There was a time not long ago when Rick Kohut was in the corporate world rapidly gaining weight and ignoring all thoughts of a healthy lifestyle.
But four and a half years ago that all changed. He and his wife Amy had their first child. The writing was on the wall.
“I was overweight. It was time to make a change,” said Kohut, who is now 34. “It was time to make a transition.”
That transition included the creation of Health Street in Olds at 840 - 6700 - 46 St., the couple's dream business where their goal is to provide nourishing natural food, personal care, nutritional supplements and health and wellness services. It was a new, bold and exciting move towards making better lifestyle choices, and taking responsibility for their health.
Today Rick is a holistic nutritionist and wellness coach. He is also the founder of Nature's Vending, a health food vending company bringing healthy food and snack choices to schools, recreation centres and offices.
In the meantime, he is friends with Drew Taddia, a fitness specialist and co-founder of True Form Life. He runs classes for group or one-on-one training in Olds and Didsbury throughout the week.
Together these two men have put together their health and fitness expertise and have published Elevate Your Health – It's time for change! The recently released 75-page book is a guide towards healthier living. For those who want to make that big change in lifestyle like Rick did four and a half years ago, the book will offer tips on food additives to avoid, easy healthy recipes, meal planning ideas, food combining guidelines, detoxification tips, stress relief ideas, toxins to avoid, supplement tips, stretching ideas and positive affirmations.
“A lot of people have a standard American diet. I used to be there,” said Rick, who has now made it a personal and professional mission to focus on prevention. “The book is a reference guide. Drew and I want to help people have healthy lifestyles.”
Rick said he and Taddia started doing short health videos called True Health Matters about a year ago. These videos were posted on YouTube. And then came an inspirational idea. The pair realized they had collected a great deal of information for promoting healthy living and they could get this knowledge beyond YouTube.
“We wanted to capture it in a book,” said Rick. “We worked on it for eight months.”
What might be appealing for many readers is that the new book is easy to read and can be brought anywhere for inspiration – to the office, park and even shopping. If there is a question lingering about a new and healthier lifestyle choice then Elevate Your Health can easily be pulled out for answers.
“We didn't want the book to be read and then put on the shelf,” said Rick. “It can be referenced at any time. It is small and fits easily in a purse and can be taken to the grocery store.”
To get a copy of Elevate Your Health or to learn more about Rick's local business go to www.healthstreet.ca. For more information on Taddia's fitness classes visit www.trueformlife.com.
