• Video
  • Shop
  • Culture
  • Family
  • Wellness
  • Food
  • Living
  • Style
  • Travel
  • News
  • Book Club
  • GMA3: WYNTK
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • Terms of Use
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Contact Us
  • © 2025 ABC News
  • Wellness

3 brothers lose 100 pounds each, launch healthy food business after mother's death

0:59
These brothers each lost over 100 pounds to honor their late mother
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP
ByKatie Kindelan
September 15, 2020, 8:06 AM

Before Abe, Gus and Rudy Penas' beloved mother died of complications due to diabetes and kidney failure, she made her sons promise her that they would lead healthier lives.

Nearly five years later, all three brothers have each lost at least 100 pounds and started their own business delivering healthy food to people in their hometown of Houston.

Editor’s Picks

Brothers complete remarkable weight transformation to win $150K bet

  • Apr 02, 2018

5 tips from a woman who lost more than 200 pounds

  • Jan 28, 2021

This mom and her daughters have lost more than 150 pounds

  • May 08, 2018

"That really opened my eyes, that I needed to get it together," Abe Pena, 35, the oldest brother, told "Good Morning America" of his mother's death. "She always told me to take care of myself and I couldn’t let her down."

Abe, Gus and Rudy Pena pose with their mother before her death, in this undated photo.
Courtesy Abe Pena

Abe Pena took the lead of caring for his brothers, who were in their early 20s and late teens when their mom died. Their father had left the family a few years earlier, so the brothers were on their own after their mother's death when it came to taking care of themselves financially as well as physically and emotionally.

"We lost our family house about a year after our mom died," he said. "We slept on friends’ couches and in our car until we could get back on our feet again."

Related Articles

MORE: Brothers complete remarkable weight transformation to win $150K bet

The brothers were helped by a complete stranger who heard about their situation and gave them $4,000 to put toward a house.

From there, they each worked through the depression and shock of losing their mom to start to fulfill the promises they'd made to her.

Abe Pena, of Texas, has lost more than 100 pounds.
Courtesy Abe Pena

"My mom was in her early 50s when she passed away, and I thought I didn’t want to be in my mom’s predicament," said Gus Pena. "If I have kids, I want to see them grow. I want to know my grandchildren. I want to live life to the fullest."

Gus Pena, of Texas, has lost more than 100 pounds.
Courtesy Abe Pena

The brothers motivated each other to exercise and to eat healthy, along with supporting Abe Pena's dream to open a healthy food delivery business, an idea he first put in action when he started cooking healthier meals for their ailing mother.

"She gave me a list of what she was supposed to eat and I would cook for her and try to make her healthy foods taste better," said Abe Pena. "I started reading labels and getting into macronutrition and then I started meal prepping."

Related Articles

MORE: A New Year's challenge at work kick-started this woman's 105-pound weight loss

He started a business, Abe's Fitty Foods, that offers homemade, pre-packaged meals. As he and his brothers continued to lose weight, they also continued to grow the business, which their mom encouraged before her death.

"She told me, ‘Don’t give up. Keep at it in life. Take care of your brothers for me. Your idea of Abe’s Fitty Foods is going somewhere,'" recalled Abe Pena. "She made me promise, and I did."

Abe Pena, from left, and his brothers Gustavo Pena and Rudy Pena pose for a portrait, Aug. 6, 2020, at Texas Elite Fitness in Houston.
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP

Rudy Pena, 24, the youngest brother, said his memory of his mom always encouraging him is what continues to push him to be his best today. He went from around 320 pounds at the time of her death to 215 pounds today.

Rudy Pena, of Texas, has lost more than 100 pounds.
Courtesy Abe Pena

"I think most people don’t understand a weight loss journey is a journey," he said. "You go up and down, not straight down."

"My piece of advice is to keep trying," he added.

Editor’s Picks

Brothers complete remarkable weight transformation to win $150K bet

  • Apr 02, 2018

5 tips from a woman who lost more than 200 pounds

  • Jan 28, 2021

This mom and her daughters have lost more than 150 pounds

  • May 08, 2018

Up Next in Wellness—

Increased screen time linked to aggression, anxiety, low self-esteem in kids, study finds

June 10, 2025

Gun deaths among children surge after states loosen firearm laws, new study finds

June 9, 2025

ESPN anchor Jay Harris announces prostate cancer diagnosis

June 5, 2025

'Bachelorette' alum Katie Thurston reveals memory loss amid breast cancer battle

June 3, 2025

Shop GMA Favorites

ABC will receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Sponsored Content by Taboola

The latest lifestyle and entertainment news and inspiration for how to live your best life - all from Good Morning America.
  • Contests
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Children’s Online Privacy Policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • About Nielsen Measurement
  • Press
  • Feedback
  • Shop FAQs
  • ABC News
  • ABC
  • All Videos
  • All Topics
  • Sitemap

© 2025 ABC News
  • Privacy Policy— 
  • Your US State Privacy Rights— 
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy— 
  • Interest-Based Ads— 
  • Terms of Use— 
  • Do Not Sell My Info— 
  • Contact Us— 

© 2025 ABC News