From 304 pounds to The Black Sword

Phil was born early and spent his first days in a neonatal intensive care unit. As a boy he had asthma and was often sick, and his family carried him through it. He served in the US Army from 1987 to 1993. He drank in the Army. "It really got out of hand when I got out of the Army," he told the Tribune Chronicle.

For twenty years he held a job and drank 24 to 30 beers a night, eating fast food by the bagful. He calls himself a functional alcoholic, and says food was a second addiction he didn't recognize until much later: "It wasn't so much the food itself. It was trying to fill some sort of absence or void in my life." He was shy, and alcohol was his courage.

The drinking brought three DUIs. The first meant a couple of days in jail, the second a longer stay, the third a couple of months, his last time behind bars. On New Year's Eve 2002 he was shot and nearly killed. He was in a toxic marriage and, by his own count, had several near-death experiences.

The day it turned

In 2009 he needed his gallbladder out. The doctor's scale read 304 pounds; he had been telling people 245 or 250. His blood pressure was high, his cholesterol was high, his liver was fatty, and he was close to type 2 diabetes. The doctor told him the inside of his body was like a 70-year-old man's: "change your ways or die."

His nine-year-old son heard it and cried. On the way home Phil pulled into a gym he had passed every day for years on his way to the liquor store, walked in holding his son's hand, and told the man at the desk, "I need help." The trainer he hired that day looked at him and said, "I got you. Let's start tomorrow."

He quit drinking cold turkey and later worked the twelve steps with a sponsor. He weighed every meal, trained six days a week and lost about 140 pounds in the first year.

The stage

His trainer was a natural bodybuilder and suggested he try a contest. Phil placed fourth at his first, the USA All Natural in New York. This was a man who had once been too embarrassed by his body to take his shirt off.

In 2015 he won the open class at the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural and took home its championship trophy, the Black Sword. TRAIN magazine put his before-and-after photos on its cover and listed his numbers: 304 pounds and 26% body fat before, 171 pounds and 4.5% after. He went on to compete 20 times and win four championships. At the Reign of Fire in Akron, sponsored by Natural Muscle, he won Masters Over 50, Transformation and the Overall Poser award.

The gym

People at his gym kept asking how he did it, so he got certified as a personal trainer. He opened Body by Phil in Westgate Plaza in Austintown and has trained more than 400 people. Some came with long odds: Tom Wagner, blind from diabetes, whom another gym had called a liability; Ben Ilich, who had to lose 50 pounds before doctors would test him as a liver donor for his mother; Karen Himes, who came in at 71, couldn't get up off the floor without help, and now trains others.

The ring, the books and the podcast

After bodybuilding he took up Masters boxing, and in November 2021 he won the Masters main event on a card in Girard. Kimberly, his wife, encouraged him to write the book. The Black Sword came out in July 2025, the audiobook that September, and After the Sword in September 2026. In December 2025 he started the Body by Phil podcast on YouTube; an earlier audio show began during COVID.

"People who didn't know me took the time to help me," he told the Tribune Chronicle. "And now, it's my turn to pay it forward to others."