Landy Dean After Photo

So why is one of the world’s top beauty experts being featured in the Parrillo Performance Press? Landy Dean uses Parrillo products each and every day and Parrillo methods figured heavily in his complete physical makeover. Take a close look at the before and after photos that accompany this article: Dean’s transformation was nothing short of profound and dramatic. He morphed himself from chubby and out-of-shape into lean and muscular and it was accomplished by working with a very famous Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer, Meral Ertunc. Landy was uncharacteristically effusive about Meral and Parrillo. “I use Parrillo products every day and have used Parrillo products for over a decade. I was first introduced to Parrillo Products and the Parrillo approach towards nutrition and training when I was lucky enough to cross paths with Meral Ertunc.” Longtime readers of the Parrillo Performance Press have seen Meral featured on numerous occasions: she was one of the nation’s top female bodybuilding competitors in the 1990s and since her retirement she has become one of the nation’s premier personal trainers. Landy’s friendship with Meral dates back to the latter’s competition days. Landy laughed when he recalled his initial encounter with Meral, who at the time was at her competitive peak.

“I was on a photo shoot in Florida and in many ways it was just another routine day working with typically tall, thin, waifish models. Meral had arranged to have some physique shots taken after her Olympia appearance and in she strode….I had never seen a female bodybuilder up close and personal and when this hugely muscled Turkish woman with big curly hair walked in I was completely taken aback. Meral had just finished competing in the Ms. Olympia and she looked incredible.” Landy, initially shocked by the exotic Ertunc, hit it off immediately with Meral; they had a chemistry that clicked on a personal level. “She and I hit it off right away. I took her up on her offer to drop by her training facility for a workout. We became fast friends. I began training under her supervision and I began doing her makeup for her numerous photo shoots.” Under Meral’s demanding guidance Landy began serious weight training. “Meral introduced me to Parrillo products and the Parrillo approach to nutrition. Meral also showed me how to really train. She showed me how to mix intense cardio with intense weight training and when I began doing the things she suggested in the way she suggested, my body composition improved rapidly: muscles began appearing and body fat began melting.” This was in 1993.

Landy took to the disciplined training with relative ease. However the nutritional end of things proved to be much more of a challenge. “Meral had me write down my foods in a food log and detail what I ate and when. Before I began working with Meral, I was the kind of guy that would obtain his meals by driving through the drive-in window of the fast food joint three times for breakfast, lunch and dinner.” To morph from fast food to Meral’s completely disciplined approach took time and considerable effort and willpower. “I had to remove all the butter and gravy and sweets and junk and all the other foods people in the south love to live on. I didn’t understand about the subtleties of food combining and all the other nuances associated with serious, studied nutrition. While I took to the training right away, it took me a while to get completely onboard with the nutrition.” Landy Dean is a native Floridian and until he began training with Meral he had never quite gotten traction with his fitness efforts. “Meral introduced me to Parrillo Performance Products and that helped round out my eating. Since then Parrillo Products have been an integral part of my nutrition.” Landy could not have picked a better fitness mentor: Meral Ertunc has been successfully renovating bodies for decades. The diminutive dynamo captured her IFBB pro card back in the early 1990s and competed against the best in the world in numerous Ms. Olympia and Arnold Classic shows. Unlike other female pro bodybuilders, Meral always stayed sultry and sexy and never crossed that indefinable line that separates muscular yet feminine into female with too much unattractive masculinity.

Meral also never really retired; she continued to train hard and eat with perfect discipline long after her professional career was over. She was the perfect mentor of Landy. He was able to turn the nutritional corner once he learned how to prepare his own (bodybuilding) meals ahead of time. “Up until I began training with Meral, cooking for me meant opening a can or turning on the microwave. It makes a tremendous difference when you don’t depend on others to prepare your food. I learned how to make the basic bodybuilding foods and how to infuse them with taste; practice makes perfect and you get a lot of food prep practice when you commit to a serious nutrition program.” Meral has turned bodybuilding food preparation into a culinary art form: she has a kitchen in her training facility and part of her personal training approach is teaching students how to cook and how to construct simple, easy, tasty, time efficient meals. Food preparation can be made easy and diet food need not be bland and unappetizing. The more at ease Landy became in the kitchen the faster he progressed. The more proficient and attuned he became in his meal prep the faster his physique morphed from fat to fit. “I now understand that when it comes to getting into terrific physical condition, nutrition is 90% of the battle. I feel that over the years I have developed a consistent commitment to proper eating.” What was once insurmountable is now the norm.

Meral worked Landy mercilessly in the gym but he found training relatively easy in that it was rewarding and gratifying to head to the gym and train hard and long under the supervision of a real expert like Meral. “There is something extremely satisfying about engaging in a really hard, result producing workout. I love the feeling of pushing my body to new levels.” These days Landy trains 4-5 times a week and carries his “special foods” to work and on occasion even to photo shoots. “Usually at a topflight photo shoot the event is catered and more often than not the food is excellent. I find that most times I am able to construct a classical bodybuilder-style meal on the job. If not I fall back onto my ever-handy Parrillo Bars^™.” Landy lives and works in Manhattan and leads an incredibly busy life. “I work at Edris Salon two days a week from 11 am until 7 pm and this schedule allows me the time to train early in the morning and prepare the foods that I will eat while at work. The rest of the time I have to deal with highly irregular scheduling; I might have to be at a photo shoot at 8 am or I might have to do morning TV at 6 am. It makes it much more challenging to eat properly when you are on location. I get a great cardio workout lugging around my heavy backpack stuffed full of my work tools, my meals and Parrillo Bars^™.”

