Dimitri Verteouis was once 330 pounds. At 28, he was pre-diabetic, had a slightly enlarged heart, and even had a temporary pacemaker at one point. His doctor told him if he did not lose 100 pounds in one year, he would need gastric bypass surgery.
His poor health opened Dimitri’s eyes. He became a participant with The Food Network’s “Fat Chef.” The goal was to lose 25% of his body weight in 4 months. He lost 82 pounds in 2 months, and 110 pounds throughout the duration of the show. He was one of three contestants who met his goal.
In 2013, he founded a program called Knock Out Obesity (KO) to promote exercise and healthy living in an interactive and exciting way. His test pilot was with the Boys Club of New York (BCNY) for six weeks last summer. His second series brought the program to Red Hook.
KO, an event geared towards kids ages 8-12, took place every Wednesday in August at the Miccio Center. The Good Shepherd Services of Brooklyn (GSS) hosted KO as part of their summer programming.
KO is a boxing program designed to educate kids about nutrition and fitness in a fun and exciting way. Football, basketball, baseball, and even soccer are common recreational activities available to youth; boxing is less common.
Dimitri says, “Boxing is a way to relate to life; life is a fight.” He uses professional boxers and trainers to help teach the kids.
Dimitri’s work with KO also helps keep him motivated to remain healthy. “When you start a healthy lifestyle from a young age, it’s only going to progress from there.”
Dimitri wants his program to target youth in the beginning and later move to training adults. The program is geared more towards strength conditioning and discipline rather than fighting. However, it does teach kids how to defend themselves. It also addresses social and behavioral problems like bullying. Kids have an outlet and a defense.
A boxer’s regiment targets bullying, nutrition, exercise, and behavioral issues all in one. “If you change one person’s life, to me, that’s big,” he said.
Dimitri’s workshop teamed up with GSS and will be offering the program to kids in at least five different communities this fall through other GSS programs, including Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville. He explains, “Our business is to take care of ourselves and our children, not to be obsessed with celebrities and media.”
The kids were paired up in friendly competition and wore boxing gloves. Two teams competed one-on-one, but the entire team was accountable for the defeat or win building teamwork skills. The kids wore “Mic Jr.” shirts based on the Nickelodeon channel geared towards kids called Nic Jr. Most of the kids in both groups wore the camouflage shirts with orange print.
Gary “Kid” Stark, a coach and trainer with KO, is a professional boxer and a three time New York Golden Glove winner. He has 23 wins and only three losses in his professional boxing career. As an amateur, he ranked 4th in the country.
Gary is currently a personal trainer at Chelsea Piers, and trains at a nonprofit gym with Dimitri on Staten Island. “The key to working with kids is to keep youth off the streets, and boxing is a way out,” says Gary.
The kids were focused, yet had smiling faces while working out. They concentrated and practiced the techniques given to them by the professional trainers with enthusiasm. The training consisted of a combination of techniques.
The classic boxing moves like right and left jabs into a glove facilitated by the trainer; facing each other and jabbing into the glove; sit-ups; and running. Coaches encouraged sportsmanlike behavior for both teams and it worked.
Coaches were patient, but firm with keeping discipline, encouraged and motivated kids. Coach Gary promised 100 pushups if the class did not quiet down; total silence filled the gym.
Class ended with 3 drills that were aerobic, but different from normal exercise: sit-ups with feet in the air; toe-touch, then jump with arms in the air; and airplane vertical jumping jacks, where the kids jumped with their feet moving forward and backward instead of side to side.
The final session ended with kids coming together as one group, a quick pep talk from the coaches, and a final one-for-all, all-for one, hands in the middle cry of “TEAMWORK!!!”
KO is solely funded by donations of $25,000 from Paulie Malignaggi, a pro-boxer from Bensonhurst. KO is sponsored by Dimitri’s restaurant, Nature’s Grill.
3 Comments
Very well done, Fran!! My hat goes off to the organization for inspiring youth. I remember how good it felt to have positive reinforcement from a mentor. It really does have an incredible impact in one’s life. Continue to keep up the good work and posting positive events in the neighborhood.
Lovely read. Inspiring to see individuals like Dimitri working with youth in such a positive, impactful way. Looking forward to his expansion throughout NYC!
Nice job But then again I’m not surprised. It was very well written and informative !