Posts Tagged weight loss
A Conversation With Jay Jacobs…. by Suzy Hoover
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on September 4th, 2011
What a great way to spend a Wednesday morning… Sitting in a Starbucks parking lot using their Wi-Fi while talking to Jay Jacobs from Season 11 of The Biggest Loser. Some of you may be thinking “Jay…Jay… who was he?” Well, I was just like you. In fact, until the last few episodes, Jay said he laid low on purpose so that he wouldn’t make any waves and make it as far as possible in the game.
His plan worked perfectly and he made it all the way to the final four where unfortunately for him, America voted for Irene to go to the final weigh in so that there would be an all girl finale. What has caught my attention about Jay was not his actual time on the show, but his time afterward.
I began following Jay about four months ago on Twitter. I have been impressed by his openness and honesty and thought, “I have to talk to this guy.” So here it is my first blog interview with Jay Jacobs from Season 11 of TBL.
As a former contestant myself, I remember all the thoughts I had at that final weigh-in so I was dying to hear what he went through. Much to my surprise, his experience was different than mine. You see, everything leading up to the final weigh-in when you are on the show, 9 months in my case, is dedicated to getting the best results you can for that one moment. I was nervous, anxious, self conscious, and frankly in a lot of pain.
Jay, on the other hand, told me that he felt great and had a sense of complete accomplishment. In fact, he remembers the show doctor, Dr. Huizenga, telling him that he was at his perfect healthy weight for himself. It was refreshing to hear that he hadn’t gone through the same mental anguish that I had.
Life after the finale for Jay was a whole different story than the months that led up to that night. Jay and his family took a two week vacation. Not only did Jay take a vacation from work, he also took a vacation from working out and counting calories. They went to Disneyland and Carmel. I remember seeing his tweets from this two week period and thinking “I can’t wait to hear about this.”
I was actually proud of Jay for doing this. He made a conscious choice for two weeks to give his body rest and freedom from the strict “NO” way of living that you go through when you are on the show. After two weeks of total freedom from the BL life, Jay said that he noticed he could “feel his skin in his pants” again, meaning they were getting tight!
You see, this was the first time in his life that he didn’t have to shop at the “Big and Tall” stores and he was loving it. After his vacation, Jay jumped up to 241 pounds from his finale weight of 219. He gained 22 pounds on vacation.
Now let me give you all the inside scoop. Pretty much everyone gains 5-15 pounds after the finale in just water weight. Jay’s gain isn’t super shocking, but it was enough to get him going again. After the vacation Jay new that he needed constant accountability so he began tweeting his weekly weight.
I was baffled the first time I saw an actual picture of his scale at home. That takes a tone of courage! For Jay, this was his guarantee that the number on the scale would go down instead of up. He has continued to do pictures and the scale has continued to go down. As of this morning, Jay weighed in at 230.2 pounds. That is only 11 pounds from his finale weight.
Another thing that has kept Jay accountable is that he has signed up for the ING New York Marathon which he will run this November. Jay, along with a handful of other “Losers”, are all running for various charities.
“Where will you be in five years?” I asked Jay. He told me he has plans to write books and develop product in order to continue to spread the message about health and wellness with others.
I think the best thing I heard from Jay today was that he has nothing better to do but to enjoy the rest of his life. Right on Jay!
If you would like to follow Jay’s progress, and his journey along with me, you can follow him on Twitter at @JLynnJacobs or on his Facebook at Jay Jacobs.
Day 3 Recap from Biggest Loser Resort….Time to “Change My Normal”
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on June 8th, 2011
Is Your Workout Working For You?
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on May 24th, 2011
I have been working out hard. I have not been losing weight. I am frustrated. I recently saw that an old friend of mine lost over 100 pounds this past year. I was really excited for him and decided to give him a call. I asked him what he had done and his answer was suprisingly simple.
