Scientific Method and Relativism

We can wend our way through history and marvel at the “scientific” inaccuracies of the past. This is an easy enough experiment, and I hope I don’t have to provide examples of past scientific truths that no longer hold up today, but here are a few just in case: until the 1990s, scientists believed that gravity was slowing down the expansion of the universe, however science of today says the universe is expanding at an ever increasing speed. Also, Pluto was a planet when I was a kid, and as of today, dinosaurs are supposed to have been covered in feathers. 

This stuff will probably all change too.

I’ve found the more difficult trick to be, knowing for myself what is right, despite what I’m being told by current “experts.” There are so many battling theory’s floating around about the causation of our current “obesity crisis” that to try and pick one to believe is tantamount to declaring religious faith. And let’s not forget that each major religion has it’s own fragmented sects, those who interpret the divine in the ‘right’ way. My head spins every time I’m presented with a new WHY, i.e. WHY are so many people gaining so much weight…

I have a theory, it’s backed up by scientific evidence, I’ve talked about it on the podcast and the point of this dispatch has nothing to do with that.

The point is… drumroll… Science CHANGES!

The most sciency reason for science changing is this: science requires tools by which to measure data, as the tools improve, the science reveals new “truths.”

It is not a rigid thing built upon a foundation of absolutes: light can be slowed, the gravitational constant has been shown to have some problems, a single particle can exist in two places at once… But for my life, functionally, none of that data is even relevant. 

The other thing to keep in mind, a lot of dietary “truths” are being sold with some moral bent and as far as I can tell, there is no morality in science. It’s just data. Of course, one could use this data for moral or immoral purposes, but the distinctions between right and wrong should and must be of a personal nature. 

I have found all diets I’ve done that ultimately set me in a caloric deficit, have worked to reduce my weight. Some are not specific about this deficit and just give you a list of foods to eat or not eat, and so provide a bit more freedom of choice over quantity of consumed food, and I have managed to not lose weight when doing these in a careless fashion. 

If you do not want to eat animals, GREAT! If you do not want to eat GMO’s, GREAT! Lectins, gluten, nightshades, processed food, carbohydrates, sugar, anything but meat… GREAT GREAT GREAT. 

What are YOUR PREFERENCES? This is a journey for you, and it’s one thing to try something that’s been successful for another, but another thing entirely to attempt to believe something that wasn’t necessarily true for you yesterday.

I can totally understand that adherence to something may be easier with the addition of morality, or the belief that it’s the best or only way, I am simply advocating that it be the best way for YOU, and only YOU can know that for sure.  

BTW, there’s plenty of science on the placebo effect, belief is a powerful thing! 

If something about a diet resonates with you, maybe that’s the one for you.

There are two major school’s of thought that I can see today, one is the Be Responsible school, the other is the Blame Food school. Either one can work, both schools have successes and failures. In between these two schools of thought lies a wonderful zone devoid of dogmatic rigor, I like to call the Center. The Center can see that we have not necessarily evolved to be capable of physiologically dealing with the sheer quantity of food available to us, while also utilizing some aspects of personal responsibility to deal with this knowledge. I am currently enrolled in the Center.

I believe that anything that has produced a success is valid.

Sincerely,

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Daniel Fraire

Hello my name is Daniel Fraire and I’m finally ready to open up about my journey. This will be my accountability since I haven’t opened up to many people. As a kid I started gaining weight, and I realized that my family would always have something to say about this. Even though I was very active I was a heavier kid. So my last summer after graduating high school I planned on going to try out for a division 3 school for tennis.

So I tried just about everything and ended up starving my self and doing a lot of cardio. I dropped the weight and made the team. After 2 years of college I decided to take a break, because I had worn myself out. That winter I met my wife.

Fast forward to June 2020 I was at my heaviest. As I looked back at how I got to that point I realized that I was going through a bad depression that I kept to myself. The only way I found a way to cope with it was food. At that point I realized I was too busy working and trying to make people at my job happy, like customers and coworkers. At that point I decided to make a big change I quit my job and found a different job that I would work less hours and spend way much more time with my wife and 2 kids. So I started taking care of myself, but I was still over eating on some occasions and wasn’t working out.

