Soul Singer LeVelle and His Food Journey to Better Health

For soul singer LeVelle, great music and good food are two things that have blessed his life. While one has afforded him a successful livelihood the other almost cost him that career. “What good is it being great when you’re out of breath and you can’t hit your notes because you’re out of shape,” muses the entertainer.

He shares that a pre-diabetic diagnosis from his doctor a couple of years ago was the catalyst for the decision to pursue a healthier lifestyle. “I’ve seen a lot of my family members lose their eyesight, lose their lives. I saw what diabetes could do and so it made me want to make a change.”

LeVelle’s Sunday Dinner Memories

LeVelle’s food journey began at his grandmother’s table in Kansas City, Missouri. “I would say some of my best moments is doing family Sunday dinners. Oh man, it was the greens, the sweet potatoes, the mac and cheese, the fried fish, the baked fish, ham, the homemade rolls and the desserts…There was just so much great food that I grew up on,” he recalls fondly about the Sunday feasts his paternal grandmother would create.

The soul singer relates his late grandmother was also generous with her culinary wisdom. “Not only could she cook, but she taught us how to make these things as well so we could cook for ourselves,” relates LeVelle. As the eldest among the grandchildren, he mastered food prep by her side and today can make fried chicken like a pro. “I always made the prettiest fried chicken, but it was never quite done in the inside,” he laughs about his earlier attempts at cooking up the yard bird.

Growing up in the “Barbecue Capital of the World,” LeVelle also knows his way around Kansas City’s signature dish. “At Gates Bar-B-Q, you can eat ribs without sauce and just taste the flavor and the tenderness; it’s something special for me because I love barbecue without a lot of sauce. Then there’s Holy Smoke BBQ. Their meat is really smoked, tender, fresh and juicy,” he  reveals.

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A Soul Singer’s Healthy Diet

While a history surrounded by amazing food is wonderful, too much of a good thing can take its toll. So much so that when LaVelle found his health compromised, a change had to happen.

“You learn how to transition from the things that you love to the things that will help make you a better person,” explains the rising R&B songwriter about the shift in his food journey.

“So transitioning from a lot of the fried foods, the cakes, the pies…I know I can’t [eat them] like I used to do as a kid now that I’m older. At first it was difficult, but I had to do it to make better decisions for my health.”

Those decisions, notes LeVelle, include eating healthier by cooking with less salt and opting for baked, instead of fried, foods. “We prepare things differently. We have a lot of salads, salmon, sweet potatoes. We cut out a lot of carbs and sweets and we’re doing a lot of fruits,” details the artist about the diet both he and his wife now follow.

As an entertainer, going on the road is all part of business as usual. For LeVelle, intermittent fasting (a pattern of eating based on time limits) and making wise food choices are the keys to eating healthy on the road and maintaining his daily health goals at home.

“I try to stay within the guidelines of things that I’m accustomed to. So instead of eating a lot of starches, it probably would be a nice healthy salad, water, some baked chicken. And then if I’m performing, I would do that around lunchtime and I wouldn’t eat anything else until after I’m done performing [later in the evening]. But in the meantime, I would stick with fruit, water, a lot of fluids,” says LaVelle.

“I hit the gym every morning…But if I’m on the road, usually we’re at a hotel that has a fitness center, so I still get that in.”

LaVelle shares he’s lost about 100 pounds with diet and exercise. “All these things work to make you a better artist, a better person,” attests the 50-year-old soul singer about the importance of following a healthy lifestyle and diet. “As an entertainer, you don’t want to be on all these meds, so it’s just a matter of changing up your diet that can help put you in better places.”

With the release of his latest album, LeVelle All In Love (streaming on digital platforms) and a US and UK music tour in the works, this artist is ready to give audiences music that gets back to the roots of R&B and he’s doing it while being healthier than ever.