“Any dog under 50lbs is a cat.” - Ron Swanson
Jahir (or J. for short)
former Cat Person
Born in Lima, Peru I quite never left 90’s fashion and early-mid 2000’s music scene. Some of my earliest memories are about cars, baking, and music and I’ve pursued a life filled with those things.
I’ve called Louisiana home since 2003 and I’ve loved it here. After all, I come from a culture with the best food in the world and people that love to party; Louisiana is all that with an added addiction to the Saints and LSU.
I’ve learned a ton during my time here, but most importantly, I’ve learned the value of community. Something magical happens here: neighbors actually spend time with each other. As a matter of fact, the whole state has a festival season where every community comes together to drink and try to catch beads and other assorted shenanigans for weeks. It’s partying together that really makes Louisiana special; when shit hits the fan we stop caring about our differences and we look out for each other. I’ve experienced this in 2005 during hurricane Katrina and in 2016 when the greater Baton Rouge area flooded, destroying many of our homes.
It was this sense of community that drove a friend of mine to want to throw a BBQ to raise money for the people that lost everything. The original idea was a low-key event to help relief efforts with my friend Kenny and myself levering our marketing and business development skills to bring a crowd. Of course, Kenny and I felt like we could help blow the whole thing into a huge fundraiser and I’m really glad we decided to challenge ourselves with this. With only a week to prepare, we were able to raise over $50k for relief efforts and collect truckloads of supplies that were quickly running out.
“When shit hits the fan we stop caring about our differences and look out for each other.”
Events have been a big part of my life but not as big as cats. I know that’s a standard millennial thing to say, however, I’ve lived with 6+ cats at a time with at least 5 of those being indoor cats. I’ll let you digest that.
What’s funny about this is that I didn’t set out to become a cat dad; I became a crazy cat lady by association. My best friend/roommate at the time brought four kittens her mom had rescued to stay with us “for a week, tops.” Seven years later and the family has grown by at least three more cats not to mention all of the neighborhood cats that she feeds. Pretty sure she asked me to officiate her wedding as payback for turning me into a crazy cat lady.
When not being surrounded by cats, I really enjoy eating. Come on, you can’t live in Louisiana without eating all of the fried foods and delicious pastries. My favorite city in America is New Orleans and my home town of Baton Rouge is quickly rising up as a hotspot for amazing culinary talent. It’s easy to blame being a fat kid on Louisiana but it’s really Peru that ruined me. We’ve been praised as the gastronomic capital of the world.
To add on, it’s the influence of my great grandmother, grandmother, and mom that fuel my passion for food. We’ve always come together in the kitchen - sometimes teaching me how to bake over Christmas cookies, other times yelling at me/hitting me with a wooden spoon over papa rellena. I’ve learned that no matter the discussion, food unites us and it makes even the toughest news easier to swallow.
“No Matter the Discussion, Food Unites Us.”
However, too much food will slow you down and that’s not something I’ve ever believed in. As a matter of fact, I’ve spend my whole life trying to figure out how to go faster. When I was a kid there were three careers I wanted: Astronaut, Fighter Pilot, and Race Car Drive. Surprisingly, none of those panned out thanks to a lack of any math skills, motivation to pursue science degrees or a military career, and overall loving food more than being fit. Instead, I’ve settled for getting a racing license (that’s a thing) and a pilot’s license. I’d say running is another way I get to be fast but I’m still pretty slow.
I started walking and jogging in 2017 to lose weight but in 2018 I really fell in love with running. I had been getting a few miles in before and after workouts but my goal was always losing weight. Everything changed during a client trip to New York. We spent our first night eating and drinking all of the amazing foods but I was determined to not let this ruin my weight loss. I woke up at 5 and went on a run to Central Park. It was cold but I was determined to push myself and see how long I could go. Maybe it was the lack of humidity or the magical views of the park but I couldn’t stop. Every time I felt like I should take a break something took over and I ran more. Since this run I ramped up my mileage and decided that this was a sport I wanted to compete in and see how far I can take it.