The Knockout Workout The Boxing Chef teaches clients to kick butt and eat right
By
Michael Y. Park
NEW YORK —
Flyin' fists and
fancy eatin's meet head-on — with a bang! — in Midtown
Manhattan.
Liz
Schultz/FOXNews.com
Guinea
pig Elise Proulx gets ready to take on The Boxing Chef
for the first time.
Take a dash of Julia Child, add a smidgen of Rocky Marciano, knead
it until you have one energetic package and you get Bill Feldman,
"The Boxing Chef," a personal cook-cum-trainer who brings healthy
eating and physical fitness to his clients with a one-two punch.
"I'm a boxer myself and a professional chef, so I combine the
two together," Feldman said, not missing a beat as he did a duck-and-weave
with a pair of breathless clients at his small 42nd Street office.
Feldman trained as a chef and was part owner of a bistro in Scarsdale,
N.Y., but had become unhappy and fat about eight years ago after
he'd ballooned from 180 to 220 pounds.
One day a customer at the bistro offered to help Feldman get in
shape, and before he knew it, the square-built chef with the easy
grin was immersed in the world of boxing — and 45 pounds slimmer.
The Making of the Boxing Chef
LizSchultz/FOXNews.com
Laura Brown
and Elise Proulx prepare to kick booty.
Feldman sold the bistro and began to train fighters in an upstate
New York gym at night while working a morning job at a Connecticut
restaurant. His decision to combine both the defining elements of
his life seemed only natural.
"I was training this boxer in his studio and while I was training
him, I thought, I want to give him a low-fat menu," Feldman recalled.
"As a boxer you're trying to lose as much weight as possible to
make the lowest weight class, but you have to eat right so you have
energy. This made my worlds fit nicely together for me."
About two years ago, he decided to dedicate himself full-time
to the concept of the Boxing Chef. He rented an office overlooking
Grand Central Station and began taking on clients, mainly "white-collar
people who have jobs, little time and want to box."
Liz
Schultz/FOXNews.com
Yummmmy,
Boxing Chef fare.
The regimen: About three boxing lessons per week along with a
carefully prepared menu of healthy lunches and meals such as chicken
murango, easy-on-the-thighs brownies and poached salmon that the
Boxing Chef cooks and delivers himself every Sunday — a KO
in the battle of the bulge.
"If you follow my program and don't eat other foods, you will
lose eight pounds in the first two weeks and at least a pound every
week after that," he declared. "And you learn how to box."
Or not — dieters can opt for the meals alone, enjoying the
meats and sweets without taking to the ring. He has also written
a not-yet-published cookbook that combines exercise with the culinary
arts, along the lines of doing 75 crunches while waiting for the
water to boil.
Workouts are $75 each, or less with packages; lunches are $10
each and dinners $12.50 a piece.
The Chef's Followers
Twenty-year-old Laura Brown was fighting proof of the program's
success as she jabbed her way to weight loss Wednesday morning in
Feldman's studio. The Columbia University anthropology student has
been in the Boxing Chef program for nearly 40 weeks — and she's
lost more than 60 pounds.
Liz
Schultz/FOXNews.com
Duck and
cover: Brown avoids a knockout.
"I was grossly obese and I had no muscles," she said between bouts
with Feldman's oversized target gloves.
Offering her bicep for inspection, she showed off a sturdy cord
of muscle.
"It used to feel all squishy," she said. "Now there's a big difference.
"And punching the bag feels soooo good!" she added, walloping
Feldman's bull's-eye glove with gusto.
One newcomer didn't fare so well, though, clumsily missing Feldman's
huge glove and accidentally — but nevertheless meekly —
tagging the Boxing Chef in the cheek before letting her fatigue
win the day and calling it quits.
"You have to learn the breathing technique first, let the energy
flow into you, and then I teach you the combination punches," Feldman
explained later. "But the important thing is that when you breathe
right and feel your punches make contact, your body is doing what
you want it to do. This feels good and it makes a dieter say, 'I
can really do this.'"
Brown's rewards go even further.
"I'm always having mock fights with my boyfriend," she said. "But
now I win most of the time."
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