Harlequin romances fitness writer Tosca Reno
May 3, 2010
Barbara Turnbull
LIVING REPORTER
Tosca Reno is on a roll.
Twelve years ago she began a transformation from overweight, unhappy, housewife to competitive bodybuilder, fitness and nutrition expert and columnist for Oxygen magazine.
After selling millions of books spun from her Eat Clean brand, the opportunities have become even bigger.
Harlequin Enterprises will publish her next book; Reno’s ninth title Your Best Body Now: Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way will come out in the fall.
The world’s leading supplier of romance fiction, which is owned by Torstar Corporation, parent company of the Toronto Star, is broadening its publishing pool, adding health, diet, fitness, self-help, motivational and relationship books, as well as narrative nonfiction, such as memoirs and biographies.
There was a tussle for the manuscript, with 12 major U.S. publishing houses trying to make a deal, Reno says. “I was very impressed that (Harlequin) would take its 4 million plus readers to the health and wellness genre,” Reno says. “To me that was just brilliant.”
Loriana Sacilotto, executive vice-president of Harlequin’s Global Editorial division, said Harlequin’s nonfiction books are “dedicated to entertaining, inspiring and enriching women as their lives and roles change,”
That certainly applies to Reno, who spun her life around just before turning 40 and hasn’t looked back.
Last month, she told her story on Good Morning America and also had a meeting with Wal-Mart U.S.
“When you get into the biggest retailer in the U.S., that’s going to change things,” Reno says. Then she adds, “Things are happening at the right pace.”
Now one year into 50-fabulous, Reno lives in the countryside north of Toronto, with her husband Robert Kennedy, a stepdaughter, 17, and, most of the time, her three daughters from her first marriage.
Everyone works, Reno says, even if it’s for the family publishing business during the summer. And family dinners are a must, with conversation, she says.
Reno met Kennedy, a well-known bodybuilder and publisher of several muscle and fitness magazines, including Oxygen, when she started getting fit. He convinced her to enter her first bodybuilding competition at 42. Before long, she was gracing magazine covers in swimsuits, showing off her once 77-pound-overweight body.
“It just so happens that I found my stride when many people are reaching an age when they hang up their gym shoes, rather than try them on for the first time,” she writes in her new book.
The early chapters describe her life before discovering better health, then explain in steps how she got there, which includes eating frequent meals of natural, unprocessed food, weight and resistance training and unrelenting positivity with inner mantras.
“For me, those mantras are like gas (for a car),” she says. “They help me recharge and remember why I’m doing this.”
These days Reno is training for her first triathlon, Michigan’s Iron Goddess Triathlon, taking place June 27. “When I turned 50, I wanted to do something to step out of my comfort zone and something I’ve never done before to test a different level of fitness.”
Tosca Reno speaks Tuesday in Toronto at Harlequin’s Annual General Meeting.
Reach Barbara Turnbull by email at bturnbull@thestar.ca or @barbturnbull on Twitter.
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