So one day my son and I are laying down and he asks me if He could jump on my stomach like a trampoline since I was soooo big 😂 that’s when I realized kids will literally always tell you the truth you need to hear 😂 haha so Thats when I dropped 30 pounds from clean eating and cutting out fast food. I went from 321 to 291 without working out. New Years passes by and I’m in February and decide to get me a gym membership, and that’s when things changed for the better!

I love lifting now and try to do most of my cardio chasing my kids around 😂I’m still on my journey, but I am now further away from where I was. I went from 321 my heaviest to now being 245 and continuing to hit the gym consistently so that I can continue to shred fat and pretty soon be able to see my abs just like you! Thank you for the motivation! I remember sending my wife your before and after and telling her that anything was possible, and that that would happen with me as well! You are a great role model and inspiration for anyone struggling with weight thank you for sharing your story and letting us share ours with you!

Breaking Bread in Texas

I’ve been working in Texas.  
I’ve been working on a movie and have a few old friends working with me on this project. 
I arrived first and slipped into my standard routine: find a grocery store, figure out my food and do a rough meal prep. Then find the gym - the random hotel gym is great in a pinch - but I’ll often have time to venture out, explore the area and get some day passes at the towns big box gyms. 
All was glorious… until my friends showed up. 
These MANIACS want to go to dinner EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!

And I’m not sure if anyone else has warned you but Texas does BBQ really, really well. Like extraordinarily well. I’m being forced to consider faking a strained hamstring to get out of going to dinner with some of my closest friends. 
The quiet night, prepped and boring food, some light reading, and early to bed, that’s my ideal.
There aren’t horrible options at the Texas bbq spots, turkey/chicken and greens. But sitting in these embracing rooms, smelling everything else on the menu, while watching people throw back fatty brisket and mac and cheese, really isn’t much fun. 
I’m never offended when my friends don’t join me at the gym in the morning, maybe they won’t be offended when I beg off dinner?

Spotlight: Joe Ophield

 So I’ve battled my weight my entire life. I’ve YO-YO dieted my way through my 20’s going down to drastic low weights and through my latter 20’s getting fitter, until I met a girl and settled at the end of 2017.

Fast forward to the end of 2019 I’d ballooned my way to 400+lbs after having been in said relationship for 2.5 years, my grandmother “Betty” who I was extremely close too passed away, days before she passed she looked at me and said “Joseph, you’re my big lovely boy, but you’re too big, I want you be be healthy and happy, would you do something about your weight for me” she passed away the night after, I’d promised her I’d do something.

I took a coach on board in Christian Chapman @christianphysiqueclective on Instagram, and BOOM covid Ruins everything and I can’t train, all I can do is walk and get my food right.

After having left my partner end of 2019 I promised that 2020 was going to be my year, I moved back into my parents house and that didn’t really work out too well, we fell out and I got kicked out of the house through covid, still trying to lose the weight still trying to better myself.

Continuing to make progress even after living in my car, hotel rooms and sofa surfing I speak to you at 144LBS down from where I started.

Ethan your journey inspires me.

I’ve done more and more than I’d ever imagine I work backstage at bodybuilding shows and am part of a supplement brands family in Team Strom #neversettle.

Keep motivating, I hope to meet you sometime man ❤️

Spotlight: Heather Potter

When I realized my weight had creeped into the acceptable range to be a candidate on "My 600 Pound Life" I started binge watching that TV Show. I then made a decision that I am either going to start losing weight on my own naturally, OR be okay with a camera crew filming me while I shower and having producers asking my Husband if he wipes my ass for me.

When the Pandemic hit and all the experts on Joe Rogan's podcast started saying Obesity was the #1 killer for Covid, I decided that it was time for a serious lifestyle change. I am 6' 0" and I currently weigh 465 pounds. At the start of 2020 I weighed in at a whopping 598 pounds. Great if I was a big game fish, but not as a 41 year old lady trying to live to see 50.

When all the buffets closed in 2020 it really helped to kick start my weight loss. I started making small changes and altering my diet with intermittent fasting coupled with just making better food choices, and I started losing weight. Once I hit the 50 pound mark and I could see a difference I got excited about losing weight. I recently just entered the Torrid (A store for those of who identify as plus size) National Virtual Model Search. Something I would have NEVER done prior to weight loss.