“I love butter-flavored CapTri^® and use it in my meal preparation. I eat six times a day, three bodybuilder food meals interspersed with three supplement meals. Needless to say the supplement meals are Parrillo Products. Usually I will have a Parrillo Protein^™ shake and a Parrillo Bar^™ mid-morning. I prefer the cinnamon flavored Parrillo Protein Bar™ and mid-afternoon I will have an Energy Bar^™.” Landy is not a “foodie” distracted by the culinary temptations that bedevil New Yorkers, no street vendor dirty water hot dogs or salty pretzels tempt Landy. When he goes to one of Manhattan’s elite eateries he usually can find something delicious, satisfying and completely “in bounds.” Originally fitness for Landy was “a vanity thing in that I did not want to go through life as a chubby Floridian with a bad haircut – now fitness and nutrition is about how I feel; I look, feel and act a decade younger than my 40 year old reality. When I fall off the nutritional wagon, as occasionally happens, I inevitably develop a food hangover and it is no problem to get back onto the clean foods and the Parrillo Products the very next day.” Landy Dean still stays in touch with Meral. “We talk often and when we get together it’s as if we’ve never spent a day apart.” Landy Dean points out to the rest of us that “fitness” and “career” need not be irresolvable contradictions. “The best fitness is balanced fitness: nutrition and training done consistently and executed properly – just don’t try taking away my Parrillo Bars^™.”

Daily Meal

Schedule

Before training…

Parrillo Pro-Carb^™ powder mixed with Parrillo Hi-Protein powder^™ and CapTri®

After training…

Pro-Carb^™ powder mixed with Parrillo Hi-Protein^™ and Parrillo creatine monohydrate^™

Meal 1

Egg white omelet with spinach, peppers and mushrooms, potatoes or grits with CapTri®

Mid-morning Snack: Parrillo Protein Bar^™ or oatmeal mixed with Hi-Protein powder^™

Meal 2

Chicken or turkey, steamed broccoli, rice or sweet potato with CapTri®, Parrillo Contest Cookies^™

Mid-afternoon Snack

Parrillo Protein Bar^™ or a Parrillo Hi-Protein^™ shake

Meal 3

Broiled Tilapia, green beans or zucchini, quinoa, CapTri®, Parrillo Contest Cookies^™

Recently I have been getting great results mixing Parrillo Pro-Carb^™ with CapTri^® before my weight training sessions. I find this particular combination provides me with a significant energy boost heading into the session and I feel as though I can push harder and longer when I remember to take this shake combination.

Weekly Training Split

Day 1: Chest, Triceps, Abs, Cardio 20 minutes

Day 2: Shoulders, Triceps, Legs (Quads)

Day 3: Cardio for 30 minutes, Abs

Day 4: Back, Biceps

Day 5: Legs (Hamstrings & Calves) Abs, Cardio

Day 6: No weight training, walk or skating cardio

Day 7: No weight training, walk or skating cardio

Training: I will typically select 2-3 exercises per muscle group and training sessions usually last between 30 and 60 minutes. I love variety and will change up the routine and the exercises every few weeks. Typically I alternate exercise combos as needed. Some days I might do arms alone and hit every arm exercise I can think of within the allotted training time. Some weeks I might circuit train and combine push and pull exercises. On alternate days I might hit abs, cardio and legs. On push/pull days I might pair back rows with chest press, or military presses with lat pull downs. I will shift between free weights and machines and will perform a fair amount of bodyweight push ups and pull ups.

Although I have only listed three “formal”  cardio sessions, I walk everywhere and I walk everywhere carrying a heavy backpack. Living in Manhattan, I don’t own a car and I think nothing of walking for miles carrying my pack. In the warmer weather I rollerblade. Because of my work I always carry a suitcase and a backpack – it’s nothing for me to lug these for fifteen city blocks and then head back to my apartment. Sometimes I’ll do this twice a day. I try and hit every major muscle twice
a week.

Meral on Landy

I first met Landy Dean back in 1993 when I became a card-carrying professional bodybuilder.  I had scheduled a photo shoot with a top local photographer after returning from competing in the Ms. Olympia. Landy happened to be the makeup artist that day and I will never forget when I met him.  He was charming and funny and cute and very round all over. Let’s just say that back then Landy had cute chubby cheeks.  We became fast friends almost instantly. He was and is a wonderful person loaded with ample amounts of southern charm.  He expressed a real interest in getting into shape and I started training him. The goal was to lose body fat and put on some muscle.  He followed the nutrition plan I put him on and I added Parrillo supplements to his meal plans. He began to change rapidly and it seemed the more he changed, the harder he trained and the more disciplined he ate. When he moved to New York I was so sad…we always keep in touch. I went through a bout with cancer, a divorce and Landy Dean was always there for me. I can truly say Landy is my best friend! He is an amazing human being. It has been seventeen years since I first met him and he has never stopped taking his Parrillo Supplements and has never stopped working out.  Parrillo Products, cardio and strength training became a lifestyle for Landy.  Let me tell you something – Landy is incredibly popular and he could be at a party drinking beer like a regular party goer but instead of eating the salty party snacks, sweets or processed foods – he will pull out one of his ever-ready Parrillo Protein Bars^™! I think I made a monster out of him.