He joined Weight Watchers. He also took advantage of the tools they offered. He began logging his food and paying attention to his portion sizes. What was suprising to me was the fact that he did it with little exercise. Notice I say little, not none.
I know how to lose weight. I’ve done it before. Some of you may have seen me do it on that little NBC show The Biggest Loser. My problem isn’t the amount of time I spend working out, it is the amount of food I put in.
After talking with my friend, I decided I needed to revamp my routine. I found a great tool that allows me to track my food, exercise, and weightloss all in one spot. It’s called Dotfit. http://dotfit.com I know that logging food is critical in successful weight loss. I have just been trying to avoid it because I should have learned how to control my weight.
Since leaving The Biggest Loser, I have wanted so badly to be normal. I have come to find out that my “normal” is going to consist of logging my food, tracking my calories and logging my workouts. Whether I like it or not, more than likely for me to be successful, I will probably need to do it the rest of my life. When it comes to my weight, I am never going to be “normal”. Learning to accept my own normal is going to be critical for long term success.
The reason I haven’t been losing weight isn’t because of my workouts, it’s because of my nutrition. Although I know this, I have decided to revamp my workouts. I have gone “old school” I know what has worked for me in the past and am going back to those things.
Here is what I am doing for the next 90 days. I am dropping my daily “boot camp” style workouts down from 5 times a week to 3. I am adding a 5 day a week lifting program doing a different muscle group each day. Cardio will consist of hiking when I can and a daily 1.5 mile run. I have avoided running like the plague since my last Ironman but I know that running melts fat off my body.
My goal is to burn 5501 calories a day and keep my calories at 1200. I am tracking this by using the Dotfit program and utilizing the Exerspy. It is simlair to the bodybugg. I’ve chosen 90 days so that I can really see whether or not my new plan is working. At the end of 90 days I will share my results for you.
I think the question isn’t “Is your workout working for you” but “Are you working?” I have come to realize that it is crucial to be flexible. What works for one person may not work for you or me. The key is realizing that and finding our own “normal”.
It’s Not Starting Over, It’s Starting….
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on December 1st, 2010
One of the biggest problems I use to have was saying “Tomorrow I am going to get started again.” I would tell myself this over and over until tomorrow became next week, next week became next month, and next month became next year. I sat year after year spinning my wheels thinking “Tomorrow’s the day.”
One of the problems with doing this is that we start to lose faith in our ability to accomplish things. We begin by thinking about how we are letting others down. We see it in their eyes and in their actions that they just don’t believe the words that are coming out of our mouths. In a way we make it about someone else. “I could do it, but no one thinks I can do it.”
Who cares what others think? It’s not their journey and it’s not their responsibility to be our cheerleader. If you have had a tendancy to always wait till tomorrow, how about taking action today? How about not worrying about what you think EVERYONE else is thinking and act on your own behalf.
The great thing about our life is that each day we choose how we are going to live it, regardless of circumstances. We choose whether or not we are going to exercise and eat healthy or not. We choose to do the best we can with where we are.
I want to encourage everyone to not wait until tomorrow or the new year to get started on making your life the way you want it to be. Instead of starting tomorrow and having that one “last supper” or binge, get going today and see what can happen.
It’s not about starting over, it is about starting to be consistent and focusing in on what’s important.
Remember, it’s not about starting over, it’s about starting and doing the best you can along the way.
Where is Your True Starting Point?
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on August 16th, 2010
Yesterday I was out on a bicycle ride with a good friend of mine. As we were riding we started talking about the progress I’ve made over the past year in the sport of triathlon and how I am feeling as I prep for next Ironman in November.
I told him I felt unbelievably different. I am down several pounds, my cycling has improved, and so has my running. Most importantly, my mindset has improved. Last year when I took on the Kona Ironman I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know that carrying around extra weight could affect me as much as it did.
