Andy Bellatti

Back from Broken

Colorado Public Radio

Society & Culture

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andy Bellatti couldn't resist the lights and sounds of a slot machine. He spent his days in Las Vegas building a successful career as a personable, TV-ready fitness expert, and his nights gambling away his savings. This is the story of how he hit rock bottom, and then confronted the demons that fueled his gambling addiction and finally got help.

By the way: We like to end episodes of Back from Broken with comeback stories from our listeners. We'd love to hear how you're doing in your recovery. You can record your update as a voice memo or mp3. Tell us your first name and city of residence, something good that's happened in your recovery lately, and why it gives you hope. Hit save and send it to [email protected]. We might feature it on a future episode. Thanks!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Vic. I want to give you a heads up that today's guest talks a little bit about suicide thoughts.
0:06.4	But he's also one of the funniest people I've talked to on this podcast. So on to the show.
0:12.7	In three, two, one.
0:16.9	In the mid-2000s, Andy Bellotti was an ambitious guy in his 20s.
0:22.3	Yeah, things were going really well for me.
0:24.5	He's from Argentina, but he moved to the U.S. to study in New York City at NYU, and he soon
0:30.2	found out that nutrition was his thing.
0:32.6	Like when I started getting into nutrition, I very quickly started writing for publications and I had a blog.
0:39.9	This is back in 2006 when blogs were still kind of starting, but I had a blog that had a good
0:45.3	amount of following and I had, you know, some really big nutrition luminaries pointing to my blog
0:52.5	and all of that. And then as a result of that, I had a lot of
0:56.0	faith and hope in my future and my career. It made sense. He was a slim, fit vegan who loved
1:03.4	writing, and he figured he could help people live better lives. So he became a certified dietitian.
1:09.9	And when it came time to find a job, he got a great offer to be a health coach in Las Vegas.
1:17.1	He'd have his own office, helping casino staff plan meals and get exercise.
1:22.3	And the pay was good, too.
1:26.4	But instead of being excited about this opportunity, and he was worried.
1:31.7	Worried because he already had a bit of history with Las Vegas.
1:37.7	I was in a relationship and we came out here on vacation because I had never been here.
1:43.1	Prior to that, I had never gambled,
1:46.0	and I hadn't even had an interest in gambling, believe it or not. And then ever since then,
1:53.2	you know, ever since that first visit to Vegas, I would come out here once a year specifically to
	...

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