Backstory - I was born and raised in South Florida to a set of Baby Boomers. I was basically raised as a free range chicken. I grew up on a staple of Southern Comfort Cuisine where we used gravy as a beverage. In my household you were praised for being a healthy eater, if you made it through your second helping of dinner you were rewarded with 2 scoops of ice cream. My dad often said with pride... look at my Daughter, she is as big as a linebacker. I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer which my Dr. assured me was the absolute best kind of Cancer you can get, if you HAD to pick a cancer, this is the one with the best survival rate. (My Husband will tell you that I always have to have the best of everything!). The only treatment was a radical hysterectomy. I was a little bummed about never having any kids of my own, but at least I never have to worry about ruining my girlish figure ;)

My Birthday is July 6th and I am closing in on my mini milestone weight loss goal of 150 pounds. It's going to be the best gift I have ever given myself.

Thank you for doing this!! So many people are upset because they gained weight last year, or they are like me and have only ever got to shop in the plus size section. We can all draw inspiration from you!!

Thank you,

Heather Potter

Follow me on social media: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/heather.potter.16

Spotlight: Haris Jebrini

Hey! Recovering fatty and big fan of your work! I resonated with your childhood story of family withholding food from you. Most of that came from my dad, who would also force me to run 45 minutes on the treadmill every single day. That wasn’t my dad at his harshest, besides hitting me and making me spit out food he caught me eating he told me he was embarrassed by me; that is something I realized that tainted how I looked at myself for everything not just my physical appearance. I remember I started to hate any sort of activity and found comfort in eating. I only got active when I was in high school and got to play football like I always wanted. (My dad is Syrian, mom is Bosnian so the default sport was soccer; guess who was the best goalie because they took up the entire goal haha)

I spent all of high school relatively happy. I knew I wasn’t going to win any girls heart and that hurt but I didn’t really care except for one. One guy flat out told me she was too good for me, it sounds harsh, and he did go about it like a dick but I do appreciate his honesty now.

I didn’t change my goals and start to focus on my weight until I had my heart completely shattered in my senior year of college. I also found I was always tired because I had gotten so fat I had sleep apnea at 20. I got really obsessive though, went from 350 at my heaviest to 165 at 6ft. I ended up developing an eating eating disorder that I’m still struggling with. Another “trophy” of my struggle is the loose skin that every girlfriend I’ve ever had has asked me to get rid of.

I have to thank you for talking about your struggles because it makes me feel ok for myself. That sounds weird but it makes me feel more normal.

Avoiding Impulsivity

Hamstring emphasis leg day, walking to the gym and the Banh Mi’s a few blocks away are calling to me. A crispy baguette, grilled meats, pate, pickled vegetables, herbs, mayo, and a healthy splash of maggi seasoning and lime. It’s just a couple blocks over, I can’t smell or see it, but I know it’s there. It’s the knowing that keeps it omnipresent in my mind. 

I forced myself to think of other things, anything to get this sandwich out of my head, but it kept returning. 

When it would return, and I would approach some rationalization for why it was ok to have this sandwich on this day, I knew I was on shaky ground. 

The sandwich isn’t absolutely off limits. There is space within the confines of how I eat for it. But it cannot be impulsive, it cannot be folding to some base whim. So while I won’t never eat this sandwich, I don’t want to eat it today. 

Today I can do, today I can win, the Banh Mi is off the menu today. 
Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Nathan James

I lost over 110 pounds in a 7 month period. I have kept it off for almost 10 years. I even wrote a book about my journey called Weight Loss for the Movie Lover. The American Glutton podcast inspired me to finally put pen to paper.

Synopsis: Take a moment, and think of a movie that had a significant impact on you. Now think about how that impact altered the course of your life. This book tells the true story of a young man on a quest to overcome crippling anxiety, severe depression, and morbid obesity - a story told through twelve films that inspired his remarkable transformation.

We suffer more in imagination than in reality

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” 

- Seneca

Getting out of my head has been one of the most rewarding aspects of exercise. 