Last weekend I was flipping through the channels and caught the replay of the Kona Ironman on NBC. I watched the race and saw my brief segment once again. When I saw myself, I wasn’t disappointed, I was a little sad. The reason I was sad was because I knew that I had a false sense of how I looked and felt physically.
I was big, not as in pre-Biggest Loser big, but I was carying more weight than I should have been to be competing in a race of that magnitude. The thing is, is that at that time I didn’t realize it. I felt like “I can move 140.6 miles in one day. I am in pretty good shape.” That statement was partially true.
True in the sense that you have to have a pretty good level of fitness to do that race and make the cut-offs. Not true, in that I was definitely carrying too much body fat and failed to realize it. I saw myself as being better off than I was. It wasn’t until I saw myself on television that I realized just how big I was.
I am convinced that had I weighed then what I weigh now, I would have finished that race in under the cut-off time and would have been an official Ironman. That is neither here nor there now. I didn’t finish in time. Heavy or not, I have yet to become an Ironman in the true sense.
What does this have to do with the title of this post? As I was talking yesterday, I came to the conclusion that many of us have a false sense of where we are when it comes to weight. Some of us can think we are smaller and better off than we are, others think we are bigger and worse off than we really are.
In order to know where we really are, we must give ourselves a true starting point. By true starting point I am talking about where are TODAY. I don’t mean 5, 10, or even 20 years ago. The only way to gauge our progress is by having an official starting point and then using that point as a gauge.
For example. If I weigh 240 pounds today, that is what I weigh. In a year from now, if I weigh 200, I will say I lost 40 pounds. If on the other hand I weigh 245, I will say I gained 5 pounds this year. Here is why this is important. I could use my pre-Biggest Loser weight of 353 as a gauge and in turn be able to say that I have lost 108 pounds. Although this is true, it isn’t necessarily the whole truth.
I lost 157 pounds on the show then gained weight back. I then lost weight again. The reality is that If I use the 353 pound number than I am really just losing and gaining the same weight over and over again. This is why I am now using 240 as my starting point. By doing this I can have a clear number and place to begin.
What this allows me to do is wipe the slate clean. I can no longer play games like the “I use to weigh… and even though I have gained…. I ‘ve still kept off….” I know what I weigh and will use this as my starting point and lifelong marker. By doing this, I will have a realistic perception and gauge of how I am doing on this lifelong journey.
In essence, our true starting point is TODAY. Now, lets get started!
See you tomorrow.
Biggest Loser Fitness Ridge Wrap Up…
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on June 20th, 2010
Where do I begin? Aside from marrying my wife and having my two boys, this has been one of the best weeks of my life. I am transforming once again this time from the inside out. I don’t know how much I lost this week, I chose not to weigh in till next week. I will say that I know I am losing weight because my clothes are all getting too big!
For me, this week wasn’t about weight loss. I knew that would happen. This week was about finding a healthy balance in my life and gaining knowledge about myself. The classes have been phenomenal, I really believe that had I learned the things I am learning here when I was on the ranch, I would have maintained my weight forever.
Don’t get me wrong, I learned a ton on the ranch but the things I am learning here are going to make my new journey much more enjoyable. I had classes on emotional eating, reading labels, and how to prepare low calorie yet nutrient rich food. I learned that carbs are not the enemy and that the Leptin our body produces is our food alarm clock. Leptin tells us when it is really time to eat. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that true happiness doesn’t come from a number on the scale.
I have loved watching other participants stretch and grow. Watching them has made me realize that inspiration is all around us. All we need to do is open our eyes. Here I am not Matt, The Biggest Loser, (maybe a little). I am Matt Hoover, a guy that struggles with the same things that everyone else does when it comes to weight. Here I am a person who is learning that until I take the things I know and then implement them, I will keep facing the same battles again and again.
Here I am learning that the only way to have the life I want is to live that way each and every day. I am so excited for my new start and know, without a doubt, that when I get home to the love of my life and the two joys of my life, I am going to be a better man.
