Hair and Food

“Matt, why are your growing your hair so long?” is a question I got almost daily for about 18 months. My answer: “I hate having hair that I can’t just do in 30 seconds with my fingers so to motivate me to hit my first goal weight, I’m growing it out and not cutting it until I hit my goal.” I just recently hit 250 pounds, down from 307. When I was at the 255 mark, I got my hair cut and styled, the goal was 250, I just couldn’t wait any longer. My hair was down to my shoulders. Now I may have cheated and trimmed here and there to keep it semi-kept, but no real “haircuts” in 18 months. No more “man-bun”, no more pony-tails, it’s all gone…thank you God! I called it the “Samson Challenge”. It’s not a real thing but I called it that loosely based on Samson from the Bible. Samson got his strength from his long hair and once it was cut, he lost his strength. So to motivate me to hit my goal, my “strength was my hair”. Now that my hair is short, I don’t think I’ll lose my strength but it was a good motivator for me. So there’s the story behind the long hair for those who have been following along.

Food is…the real battle. I am down 57 pounds. That is largely in part to my exercise routine but more so my diet. Most people think of a gym and go “that’s too hard”…no…working out is not hard, eating right IS hard. My diet was terrible. I never ate breakfast and lunch was usually something fast and not healthy at all. Then there’s dinner, then there was my after dinner snacking….eating adds up. Traveling or even working from home sometimes makes dieting worse because when you travel you want something quick and quick usually isn’t anything good or nutritious. When working from home, you literally have everything in your fridge and pantry at your finger-tips. This can also be bad. I knew something had to give though because I was spending too much on eating and I just wasn’t healthy. “Convenience” was winning, but with the new workout routine, something had to give.

No matter what you read online or in books or what you watch on TV, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. For example…”What the Health”. “What the Health” is a documentary that focuses on just how bad meat can be for you. Sure there is protein and good things like that, but it also makes pretty good arguments against preservatives, steroids, and antibiotics that are pumped into these animals which makes its way into our bodies when we eat their meat. Don’t get me started on pus in milk…. again, take this with a grain of salt but at the end of the documentary, the guy starts pushing the vegan lifestyle, which doesn’t work for everyone. What do I personally think? I personally think these large health corporations know how bad meat can be but they make money so they don’t care too much. From the over-produced food cattle and poultry eat, to how they are treated/handled, to how the food is pumped with steroids, preservatives, antibiotics, etc. meat is listed as a carcinogen on most health websites like National Cancer Society and the National Diabetes Association, but while these organizations list meats like beef, pork, fish and chicken as carcinogens, they also promote them with recipes, etc. as “healthy” options to eat…so they are bad but good? Some of the biggest corporate sponsors/contributors to these organizations are companies like Tyson and Smithfield and meat producers. To me that’s a little shady, but hey its politics right? 

Listen, at the end of the day you need to not judge, but find what works for you. My wife suggested we go to the extreme and go vegan for 90 days to see what really happens. So here’s what happened to me:

I lost 35 pounds in 90 days, my skin cleared up, my sleeping got better, and I have more energy throughout the day than I’ve ever had without coffee or energy drinks. I also now get more protein then I ever did with meat. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, etc. all have protein and when it’s part of every meal I eat now, it’s amazing how much I actually take in…which has also helped with my muscle production and how I look. In addition, I’m more educated. Now that I’m reading labels and doing research, I’m now more familiar with what I am putting in my body and have learned to stay away from potentially harmful chemicals, etc. My rule of thumb “if you can’t pronounce it, it’s probably bad for you”…now again, this is partially in jest and should be taken with a grain of salt, but I want more natural things in my body. It’s no coincidence that cancer has become more and more common over the years with all the hormones and crap that’s now pumped into our foods. Go read the label on your cereal for instance, like… it’s getting bad.  

It can also be said that my weight loss itself has contributed to all those positives that has happened to me but my counter argument is that my weight loss has been more successful since I started this diet so it’s all connected in my book.

Again, you should take even me with a grain of salt. I’ve seen significant gains and changes to my health since going vegan. It works for ME. It might not work for you. Do I believe everything in that documentary? No. But, if I can stay away from harmful antibiotics, preservatives, too much sodium and chemicals, I’m going to. If I can do my part, as small as it is, to reduce my risk of getting cancer, I’m going to do it. The research constantly changes but if it organically grows in the ground, I think that’s safer than eating the meat or byproduct of an animal that probably eats its own poop, vomit and/or the dead flesh of another animal. “We’re all going to die sometime, so I’m not going to worry about what I eat and I’m going to enjoy it”…is typically the argument I get against being vegetarian/vegan etc. but to each their own.

Yes, I get a lot of protein…yes the food actually tastes good, and it has made my wife and I better cooks. Billie (my wife) has always been a great cook but now she’s so much more experienced and her range of what she can do has significantly grown, giving us endless options.

So I started logging everything I ate into an app called My Fitness Pal. It tracks all the nutritional info and most of what you eat is searchable in there. Some stuff you may need to add manually by ingredient but the app allows you to make a meal out of it so the next time you eat said meal, it’s an option in your history and you won’t have to add everything manually. It’s a good way to see if you need more protein, less carbs, more good fats, etc. This helps with the addition of exercise. The app will take into consideration your height and weight and give you a calorie consumption goal. The key to weight loss is to end your day with 500 calories in the bank. If you do that daily, you’ll lose weight. I’m not saying to cut yourself 500 calories short, I’m just saying as you burn calories, you bank them. I can consume a 2,500 calorie goal but if I burn 800, I’m going to lose weight. So I try to stay somewhere around 2,000-2,200 calories per day but burn at least 700 per day. In doing so, I should be able to lose 2 pounds per week. Based on my current weight loss, I’m doing much better than that. So no matter what diet you are doing you should also exercise. Doing one and not the other is going to be slow progress if any progress at all. You don’t have to be a gym rat like me, my fitness goals are not the same as most. But even if you go for a walk around your neighborhood for 30 minutes, it is 30 minutes of exercise you weren’t previously doing so…you win. If you can only manage 15 minutes, so be it. 15 minutes is better than no minutes. Sure, you may have a fenced-in yard and your dog can go outside freely, but take him or her for a walk. Take your kids, go it alone, whatever…find what works for you and just do it. My advice though is to give it 90 days. Not 9…90. Give it a realistic try. 

Bottom line…you can’t stuff your face with Taco Bell and go “this isn’t working for me”…no duh dummy. You can’t stuff your face and complain that you’re fat. You can’t drink a bottle of wine a day and complain that diet and exercise isn’t working. “But I did 30 minutes of cardio today”…that’s not an excuse to get a Whopper with cheese with large fries and a soda. For real…and no, this isn’t coming from some chiseled dude on TV that works out for a living…no…this is coming from a fat guy. Sometimes you just need to “man up” and be honest with yourself. Cut out alcohol and soda…maybe not completely, but in moderation. I limit myself to 5 beers a month and I haven’t even been drinking all 5. Maybe for you it’s 5 glasses of wine per month, or its soda. Moderate those things but the amount you’ve become accustomed to consuming is probably why you are failing. Cutting out alcohol and soda just for 30 days made significant changes to my weight so I’ve kept it going. Try it. Find what works for you and try it for 90 days before you really judge it. For me, cutting those things and going vegan has worked wonders so I’m sticking with it. Find what works for you.

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