Fit To be In Your Kitchen

This is my first time ever working with a nutrition coach and I will say now that I have found Ruben the owner of Fit 2 be in your kitchen I will keep him for life. His passion for helping people reach their goals is so genuine. He has amazing recipes and you do have to put the time and effort into preparing your meals. I was frustrated the first few weeks. You have to do weekly pics of your progress so I put my first photo with week 4 photo and was quite please with what I saw. Ruben is so positive and is there to help you every step of the way. If you have ever thought about hiring a nutrition/​workout coach then Ruben is the one for you! I promise you will not regret it and you will be amazed at your results, the food, the support and the genuine compassion he has for his clients!

I have worked with Ruben and his team for almost 2 years now, starting with training for my first Figure Competition and I took 3^rd Place! He is the most amazing coach! Super detail oriented and genuinely cares about his clients and their success in whatever goals they set. I’ve referred so many people to him who have also had incredible results, from diabetics, to competitors, obese, «lose the last 10 lbs», etc and they’re all satisfied! I totally recommend him to reach whatever your goals are! There is NONE better!!! Because of his coaching I was featured in the Dec. 2011 of Ebony magazine and am in the best shape of my life! Love FTBIYK!

I have been overweight since I was about 5 years old, a combination of Asthma medicine and the condition itself limiting my exercise, I was always a chubby kid (and always made fun of by everyone for it.) I was over 200 pounds when I graduated high school. A few times I was able to drop some of that weight, only to gain it back again. A few years ago I started working with a trainer and lifting weights… that got me to my lowest weight ever as an adult, just in time for my wedding:) After the wedding I wanted to lose more and feel good about my body for the first time in my life. I thought running would be the perfect way to do that (all runners are skinny, right?) So I started running half marathons several times a year, and even trained and ran a full marathon. I got a little burned out on running, so I started doing triathlons… much more fun:) But, 3 years after I got married, my weight still fluctuated within 5 pounds of the day I got married! I couldn’t believe all of the biking and running wasn’t making any difference at all (except I was losing muscle I later found out). By the end of 2011 I had pretty much given up on ever being in better shape. I was working SO hard at working out and eating «clean» and it was making no difference. I figured I was just where my body wanted to be and I would need to learn to live with it.
I had emailed Ruben on
a few times and followed his page and the amazing transformations that happened there and I wondered, hoped, he could do something for me. My husband was afraid for me to sign up with him because he knew how much was riding on success with Ruben. He was afraid I would become very depressed if this last effort did not yield any results… but I did it, and I was amazed at what I got. The food was better than I had ever eaten, and I could spend a couple of hours on Sunday cooking and bagging up every meal for the entire week and not have to think about it again!
The workouts made me feel like I was cheating! Seriously, my workout times were half what they used to be… and so much less cardio… I have to admit I was a little scared… so much food, so little cardio…
But the results have been amazing!!!
In JUST 11 weeks (11 weeks that included Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and would normally have resulted in a 5 – 10 pound gain) my personal results have been:
* 13.2 pounds-​GONE
* 6% BF-​GONE
* A plateau I have been trying to break for 3 years– BUSTED
* Lowest weight EVER as an adult, ACHIEVED (Last time I was at this weight: I was 11 years old (I looked it up this morning!))
* Took 3 minutes off my 5K run time (this is huge for me!)
* Increased my bike speed 2 mph!
* I can see my muscles!
* All of my clothes are too big.
And best of all I have a whole new outlook on who I CAN be:-)
And all while eating more and better food than I have ever eaten (seriously)
I cannot wait to see what the next 3 months will bring:-)
Added bonus… my family eats the healthy food I cook from Ruben’s meal plan… that in itself is a miracle and a HUGE testimonial to how good it is!
Ruben, thank you for sharing your God-​given talent with others. I am so thankful I finally made the leap and signed up with seriously the best trainer EVER.

FTBIYK is awesome! Ruben is a great coach to work with! He is knowledgeable, honest, helpful, and encouraging. He has helped me go from yo-​yo dieting to eating healthy and maintaining a healthy, lean weight. He did this by teaching me how to eat the correct nutrient combinations and offering incredible recipes and specific meal plans! I would highly recommend FTBIYK to anyone who needs help getting out of the dieting cycle. The money I spent working with Ruben was worth every penny and then some! He treats every client with respect and gives his undivided attention — even to us moms who just want to be lean, strong, and healthy. You don’t have to be figure or fitness competitor to benefit from his expertise!

