Interview: Tyrone T. Irby

Founder/owner/trainer/chef of Choice Personal Fitness and Up in Smoke Catering Company 

Tyrone Tyree Irby, 43, was born and raised in the Bedford Stuyvesant section in Brooklyn, NY.  He left the big city and moved to the little city of Chapel Hill in 1983 to attend the University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill.  Twenty-five years later, he is still here.  A rabid fan of the Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants and of course the Tar Heels, you might run into him at one of the many sports bars in the area.  When he is not watching his teams you will likely find him in the gym training or on one of his five grills cooking.  Irby spent close to fifteen years in the beer industry as a bar manager then a sales manager for four breweries. 

Tyrone (M) shares a toast with JP Nettles (33), Nancy Fadero and Andre Wilson (81).  Note the throwback Lawrence Taylor jersey!

He founded the Up in Smoke Catering Co. in 2005 as the Triangle area’s most health conscious catering service.  UIS counts North Carolina Central Law School and numerous small local businesses as his clients.  In 2007, he opened his own personal training company, Choice Personal Fitness, whose mission is to offer a complete solution to a complete problem by combining personal training with nutritional consultation and healthy cooking classes. 

After a 45-minute boot camp style workout, we had the opportunity to sit down with him and talk about his history, personal training and cooking philosophy.

Q: You still seem to be excited about improving every day.  What motivates you to improve every day?

A: Joe Weider-founder of the Mr. Olympia once said, “Every day is an opportunity for improvement”.  I subscribe to that theory.  Last year, I worked at a restaurant in Durham and was fired right before Christmas by the new head chef.  He said my “cooking skills were lacking and were not good enough for his restaurant”.  That was difficult for me to take.  But now I understand what he said and why he said it.  90% of the menu items at the restaurant were fried.  90%!  I didn’t eat the food nor was I excited about cooking it.  He was right- for that style and type of food my cooking skills were lacking.  It really doesn't take much skill to deep fry foods.  I enjoy creating flavors for foods without adding the unnecessary fatty calories. Unbeknownst to him, his firing me caused me to really put a lot of effort in developing and executing the concept for Up in Smoke.  So if he is reading this, thanks!

The first visit to the Stadium in 2006 with the family Kathy Fall, Mary Irby, Chiekh Fall and Tyrone Irby.

Q: Is North Carolina and the nation able to hit their mandated goal of under 15% obesity rate for the country by 2015?

A: It will be a challenge. But like every challenge there has to be a plan to achieve goals.  From what I see, America has a plan but it is not being implemented.  Choice is trying to do our part by offering free seminars on achieving a healthy lifestyle.  We find a lot of people want to be healthier but they don’t know where to begin.  Physical activity is a start but also portion control and learning to cook healthy is important.

What is in the future for Choice and Up in Smoke Catering?

One thing that has me really excited is that my sister Kathy Fall and I have decided to write a book entitled “The Essential Guide for Healthy Living”.  Kathy is the coauthor of all of the articles on our website.  She and I had discussed writing a book last August at our family’s reunion but really made the decision in June of this year.  The book will be based upon the 10 Choice Fitness principles of achieving a healthy lifestyle.  Each principle will be expanded to a chapter along with over 50 healthy recipes and at home exercises.  The purpose- to compose a complete solution to a complete problem.  It will combine the principles of both Choice and Up in Smoke Catering.

Other than that I’d like to grow both businesses slowly.  Up in Smoke has steadily grown over the last three years by referral business and word of mouth.  For us that is the way we would like for it to continue.  90% of our current customers have tasted our food at other events and continue to recommend us.  I have to thank our most loyal client Dr. Kara Henderson in Apex, as she has definitely been our most ardent supporter.

With Choice Personal Fitness, I see it expanding the same way as Up in Smoke.  We have several clients that are referrals.  We have done several healthy cooking classes and seminars that have been big hits also.  Down the road, we will be expanding the business but right now I enjoy being the small guy in a big industry.

How often do you workout and how intense do you train?

My goal is to be one of the best personal trainers in the state.  That being said, I want to improve every day.  I change my program usually every four weeks so I don’t plateau. Right now I just started what I call my Level One Choice Boot Camp, which calls for intense 45-minute workouts three times per week with another 30 minutes of cardio.  The workout burns about 1,000 calories in an hour and fifteen minutes.  The key to the workout is limited rest between sets.  I have 45 minutes to do 12 exercises, 3 sets with at least 12 reps per set, which is close to 450 reps for the workout.  I always include planks and multiple abdominal exercises in each workout.  Two additional days per week, I just do cardio for 45-60 minutes.  I make sure to try out a series of workouts myself before I introduce them to my clients.

What do you find to be the hardest thing about starting a diet plan?

At Choice we don’t recommend “diet plans”.  Diets are a temporary solution and not for long term success.  Becoming healthier is about changing your lifestyle and making commitments to improve your health.  The hardest thing for people to change is their comfort zone.  We all have our comfort zones whether it’s the TV programs we watch, sitting in the same seat at a ballgame or even the haircut that we have.  Adopting a healthy lifestyle is all about change there is no comfort zone.  The Choice plan has a lot of components.  We don’t give them all to you at one time.  We begin with the physical activity part of it then advance to proper nutrition and finally healthy cooking.  All three parts work together for the success of the client.

What is your personal commitment to health in the community?

I try my best to help and advise people that are interested in achieving a healthier lifestyle.  There is no doubt that at one time of another in all of our lives that we have taken our body and our health for granted. As we get older, it will catch up with you.  I recently had a friend pass because he had waited too late to take care or himself.  We see people every day but do we take the time to encourage them?  I expect to encourage at least one person per day to change and adjust their lifestyle. Hopefully they will do the same favor to someone else that needs it.

Working on a little chicken and shrimp pasta on the patio.