I know I am going to be better at everything I do from speaking to life coaching at Vision Quest Sport and Fitness. I can’t wait.
I am going to take this next week here at The Biggest Loser Resort and build on the base that I built last week. I am going to stretch myself even more and push myself even harder so that when I leave here I have zero regrets.
I want to thank the staff here and the people I have met for an amazing week. I can’t wait to share this next week with all of my readers. And to my readers, If you like what you read here, please tell others. My goal is to help as many people as possible through my writing and each person that reads this blog and enjoys it, can help me do that!
See you tomorrow!
Stretching Myself…
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on June 14th, 2010
Well, day 1 at Biggest Loser Fitness Ridge Resort is done. It started at 6:15 AM with a hike and the rest of the day was filled with working out and having classroom sessions. In total I ended up doing around 7 hours of work outs. Though many of the classes were challenging, you may be surprised to find out what class was the hardest for me.
This morning I had a class entitled Stretch. It was exactly what the name says, a stretching class. Not really yoga, I think, but simply stretching your body. It was by far the hardest activity of the day for me. For one, I am about as flexible as a wooden fence post. I don’t stretch very often because it hurts me and is uncomfortable.
I also feel a little embarrassed about just how inflexible I am. Stretches that were suppose to loosen my legs hurt in my back. Stretches designed to target my back hurt my legs. Stretching my neck pulled by my hips. It wasn’t really pleasant, but it is exactly what I need.
As I was lying on the floor stretching my body I got to thinking about how not being flexible has affected me. Not just in my muscles, but in my life in general. Just as having inflexible muscles can affect your entire body, being inflexible in everyday life can affect all aspects of living.
I’d like to give an example. When I first meet people I don’t have a lot to say. It is easy for me to go for days without saying anything to anyone, except my wife and boys, without giving it a second thought. This in itself is a little odd considering that I make my living as a motivational speaker and actually really do enjoy talking with others.
I often rely on my wonderful wife to help me “break out of my shell” when I am in a new environment. Herein lies the problem this week. She isn’t here. If I am going to make new friends and get the most of my time here at the resort, it is up to me. If I choose not to stretch myself, it is going to be a long and lonely stay.
Don’t get me wrong, there are areas in life where it is good to be rigid. There are other times where we need to stretch ourselves in order to become better. If I only choose to build on my strengths, other areas will continue to tighten up. It is easy to work on the areas that we excel in. It is comfortable, it is familiar, it requires little effort. Stepping out of our comfort zone and stretching just a little each day can lead to abundance in the areas that may currently be lacking.
Of course it may be a little uncomfortable at first and at times even painful. But if we don’t take a little time each day to stretch oursleves, we will never see what we are truly capable of.
As for me, I am going to use my time here to stretch myself both physically and mentally. I am going to start trying to get to know the people I am surrounded by and make the most of my opportunity to be here. As far as I am concerned, that class I took this morning has already made my time here worth it.
Little did I know that laying on the floor in a little pain was going to lead to a life changing lesson. Are you stretching yourself?
See you tomorrow!
Super Bowl Party Let Down…
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on February 8th, 2010
Today the blogoshere is lit up with articles from people that are losing weight who had successful and healthy Super Bowl party experiences. This is not one of those blogs. This morning I woke up with a food hangover that made me feel tired, sluggish, and unmotivated to go to the gym.
My first inhale of air after I woke up sent the smell of cheese burger flavored Doritos to my brain and caused me to want to vomit like a frat kid after a night of Jager-bombs at a house party. Jager-bombs are a particular nasty alcoholic concoction for those of you unfamiliar with drinking lingo. If you are use to eating clean, a bad day of eating can make you feel as bad as any night of drinking.
The day started off pretty good. I prepared myself for the afternoon events by eating normal and talking myself into eating sensibly when I got to the party. I felt like I was ready. I have been working out hard and staying on track in the nutrition part. My mantra was “You’ve been doing great, let’s keep it up today. It’s only a few hour game.”
