#RunTonsOfFun

“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

What About Now? So in my last few blogs I brought you up to speed on my weight loss ups and downs and what pushed me to really do what I’m doing. I talked about the aches and pains of being a big guy and running, the mental battles, my poor health and the changes I’m making and things like that…but “what about now Matt? Where are you now?” Well I can answer that… Right now, (as of October 31, 2017) I weigh 256 pounds. That’s right, 256 pounds. Remember I jumped back up to 307 to start 2017. So I am down 51 pounds since say about May (6 months). My workout routine wasn’t the best from Jan-May of 2017. I had taken some different routines and sets from articles I’ve read on Men’s Fitness and things like that, some old workouts from when I was a gym rat in my 20’s and tried to piece together something to get me going. I started losing weight, losing inches, and increasing my strength but no real muscles gains yet. I was also traveling a lot for work and so it was easy to get compl

“Small victories. You have to look at the little picture before you look big picture.” I actually said that ha ha. That’s my quote for you. That is what I tell myself every day. A small victory is going into your pantry and grabbing pretzel sticks over cookies. A small victory is stepping into the gym after a long day at work. A small victory is finishing your set, even if your arms or legs are shaking. A lot of people say “I want to lose 35 pounds by summer”… but they say this in April. Bro, summer is 60 days away, be realistic.   I quit smoking when Gavin was born in 2011. However, I would still sneak a smoke every now and then. It actually got worse last fall. I started up again, briefly. Stress of a looming promotion and strenuous travel schedule got the better of my judgment. I got sick with pneumonia in early December and I would collapse to my knees winded after walking 15 steps from my bedroom to my bathroom. I remember sitting on my bathroom floor, my back resting against

So in my first blog I gave you some background of my weight loss journey and I’ll continue to touch on that, but for now, I want to touch on the things no one told me about when I started running.   First, running is not just physical, but the mental exercise is the bigger battle.  A friend of mine is also trying to drop a few pounds and he and I talked about running and when I explained the “mental battle” to him he said “wow, I had no idea”.  I feel like that’s because no one really talks about it.  No one really comes out and says “I have to fight myself every time I run.”  What you see are all the happy FB and Instagram posts, or the screenshots of the fitness apps that show the time, pace and mileage.  You yourself may be a runner so you know what I’m talking about.  Or maybe you have other friends that run.  You get to see the selfie posts of “enjoying some sunshine on my run” or “hey I have a new best time”, things like that.  But, if you’re like me, you wonder “what happen

The Back Story/ Beginning of My Journey I’m fat.  I’m not “big boned”, I’m not “chubby”, I’m fat.  This is ok.  I’m a big boy (pun intended) and I can handle hearing this.  My friends and brothers don’t let me forget it.  So let’s call it for what it is.  That’s how I am, or try to be anyway.  In March of 2016, I had a routine doctor visit.  My health wasn’t all that great.  I weighed in at 307 and my asthma was out of control.  Not only that, I didn’t sleep all that well.  Some of that I can blame on my cat for sleeping on my legs at night but when you wake up 5 or 6 times per night, that’s a problem.  You’re going to feel like crap the next morning. My doctor looks me dead in the eye and she says “What are you doing?  Your weight is ballooning, you sound like crap, you’re not sleeping well…you need to make some changes and now”… that’s when I asked if she’d recommend me for the gastric sleeve surgery.  I figured “Hey I’m obese, I should be a candidate and this sleeve will help