The former holder of the Mr. World title immigrated to this country when he was an overweight 8-year-old who spoke no English.

One day, this half-Greek, half-Jordanian boy living in St. Paul saw a picture in a magazine of a very muscular man running on a beach.

"I looked at the picture and wanted to become a competitive body builder even though I didn't know what that was," Badra says. "I couldn't read English, so I thought that the way to look like that was to run."

Eventually Badra realized that he must do more.

He played several sports in high school but didn't begin lifting weights until he was 19.

He also studied nutrition at Foothill College for a couple years.

In 1982, at the age of 21, he entered the Gold Classic bodybuilding competition in Reno. He took fourth place in the event and the next year swept the event, winning in both the heavyweight class and the overall competition.

Badra won many other competitions, and six years later he competed in the Mr. World contest for the first time, and he won. He won again the next year--1989.

Now, he shares his fitness secrets at the spa he opened in November of 2001. He specializes in weight loss through proper nutrition combined with exercise.

The exercise part of the program is centered around hydraulic exercise equipment set up circuit-style. "This equipment is ideal for men and women because it does not break down muscle tissue; it burns fat," Badra says. "It conditions and tones the muscles as well as giving an excellent cardiovascular workout."

Healthy Inspirations also has equipment designed specifically for cardiovascular work.

Badra and his staff do weekly one-on-one counseling to keep people motivated and to help them deal with issues related to their weight.

"One of the reasons people overeat is that they are stressed out, and eating tends to give us a sense of calmness," Badra says. To help reduce stress, Healthy Inspirations offers a room with a special chair that does deep tissue massage. "The chair helps relax you," Badra says.

He says people who want to lose weight should not go on starvation diets. In fact, he advocates eating more than three meals a day by adding healthy between-meal snacks, which keeps the metabolism high.

Badra also opposes fad diets. "You should eat all the essentials, but within reason," he says.

Finally, he counsels that it is critical to lose weight gradually. "Your body has its own mechanism and if you force it to lose a certain amount of weight quickly, you are going to gain it back."

Healthy Inspirations is at 1111 W. El Camino Real, 408.245.0054, and the website is http://www.healthyinspirations.us.