Cultivating a healthy lifestyle

For the past year, Edward Bryant, director of lending at Northwest Side Community Development Corp., has been cultivating local small businesses by connecting them with financing they need to grow. But he’s spent his whole life cultivating a healthy lifestyle.

Bryant considers his primary hobby to be staying healthy, but that hobby includes a lot of different activities.

Edward Bryant

As a board member of the Fondy Food Center, he’s been actively involved in the Fondy Farmers Market on Fond du Lac Avenue in Milwaukee for the past several years.

“I grew up in Mississippi and my family owned farms,” Bryant said. “We ate from the land, so this whole ‘farm-to-table’ thing wasn’t new for me. For the most part, it was part of my upbringing. But as I got older, I just saw how certain foods were pushed on people that were considered healthy, but might have had negative effects.”

He said he lost both of his parents at a young age due to health conditions he believes may have been cured through better eating habits and healthier lifestyles. So he’s been trying to spread his knowledge of healthy living while maintaining a health-oriented lifestyle himself.

Bryant, who lives in Milwaukee with his wife and three daughters, is a self-described “gym rat” who focuses on bodybuilding and regularly incorporates yoga into his workouts.

“Just start somewhere, even if you start small,” he said of getting healthy. “Even if you walk for five minutes, that’s five minutes more than you have done in the past. Start small and dream big. Start with your physician and read your food labels. There’s definitely a ton of information out there.”