Gloria started training for competition in late 2011 however, my focus has changed completely. Nowadays, the whole art and science of body toning and sculpting, particularly for women, has become my major interest, and I spend most of my time each day involved in this area. As well as designing Gloria’s training and nutrition program for her Figure competition, I also coach a number of other Figure competitors, which I really love.
And like Gloria, I’m also now a fully-certified Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer.
My Mission . . .
I’ve been asked a few times why I choose to focus on women ‘s weight loss and fitness, and not men’s. The truth is I feel more inspired to help women, for a few reasons.
The reality is that we live in a man’s world, and women have so much unfair pressure on them to look good. Unlike men, the opportunities for women in career, business, relationships – almost every area of life in fact, are often influenced by their looks. This problem is compounded by the fact that, because of their maternal instincts, women tend to look after everyone else before looking after themselves.
As far as sports and fitness goes, like every guy, I have inspirational male role-models that are heroes to me. In my case, most are elite-level fighters. But among “average” people, if I can call them that, I find that the mental strength and tenacity shown by women is generally greater than that of men. That inspires me.
It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to help motivate women and help them take control of and transform their lives physically, mentally and emotionally through Million Dollar Baby Fitness.
I look forward to working with you all!
All the best,
Fabian.