Sometimes the trap is my own mind, the antidote has always been action. 

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Brody B.

Two years ago, at 25 years old, I was an overweight burnout criminal in the throes of addiction. I lost my job to a second DUI. I was drinking and using cocaine regularly.

I weighed 265 pounds, and my teeth were ruined after ten years of drug and alcohol use. I refused to smile in public and around others, sometimes frowning on purpose so my teeth were not revealed.

After a bad four-day binge, I put down the drinking and drugging, cashed my last unemployment check for $550, and moved to Los Angeles. I arrived in LA with two weeks of sobriety and one week’s worth of rent. I joined AA and began piecing my life back together.

I got a corporate job, then another corporate job. I started eating much healthier, first on a Paleo diet then a Keto diet. I lost 107 pounds in 10 months, dropping from 265 to 157.

After catching up on the bills I neglected in active addiction, I was able to finance dental work. I now sit at a comfortable 165, smiling at any chance I get!

Embracing Discomfort

I like the idea that doing something hard, simply fighting through my own desire not to do it, is good for me. 

I often have to negotiate with myself about what I’m going to do. Often I don’t want to do the thing I’d earlier decided to do. Every time I am successful at fighting through that resistance, I am rewarded mentally. 

I am looking for more hard things to do. 

Good luck in all of your difficult pursuits. 

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Christopher Livezey

My story begins almost 16 years ago, when I was 14 years old. While puberty can make you clumsy as you grow into your body, I noticed that I was tripping and falling much more than I should be. My parents took me to the doctor and after what felt like an agonizing amount of tests, I was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma and told that I had a tumor wrapped around my spine from my C7-T2 vertebrae. I still can remember sitting in the oncology clinic seeing the doctor talking, my mother crying, and me just feeling numb. It felt like I was having a nightmare. While I was awake.

The next morning I was taken to the OR to have the tumor resected. The surgery went well and I had very little physical deficits that I needed to overcome with physical therapy. It wasn't anything anyone wants to go through but the year's worth of chemotherapy and radiation make the tumor resection seem like a trip to Disneyland. I didn't know if was physically possible to vomit that much and radiation burns in my throat felt like I had swallowed razor blades and drank a glass of lemon juice. Despite all of this, the whole year still feels like a blur and I don't remember large chunks of time. I was so excited to be done with chemo and be able to go back to my normal life.

For five years, I got to live a normal life. I got to finish high school. Hang out with my friends. Doing all of things I wanted to do. But I started noticing that I was getting dizzy and lightheaded when I bent over and I was having rectal bleeding. I was easily fatigued and short of breath. But I am a stubborn mother fucker and I just kept working and making jokes about everything. Finally, one of the oncology clinic nurses saw me and told me that I absolutely HAD to come into the clinic to get labs drawn the next day or she would drag my ass there...I don't blame her for being alarmed...my lips were bluish/purple because my hemoglobin was so low. So, I went back to the clinic. Got my ass chewed out by the doctor and nurses. Got labs drawn. Got multiple blood transfusions....and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Fuck.

In comparison to my previous treatment, this round of chemo was pretty mild. The nurses and oncologists were amazing and ran my chemo at night so I wouldn't be as nauseous. I also only needed five months of chemotherapy this time. I did have to get a bone marrow transplant, which sucked. But again, not nearly as bad as eating razor blades and drinking lemon juice. So, eight months of torture to be given a second new lease on life...not the worst.

I settled back into my new normal of life. Went back to work. I went to college to become a CNA so I could give back to the field that has saved my life twice now. And began working with pediatric hematology/oncology patients. I wanted to help these kiddos know that this was not the end and that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they cannot give up fighting. It helped the patients to know that I had survived and was making the most I could out of life.

For four years, I got to have a "normal" life. Making friends, making an impact on those I care for, and living life to my fullest. But, my demons came knocking once again. In 2014, I relapsed with Ewing's Sarcoma in my left lung. Third times the charm, right? Wrong...I was so fucking angry. I just wanted to watch the world burn. This wasn't fair. I didn't understand why this was happening to me again. But, I decided to go with treatment for the third time. Which meant I had to put my life on hold, again. For the next year, I had to undergo chemotherapy and have a section of my lung removed. I relived my first chemotherapy experience...I forgot how much it was humanly possible to blow chunks. But like a cockroach, I survived.

