Anonymous ID: 3362a2 May 14, 2026, 12:36 p.m. No.24605071   ๐Ÿ—„๏ธ.is ๐Ÿ”—kun   >>5081

https://forward.com/news/174793/harley-pasternak-jewish-fitness-trainer-to-the-sta/

>Jewish culture and families are food-oriented. Was that how you grew up?

Very much. I grew up in a typical Ashkenazi household. My bubbe actually lived with us. Sheโ€™d make us the traditional colorless, beige, heavy foods: chicken soup, kreplach, gefilte fish, tzimmes. She would make stuffed peppers, kishke and cabbage rolls. Sheโ€™d also cook flanken soup with marrow bones. I was told if I ate what was inside the bones, it would put hair on my chest. Now we know itโ€™s just an artery blocker. Luckily, Torontoโ€™s the most diverse city in the world, so we got exposed to all kinds of food. And my mother made great food.

>How old were you when you got interested in fitness?

I got into bodybuilding very young โ€” I was 13. My mother took me to a gym โ€” the Young Menโ€™s Christian Association, of all places. I grew up in [the heavily Jewish North Toronto neighborhood] York Mills. Most of the Jews went to the YMCA to work out. And went to St. Andrews School, which was all Jewish. Because of my workouts, I started eating differently, because I wanted to build a different physique. I learned a lot from fitness magazines, and later from academia, of course.