Where getting stronger and losing weight improves life — without consuming it.

My Story:

Hey, I'm Paul.

...And before anything else, I need to say I was wrong.

Before I stood on the podium at the 2015 Crossfit Games. Before my diagnosis. Before my near-death experience. Before my college scholarship, my graduate degree, and all the other stuff people like to list on their resume.

Before you learn about any of that, I need you to know that I was wrong before any of those things.

For most of my life, I believed being "sick" meant one of two things. The first was a condition diagnosed at such a young age that it became part of a person's identity, like asthma or scoliosis…or nut allergies. The other was something so insignificant that by the time a person recovered, they'd already forgotten what it was like at the start.

Because of this, most days, I could look you in the eye and tell you that I rarely ever got sick, that I was one of the healthiest people I knew. Period.

That meant moving 100 miles an hour toward whatever goal I could think of. Varsity sports. National Honors Society. Penn State College of Engineering. The 2015 Crossfit Games. I was the king of burning the candle at both ends, and it was something I would pride myself on. In my mind, it was what strength looked like. It was what hard work looked like. It was what discipline looked like.

It was not what I thought sickness looked like. 

But then, I got sick.

And it turned out I'd been sick for a very long time.   

My journey with Lupus started (unbeknownst to me) at the age of 20. Still, because I so arrogantly thought of myself as strong, fit, and healthy, I assumed it was something I could outrun. Literally. When I was first diagnosed, I told the doctor it was impossible because I ran a sub 5:15 mile and could squat 445 lbs. 

However, the harder I trained, the worse I felt. After several years of lying to myself, it took emergency heart surgery for me to reevaluate what strength, health, and discipline really meant.

The truth was, I was sick, I was struggling, and I needed to get better. My relentless drive had been masking the signals my body was trying to tell me.

Then, my journey to recovery began. 

I spent the next 4 years relearning how to exist in a world where I'd once felt at home. The way I trained, ate, and lived—it all had to change. It was overwhelming.

Throughout that process, I made a promise to myself. After graduating from Rutgers University with a master's in Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, I relaunched my coaching business with a single goal in mind:

To help people understand and work WITH their bodies – not against them – so they can transform their health and enjoy life outside the gym.

Welcome to Paul Buono Fitness. 

I've told you part of my story. I’d love to hear yours.