Born in the Hollywood Hills of California and raised in the Green Mountains of Vermont, I grew up with two SAG-AFTRA/Actor’s Equity union actor parents.
A gifted student, an excellent athlete, and a talented performer, I was active and thriving. Suddenly, as a teenager, everything began to change. Struggling with connecting socially, I was prone to lash out in anger and get myself into a fair amount of trouble. My peers knew I could easily be provoked, but when I got bullied, I fought back.
In-school suspensions. Out-of-school suspensions. Mandatory counseling.
Middle school became so bad that I once signed out of a classroom writing “leaving hell” and ran a mile home to flee to the sanctuary of my childhood bedroom. On another occasion, I fled to the literal sanctuary of my Episcopal Church that was next door to school and wept in the pews.
During that time, the church and the theater were my sacred spaces. Summers were spent in backstage dressing rooms or on film sets.
The middle school years never seem to be the wonder years for any of us.
High school and college got better. Developing my talents and passions in politics and as a performer over those years was a special time.
After a transitional year coming out of college and a campaign stint in Missouri, I returned home and began an incredible journey working for the New York State Senate Democrats. For over a decade, I lived and worked in every corner of New York.
I’ve always been obsessive and relentless. It paid off in the formative years of my political career as I achieved great success in my work, but I was quietly struggling in my relationships and in my own health.
The world really is a stage. None of us have scripts. We’re improvisers doing our best to listen to our lives and respond authentically. Many of you could probably join me in having developed Academy-Award worthy performances of pretending that we were or are happier than we truly are about the state of our lives. We pretend to be happy while we pray to feel joy.
My breaking point came when I saw photos of myself at my sister’s wedding in the summer of 2021. I broke down in tears with the realization that I was nowhere close to loving myself and at best felt like a supporting actor in my own life.
That was the moment where my journey began to become the leading man of my own life.
In June 2023, I accomplished my initial goal of losing 200 pounds in 500 days. That period was crucial to manifesting a new mentality and developing my own self-discipline.
Since accomplishing that mission, I’ve worked to highlight the fitness and wellness community while pushing myself in my own fitness and wellness goals.
The theory remains the same. Tell good stories to break down barriers of fear, anxiety, and intimidation that prevent people who are struggling with their physical, mental, emotional, and social health from finding their own fitness community and personal freedom.
Your story is what makes you unique. There’s strength in owning it. Never underestimate the power you give yourself by believing in you!
The ultimate life hack is to make your fitness and wellness the foundation of your life.
Living our legacies. Aspiring to achieve. Going for greatness.
It starts with the confidence of looking and feeling good. Knowing that our way of seeing things, and saying things, and feeling about things, is like nobody else’s. Believing in our worth.
It’s the struggle that I saw my dad and my best friend live through, often using humor as a defense mechanism.
While I always knew Dad loved me, he went through hard times of being challenged to love himself. He did the best he could and always showed up. Being overweight for most of his life had a profound impact on his mindset. In one of his headshots, Dad jokingly referred to himself as an “XL Robert Redford.” He wanted to feel like a leading man.
In the final years of his life, his mobility deteriorated, and he went through periods of intense sadness and anger over the feeling that he had become a burden. He knew that my mom, who was devoted to him, had become his caretaker.
In March 2024, I raced across the country back to Los Angeles to say goodbye to my dad before he suddenly passed away.
Fathers and sons. Life and death. The human experience reminding us that life is finite.
Healing after loss is my current voyage in a sea of grief. These days, I look at performing in the gym as “showtime” as Dad loved following my journey on Instagram. I often feel his presence as I meditate in yoga studios or go on long walks. The hardest part is knowing that our temporal story has ended.
However, the truth is that our personal fitness and wellness journey is always just beginning. This is our present moment. We’re spiritual beings living a human experience. Through the power of compounding consistencies and purposeful practices, all of us can develop the determination to live life as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can.
Listen to your life and kiss the joy as it flies. In that noble pursuit, may we all become strong individuals with the ability to form healthy families and create loving communities.
Alec Lewis
December 27, 2024
NY Fitness Expo 
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