Personal trainer and nutritional consultant Jay Hoehn is sharing his secrets to the Fountain of Youth, creating personalized blueprints and using natural remedies to help his clients adjust their diet, exercise and sleep routines to promote a healthy and energetic day-to-day lifestyle, prevent disease and slow the aging process. Hoehn uses a specific approach that focuses on the endocrine system, which is responsible for hormone regulation — a revolutionary nutritional practice from which his clients feel immediate positive effects. Rick Ahumada, who has been training with Hoehn for just over three months, said he started reaping the positive benefits of Hoehn’s program within a few short weeks. “My own experience has been pretty amazing. He got me in the direction I wanted to go in quickly. I’ve had people tell me I look better, healthier, younger, more energetic,” Ahumada said. “I’ve lost 15 pounds of healthy weight loss, but it was more for me how I felt, not necessarily how I looked.” Hoehn mapped out a blueprint specifically tailored to improve Ahumada’s lifestyle — getting proper rest, avoiding food after 9 p.m. in order to properly sink into his REM cycle, gearing workouts toward hormone production, ridding sodas from his diet and switching from coffee to tea, which Hoehn engineers himself. “There’s some discipline to it, and it’s challenging, but in the end, you feel so good that it’s not like you’re making a sacrifice,” Ahumada said. “I didn’t think my lifestyle was unhealthy. I had a pretty clean eating regimen. I worked out, and I had a nutritionist for 20 years. In the end, working with Jay, I realized the mistakes I’d been making.” Hoehn, who has worked in the La Jolla community for 30 years, first delved into research on preventative nutrition and exercise after being diagnosed with cancer in his early 20s. “I was diagnosed fairly early, so I was never in danger of having anything too severe in terms of spread, but it scared me,” Hoehn said. “I thought I was healthy, and all of a sudden there was something in my body that needed to be addressed, and it was that ‘C’ word, which scares everybody.” After suffering through some chemotherapy, something in him sparked. “That was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had physically,” he said. “I decided if I can do anything at all to prevent something like this in the future for myself — or any degenerative illness that requires that sort of treatment — I would do it. I don’t want to go near that again.” As a competitive surfer, swimmer and triathlon athlete, Hoehn began researching ways to maximize immune function while also maintaining his utmost athletic ability. “I just did a ton of research. I read all of the books that are out there. I’ve tried a lot of different things that people said would work,” he said. “It finally evolved into something that I feel is much more grounded scientifically.” He said his revolutionary program is validated each time he and his business partner, May Quijano, see their clients’ bodies and health change for the better. “I’m humble enough to say there’s always more to learn, so I’m reading things, I’m listening to different comments by people,” he said. “But from the latest research, this is probably the most reliable systematic approach to nutrition for someone to follow and benefit from in the course of their adult lives.” Hoehn’s extensive research led him to engineer his own phytonutrient-rich tea, which is on sale at Armone’s Core Connection in La Jolla. “The phytonutrient value is almost as high as anything I’ve seen that you can consume as a food, and it tastes terrific,” he said. “It speeds up metabolism, it counteracts inflammation, it helps to alkaline an acidic bloodstream, it helps curb appetite, it has a little bit of caffeine in it so if they want something to replace coffee … it’s a coffee alternative.” He also engineered a “Deep Sleep” tea blend to relax the central nervous system, help digest food, combat inflammation and alkaline the blood to maximize endocrine function during sleep. The crux of his nutritional philosophy is the same, but how he tailors blueprints for each of his clients vary. “I’m working with a couple of Chargers and their goals isn’t to lose weight, obviously,” he said. “These are guys in their mid-to-late-20s. Their body-fat percentage is 4 percent or something extremely low. They’re great athletes, and their endocrine system is at its peak, so they’re not feeling the effects of a horrible decline that people a little older might be feeling. They want to recover better, they want to be as good as they can be athletically.” With each client, Hoehn and Quijano construct an approach geared toward helping each client achieve individual goals. Whether it is putting on muscle mass, dropping body-fat percentage, having more energy or improving rest cycles, optimizing endocrine function is key, they say. “If you’ve ever driven a car that hasn’t had the filters or the oil changed for a while, it may be driving fine. You may think there’s nothing wrong, but then you get the oil changed and the filters changed, you put high test in instead of low grade gas, all of a sudden, it’s driving so much better,” he said. “You can be doing quite well considering everybody out there, but even in that category of athletic ability and age, if you eat a certain way and you approach supplementation in a certain way, all of a sudden, you just feel a lot better.” Hoehn said in a beautiful place like La Jolla, people put so much focus on their homes, cars and clothing, but often fail to treat their bodies in the same manner. “People will put so much money into their material possessions to make those look good, but some of these same people treat their bodies in a different way when it comes to their approach in dealing with nutrition,” he said. “My theory has always been: No matter how much your house or car is, you can always get a new one. The clothes that you think are so great this year might not be so great next year. You only get one body.” To schedule personal training or nutritional consulting with Hoehn, email Quijano at [email protected] or call (858) 245-6772. Skype appointments are also available.