Fast forward to 2018...remember how I said that "Third times the charm"? I was fucking wrong...Ewing's showed it's ugly face again and this time it meant business. And I had to make some fucking scary decisions. Do I continue to fight this or do I just live my best life until I take my last breath? One thing made this decision easier for me, I had just started to see the love of my life and current fiancé. She had just gotten out of an 18 year abusive marriage and was willing to give love a shot again and I was not going to throw that out for my own personal reasons. I was also head over heels for her and I wanted to spend more time with her.

This round of treatment was not a walk in the park...this tumor was located at the opening of my left lung where trachea branches off to connect to my lung. There was no way we could save the lung...I had to have the entire lung removed. Due to the massive amount of scar tissue from the previous lung surgery this one could not be done laparoscopically. The surgeon had to open up my entire left side to removed the lung in chunks, as can be seen by the scar in the pictures I attached. I went under the knife terrified that I wasn't going to wake up. And when I did wake up, I had to learn how to breathe all over again with just one lung. And that shit is weird. I felt like I was drowning for awhile. I wish I could say that this was the worst part but, the worst was yet to come.

During my recovery processes, I was confused and extremely fatigued. I wouldn't eat. I could barely stay awake. Something was wrong. And I was too out of it to communicate what was going on. The nurses tried to advocate for me but they kept getting brushed off. Finally, a surgery resident that I had worked with was on rotation and came to see me. She took one look at me and knew something was wrong. She ordered an ECHO and discovered I had a pericardial effusion. Had this gone undiscovered for another day, I would have ended up in cardiac tamponade and would not still be alive to share my story.

To make matters worse a few weeks later I was still in the hospital recovering from surgery, a friend stopped by to see how I was doing. While we were visiting, I got up to use the restroom. My friend gasped and pointed at the bed. There was an outline of my body that was made out of blood. The surgery had caused a massive amount of swelling and the surgical site opened back up because of this. Over the course of a couple weeks this progressed further and further along, until most of the wound was opened back up. My surgeon took me back to the OR, cleaned out the wound and slapped a wound vac on my back. After another week, I was discharged. Unfortunately, this was short lived as my wound care was not carried out properly by the home health nurses. I had a raging infection in my wound. This not only resulted in a delay of my chemotherapy but resulted in a 3 month long process of receiving wound debridement and revision in the OR and a wound vac dressing changes multiple times a week. Despite all of this shit being handed to me, I still managed to heal and take as much chemo as I could financially manage (I used to be a St. Jude patient and all of my chemo treatments costs after insurance was covered by them but since this was my fourth rodeo and I was in my late 20's, they graduated me so they could focus on treating other younger patients. Which left me with weekly costs of $700.00+). But most importantly, I kept the woman of my dreams by my side. And man, is she amazing. In the midst of picking up the pieces of her life, raising her son, working full time, and going to grad school, she took care of me. And advocated for me. And showed me what true love is.

Life is not a given. We cannot choose the hand we will be dealt. We can only respond to what is given to us. It's up to us whether we give up or fight like hell. Giving up is easy, fighting... fighting is fucking hard, fighting is scary. If I can give any advice about what I have learned through all of this shit is, take your physical and mental health seriously. And don't take them for granted. All of the surgeries and chemotherapy have taken their toll on my body. Before all of this, I took my health for granted. At 14 years old, I was 360 lbs. I'm now 31 years old and weigh 250 lbs. I still have a long way to go but I am still working towards my goals. The last two rounds of chemo and surgeries have slowed me down and I have had to re-work how I do everything in the gym. My cognitive function has taken a hit from all of the chemo. My muscles have been cut and I'm missing a lung. I have had to learn how to brace myself differently, breathe differently, and lift differently. But when looking back at the last 15 years of my life, this ain't nothing but a peanut.

The Path

I keep thinking about the nature of truth. There’s so much effort put into this area, whether that be from professors or priests, politicians or nutrition practitioners, they all seem to want to own truth. 

