Luke Stoioff’s journey into conscious wellness began around fourth grade. He was a soccer-loving kid in Northbrook when Guillain-Barré syndrome ambushed him, causing his immune system to attack his nervous system. The experience of spending a couple of months in the hospital and a year in a wheelchair “helped motivate me to pay closer attention to what I do with my body,” says Stoioff, the 43-year-old cofounder of the restaurant and bar operator DineAmic Hospitality. These days, he alternates weight training and cardio with jujitsu (he recently received his black belt): “I always wanted to be the Karate Kid.”

Spar power

“For the past 13 years, my favorite way to exercise has been training at Valko Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s 30 minutes of instruction and 30 minutes of sparring. Three days a week is perfect for me. Jujitsu is a very real, no-BS martial art. You can train at 100 percent. You can’t do that in a lot of the striking martial arts. Like in Krav Maga, you can’t truly practice kicking someone between the legs and gouging their eyes out.”

Hazard removal

“I discovered a great app called Yuka. It scans barcodes of food and products like lotions, shampoos, and colognes. Some foods have a bad rating because of their sodium or fat content. Others because they contain additives. So if you scan, say, a certain major-label fruit snack, it has 12 additives. Two of those are hazardous. Everything my family and I consume is free from hazardous additives.”

Benefits of breaking the rules

“I try to be as physically healthy as possible, because I know there are times when I choose not to be. When I go to the Cubs game, I’m gonna drink an Old Style and have a hot dog. It makes me happy, and that has benefits. An occasional cigar is the same thing: It’s medically bad for you, but it’s relaxing. If you do those things just once in a while, the positive mental aspects balance them out.”