Before I left I packed my workout gear so that I could go to the gym after the game. I also stopped and picked up a tractor tire to take home and use for workouts. With this in mind I entered the party confident. It only took about two steps inside before all my plans went right out the window.
The spread on that table was looking good. There were some sandwiches that were not a threat as they were relatively healthy. Right next to them were these little smokies wrapped in croissant dough. There was a bag of cheeseburger Doritos and a bowl of other Doritos. Cookies the size of your head were located next to a nice meat and cheese tray.
So what’s a guy to do? I grabbed a sandwich a couple of little hot dogs and a handful of cheeseburger Doritos and walked away. I sat down and ate. I got done and thought “Good job, you didn’t do too bad.” Right after that I thought “Let’s just see what else is up there one more time.” The kiss of death!
I don’t like sweets and I don’t really like Doritos either but for some reason I developed a craving that I wasn’t willing to fight. I ate one of the cookies and it was really good. After that one I saw another one that looked like it might be even better. It was. Needless to say, I picked at food the entire game and felt like I was going to vomit by the time we left.
As we were loading the boys in the car I told Suzy that I would just work out at home. We both knew better and decided I better just get to the gym. The thing is that I was dead tired. I had entered a food coma and wanted to go to sleep. I drove to the gym thinking about what an idiot I had just been. Now I was going to pay for it.
I hopped on a bike and rode for an hour. It wasn’t an enjoyable workout and I felt like all that food could be out of my mouth and onto the floor at any time. I made it through and went home. I sat there watching television like a zombie for a while and then went to bed frustrated.
I woke up this morning and still felt bad but knew I needed to get over it and go back to work. Even though I blew it at the party, I still found some redemption in the fact that I went and worked out even though I didn’t want to. This morning as frustrated as I was I got right back on schedule.
The moral of this story. We all blow it from time to time. The important thing is not to dwell on it and get right back on track. Hey, when I do it I do it big. The difference now is that I don’t beat myself up for days or weeks. I get back to work and do my best to learn from my mistake. Now back to work!
See you tomorrow!
It’s Nothing Personal….
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on February 4th, 2010
Yesterday I wrote something that really got me thinking. The question was: What are you suppose do when the person you love doesn’t love themselves? Today I am going to try and give a reasonable answer to this question. More specifically, I am going to answer a question that I have received at every speaking engagement I have done over the past four years. How do I get my spouse to workout and make changes?
Let me start by saying this. You can’t! The cold hard truth is that the only one capable of changing ourselves is us. We can nag and push and berate, but what it all boils down to is that none of that is going to make a peson take action. When I was at my heaviest weight and lowest in life, there was nothing anyone could say to motivate me. My friends and family knew that I had the ability to do so much more but I wasn’t willing to do what they new I could.
People called me names and poked fun thinking that maybe that would do it. My mom would talk to me about my drinking and let me know she was concerned. My brother, who lost his weight as I was gaining mine would offer encouragement in his brotherly way. I heard them but I didn’t listen.
It wasn’t until I was laying on the couch all alone one night watching The Biggest Loser that I began to take action to change. What was my motivation? It was the little bit of pride that I had left inside me. “I wrestled at The University of Iowa. I have carried people on my back up the stairs of Carver Hawkeye Arena. I should be on that show. I would win.”
It was after saying those exact words that I rolled off the couch and started the process of applying to be on the show. Even at my worst I had some pride left in me. We all do. Unfortunatley, some of us use that pride in the wrong way by saying we don’t need to change. We are too prideful to realize that we are hurting ourselves.
That moment of having enough good pride to take action and yet being able to swallow the bad pride changed me for ever. The thing is that I had to do it.
So what do you do when the person you care about doesn’t want to make changes that will benefit them? First, we need to look at ourselves before we even begin to open our mouths. You can not ask someone to do something that you aren’t first willing to do yourself. If I am overweight, how can I ask the person I care about to lose weight while I sit on the couch?
