Diet, exercise save R&B crooner YouGenious’ life.
Diet, exercise, less stress have saved R&B crooner YouGenious’ life
YouGenious has pulled a 180. The self-proclaimed “Misfit of R&B” is known for performing onstage and for his guerrilla-style party crashing, showing up with a boom box and belting out a tune when he’s least expected. He’s been a fixture on Houston’s music scene for more than two decades.
These days, however, after leaving one of his shows at a club, he no longer heads home to the Heights. He drives to New Caney, where he lives on a piece of property with his wife. They raise goats and chickens and maintain a small garden.
Instead of going to work in the restaurant industry, which has been his day job since age 16, he now has a less stressful post as a chef at H-E-B’s Cooking Connection in Spring.
But the biggest change is how he feels. “I’m 41 and bouncing around like the Energizer Bunny,” he said.
YouGenious is 80 pounds slimmer these days. He has not only changed his lifestyle but also his diet.
He remembers the day that it all began like it was yesterday.
The singer always thought of food as his comfort. He was about 300 pounds at the time.
On a Monday, six years ago, he ordered a large pizza. “I was a little depressed, and I just ate my feelings,” he said. “I could crush a large pizza by myself and wash it down with a 2-liter Coke.”
Soon after, he felt a tightening in his chest. He called an ambulance and went to the emergency room.
“The doctor came in yelling and screaming at me, ‘I can’t believe you’re acting like this with your diabetes,’ ” YouGenious recalled. “He thought I knew. That’s how I found out.”
His blood sugar was dangerously high. He spent the next few days in the hospital.
“I was ashamed at what I’d done to myself,” he said. “When I got home, I took everything bad for diabetes and threw it all away. I stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables, and I learned to love it.”
YouGenious had to do some research about eating healthier. He already knew that sodas were a thing of his past. He was ready to eliminate sugar.
“You hear about it all the time, but it never registers until it has to,” he said. “You pick up habits from what you know until you know better.”
He also signed up for trainer Mandy Trichell’s boot camp. “She really saved me,” he said. “Mandy made me so strong.”
The two had been friends for years before Trichell got his call.
“He came to me and was like, ‘Yo, I need some help,’ in true YouGenious fashion,” Trichell recalled.
In boot camp, the singer fit right in with a group of working Heights moms. “He’s nothing but love and light and entertainment,” Trichell said. “He got a lot of support from the class.”
Then, he started personal training with the fitness guru. Before long, he was flipping tires, planking and jumping with the best of them.
“He was game for whatever I had him do,” Trichell said. “A huge part of his success was that attitude of willing to try anything.”
Plus, YouGenious understood something that Trichell always tries to tell her clients — that starting is part of the battle, even if it’s with little steps that turn into big burpees.
“Start with something small, just pick something,” Trichell said. “Start there and see what happens.”
YouGenious estimates that it took about two years of diet and exercise to come full swing. He started to love eating healthy — and now he enjoys sharing tips and recipes at his job at H-E-B.
“Don’t jump on the fad diet train,” he tells people. “Just change the way you eat and make it your life. I’m not saying don’t ever eat pizza. Don’t eat a chocolate bar. Just don’t have a Hershey’s every day. Don’t eat pizza as a food group. You’ll feel better for it.”
YouGenious just released nine tracks about his food journey called “Chef Nyfe.” He even has a tune about being a dishwasher, which was one of his first jobs.
“They don’t get any credit for anything,” he said. “But without clean dishes, you don’t have a restaurant.”