If you are willing to put in the work, you can achieve results. FTBIYK offers a holistic approach to fitness. Ruben covers both nutrition and fitness in a no none sense matter of fact manner. The menu plan is amazing, I’ve never eaten so much fantastic food outside of a restaurant since signing up for the program. I never had a weight problem but was concerned about my overall aesthetics. I wanted my 20’s body back and right now I’m on the path to getting there. I had marked results in only 30 days. If you want results and are willing to put in the work. FTBIK is the plan for you and it is worth every penny.
I highly recommend the FTBIYK team!!!

At the end of 2010 I was going into my fifth month of pregnancy and wanted to make sure I didn’t gain a huge amount of weight. My doctor wanted to refer me to a nutritionist but I decided to go out on my own. Through another website and a friend, I discovered Ruben (and others) with Fit To Be In Your Kitchen.
Ruben tailored a meal plan and work out to my specific needs. I actually lost some weight and very slowly gained after that. My doctor was very impressed with my progress. I was never hungry and never felt deprived of foods I wanted (because I wasn’t). Ruben’s approach is not about food elimination to get you to your goal but about portion sizes and eating foods with the macronutrients your body needs when you need it.
My workouts were fabulous too! I was lifting weights in the gym and doing cardio up until 2 days before my baby was born. I don’t feel like I lost any muscle or conditioning at all. Thanks to Ruben I had a very healthy pregnancy and am continuing those new habits into motherhood.

I’ve struggled with my weight pretty much my entire life with varying degrees of success. For most of my twenties I was able to stay within about ten pounds of my goal weight through really strict diet and exercise. Then I hit 30, and BOOM. Nothing worked. 20 pounds gradually crept on and no matter how hard I worked they were not budging. I really was starting to think that there was something wrong with me, and even booked an appointment with my Dr. to get my thyroid checked. I was pretty close to giving up when I came across Ruben. I spent some time stalking FTBIYK’s Facebook page and was really impressed by what I saw, but what really intrigued me was the fact that on top of his background in the fitness industry, Ruben is also trained as a chef. I’m a bit of a foodie and love to cook, so if I was going to hand over the dietary reins I needed to know that my coach would understand where I was coming from. After some hesitation, I contacted Ruben and he explained the program to me. I hung up and thought about all of the things I had tried within the past year (diet pills, hcg, p90x) that hadn’t helped. A few days later I sent in my payment for the first month and initial assessment along with my first set of photos (on this program, most of your correspondence is by internet, phone or text, and you track progress by photos that you take of yourself rather than scale weight) and then promptly ordered a last hurrah pizza. Three days later, I had my first meal plan. At first, I totally freaked. This was literally TWICE as much food compared to what I had been eating before. The first week was really tough mentally but by the third day, I was waking up each morning feeling less fluffy. By the end of the third week, there was a huge difference when I put the progress photos side by side. I was shocked! I mean, prior to this I had worked hard for months and hadn’t seen any difference at all! 3 ½ months later, I’m down more than twenty lbs and going strong! I also recently started a Ruben designed strength training regimen. The program is really great. I have not been hungry once and Ruben’s recipes are really good, even by my snooty standards… most of the things that I indulged in before can be part of the plan, in lightened up form. It does feel like hard work sometimes, and six meals a day does require quite a lot of planning, but every week I can see a visible difference in my pics. Most importantly, I’m learning a ton about portions, meal timing and nutrition. This program is really more about principles than the actual meal plans, which has been great for me considering that I have a super active social life. With a bit of planning, I have still been able to enjoy dinners out with friends, camping trips and other adventures without falling off the wagon. Ruben is a great coach, really cares about what he does and is available for support basically seven days a week. An added bonus that I have really come to appreciate the value of is tracking progress via photos. Nothing better to keep you accountable than having someone scrutinize your bikini clad self on a big screen. If I had to describe this experience in one word, it would be Empowering. Only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.