Local personal trainer and fitness instructor Drew Taddia had no idea his nutrition-focused book Detoxify Yourself was in the No. 3 position on the New York Times' non-fiction bestsellers list for Calgary until someone in his fitness class told him.
“I went to one of my classes and one of my clients said ‘Congratulations on your book,'” he said.
The list was published in the Aug. 24 issue of the Calgary Herald and when Taddia found out, he was thrilled.
“It was great news that something like that happened.”
The book, according to its subtitle, is a “lifestyle detox” and offers a 30-day meal plan Taddia created based on his own experiments in finding foods that would allow him to perform at his best as an athlete or just working out.
The meal plan promotes a diet that is free of dairy, gluten, soy and genetically modified foods.
Taddia began to write the book in the summer of 2012 after clients in his fitness class and personal training sessions began asking him to create healthy meal plans for them.
At first, he didn't want to prepare such plans because he did not want to write about something he “didn't believe in.”
“I don't really believe in meal plans, I don't think they're sustainable,” Taddia said. “I don't teach weight loss or quick fixes. More than anything I teach lifestyle changes.”
But his clients eventually wore him down and he started to write a two-week meal plan that eventually evolved into a 30-day plan including recipes and tips on what foods people should eat and how to prepare the foods promoted in the plan.
“I really believe in food. I believe food heals, it cures, it prevents so I always talk about food and how it can change your life,” he said, adding he also wrote about foods he believes people should avoid.
“That kind of directed me towards detox because there's a lot of toxins in foods that we should stay away from.”
Taddia published the book before Christmas and, not knowing whether his book would sell, he printed only 75 copies at first.
He promoted the book on Facebook and interest began to grow.
“Within two weeks those 75 sold so I had to make another (printing) order.”
Another 100 copies were printed and those sold in a month, he said.
He began approaching bookstores to sell the book and stores such as Soul Food Books and Shelf Life Books in Calgary began to put it out for sale.
Even Chapters agreed to sell the book on consignment.
Taddia also sells a protein supplement in health stores and the stores will sometimes take the book since the supplement and how to use it are mentioned in the book, he said.
Since it was first published, the book has sold 650 copies and is also available as an e-book.
When asked what his credentials are for providing nutrition advice, Taddia said all the tips and plans in the book are all based on his own experience with food and nutrition from his athletic background.
“It was a lifestyle of research and understanding what food does to your body,” he said.
“I have an athletic background and I was really determined with sports to be great at whatever I did so I'd get that tunnel-vision focus where I can't do anything else.”
Taddia added that when he was younger and active as an athlete, he realized that if he ate well before a game or working out, he would perform better.
He said he also realized he needed to eat well afterwards to recover.
“If you eat great all the time, you're going to be better prepared before and after games to perform better on the field,” Taddia said. “A lot of it was experimenting on my own body.”
Although he hasn't seen a huge bump in sales in the last month-and-a-half, Taddia is now able to say he's had a book on the New York Times bestsellers list.
He still relies on promoting his book, however, through the website of his fitness company, True Form, as well as a newsletter and he's hoping to soon promote it on a Calgary television show.
The New York Times did not respond to enquiries about how a book ends up on its regional bestsellers list.