After that self examination, proceed with caution. Today we will use weight loss for an example. Start by getting more active yourself and encouraging the person you want to include to come along. Maybe it’s just a short walk down the block at first. Don’t take them out and beat the snot out of them to prove to them just how out of shape they are.
Many wives ask me how to get their husband to eat better. Not to sound old fashioned, although that is exactly what happens when someone says something like that, but start cooking healthier food. So many people who are trying to get healthy cook one way for themselves and another for the others in the house. Stop doing that.
When someone tells me that the others in the house won’t eat the way they do, I say let them go hungry. Remember earlier when I said take care of yourself first? This is a prime example. If you start preparing healthy meals other members in your house have two options. Eat it or go hungry. Right here is where I could go off on a tangent about how we have become a nation of people pleasers but I won’t.
It is not cruel to ask members of your own household to eat healthy. In fact, you are doing them a favor! Make no mistake, it may take some time to unlearn old habits and embrace or tolerate the new ones so give it some time. If your family is use to eating McDonald’s every night don’t expect them to jump for joy when you start off a meal with a salad. Stay with it and don’t give in. We will continue this discussion tomorrow.
See you tomorrow!
Life After The Biggest Loser…. Part 4
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on January 27th, 2010
“You are the Biggest Loser!” The cannon goes off and the confetti flies. I couldn’t hear, I was ecstatic. I remember being pulled from interview to interview and then having a few minutes before I was taken off in a car and put on a red-eye flight to New York.
I didn’t sleep on that flight. I had never been to New York and I had just accomplished one of the biggest goals I had had in years and was thinking about what I was going to eat the next day. As you may remeber, I mentioned that I was a fish out of water when I got to LA. I had no idea what was going on and now I was going to go to NY to be on about every major talk show on television. Now I was about to find out how out of the water I was.
My plane landed at around 5 am and as soon as I got in the car I had an interview with my local radio station back in Iowa. I got to be close friends with the morning radio show personalities Schulte and Swann since they had been having me in each Wednesday to do a recap of the show. Next stop was Regis and Kelly.
I had no clue what was going on. They held me in a little room and when it was my time I went out to do the interview. I don’t think either one of them had ever seen the show and had no idea who I was or why I was on their show. It was on their show that I learned you can’t swear on TV. I said “fat a##” They looked at me like I had just dropped the F bomb. I didn’t do that anymore.
I spent the rest of the day going from show to show and magazine photo shoot to photo shoot. I got a call from my state senator and other people I had never met. The weirdest thing was when I had my first paparazzi photo taken. I don’t think they knew who I was either. They just saw me coming out of one of the shows through a private entrance and getting into a limo so I must have been phot worthy. I was on the same press tour as Naomi Watts so they were probably waiting for her. Imagine their dissapointment when I came walking out!
I was in NY for a couple days before it was back to LA to do the same thing on a different side of the country. I look at pictures today from some of those shoots and I wonder what the heck I was thinking. I say that because a couple days after the finale I was back up to 200 lbs. I felt huge. I wasn’t. In my mind since I wasn’t 182, a weight I don’t want to nor will I ever be again, that I was a fat pig again.
I was a mental mess. I had been so focused on winning and now that I had done it, I had no idea what I was going to do. Every year I hear contestants say “I’m never going to go back to that again.” I said it myself. The thing for me was that I had lost weight so fast that my mind didn’t have time to catch up with my body. I was a fat guy in a skinny body.
When I saw pictures I would get all uptight. “Look at my chin, am I hanging over my jeans?” I was so critical of myself. I look at those pics today and I want to smack myself. I looked great but I never gave myself credit. I was hyper-critical of myself and was already beginning to set myself up to gain weight again.
I really was a fat guy in a skinny body.
See you tomorrow!