In absolute terms, science lays out what the preponderance of evidence suggests, with an understanding that as testing methodology advances, the evidence will likely change. 

This idea of owning truth also neglects the idea of values and preference. So I might say “chocolate ice cream is the absolute best,” and while not lying, maybe that’s not true for you. That’s ok with me, your preferences being divergent from mine, but those selling chocolate ice cream might insist that my statement encapsulates truth itself. 

So many times I was sold on a diet based on an evidenced model of truth that simply didn’t work for me. The agita generated in my life by relentlessly trying to adhere to these diets was monumental, and after a time I always reverted to my old ways and rapidly reaccumulated any lost weight.  

I’m sure there is a structure that can get you to your goals, I wish you much success in navigating these wild times and finding the path that works for you. 

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Joey Duff

Hi Ethan and Paige! Thank you so much for the inspiring presence you command in a community that desperately needs it, and thank you for bringing on different people with a wealth of knowledge so we can all make educated decisions concerning our fitness and wellness goals.

In 2015 I dropped 132.5lbs between the months of April and October using a weight loss clinic’s restrictive menu and supplements. I did this while working as a general manager with Pizza Hut, so I don’t want to toot my own horn, but you can imagine the discipline that it took.

My girlfriend at the time (now wife) was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive case of melanoma and I completely derailed. That’s not to blame her, but to show how dangerous my relationship to food was, and still can be to a point. I ended up ballooning back to above my starting weight thanks to stress eating.

Sometime in 2020 I decided I’d had enough. I stepped on the scale weighing in at 543lbs! I was about to get married, we were trying to buy a house and it was then that I realized I had a lot to live for. I found a ton of inspiration in you and in my longtime no-fucks-given idol Henry Rollins. I found intermittent fasting and early morning unsweetened green tea to be my method for success and as of this morning I’m down 77.5lbs, 2.5lbs more than the goal I set for the year!! The train doesn’t stop here, and my sights are set on 100lbs now. It was just so much fun I just HAD to do it again haha.

Thank you so much for all you’ve done for me personally and continue to do for all of us.

Killing My Apathy

I woke up this morning and felt a wave of apathy engulf me. There was some distant sense of forebodings, the foggy path towards destruction sat just kinda off screen in my mind. Everything within me distracted from this path though, I was sinking into the very real feeling of carelessness. Carelessness about myself, my loved ones, my goals and the way these goals complimented every aspect of my life. 

Workout? Get up and go to the gym? Who care?! Getting out of bed seemed as though it would require the most monumental effort. Who cares?! 

Where will this take me? Where will I be when I do eventually care again? 

I asked myself these questions, I actually said them aloud while my wife was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. 

And then the carelessness gave way to fear. Because, it can get very bad. The fuckits which begin this way, have lead down the road to deaths door. 

That fear got me up today, and very quickly the carelessness faded, and then the fear faded, and I was back into my routine. 

I hope you success in fighting whatever demons yours might be. 

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Benjamin Weil

In September of 2019, I was finally done with the way I looked. I’m 5’10 and had reached my largest weight of 204 lbs (which isn’t a ton of weight in comparison to others but it was all fat/no muscle) and I was getting sick with colds monthly. I wouldn’t sleep well and I was unemployed which made the days at home very depressing. I would wake up and tell myself I would eat healthy, and when it came time to make my lunch of tuna salad and carrots, I decided to grab a couple tortilla chips to eat with the tuna, and instead would eat the full bag.

So I decided that when October rolls around, I was going to do the Tom Segura/Bert Kreischer “Sober October” challenge- eat clean foods and work out regularly and see how fit I can get in one month. Because I have done diets in the past that have resulted in fast weight loss but the weight came back (and also the intense diet gave me gallstones and I had to get my gallbladder removed), I decided that I wanted the challenge to be less of a “month long marathon” and more of a push in the right direction to having sustainable healthy habits. I did a month of regular workouts- basketball, lifting, ab exercises, and ate low to no carbs/sugar. When October was over, I decided that I would allow myself to eat whatever I wanted during holidays or vacation time, but come right back to clean eating when it was finished. I enjoyed thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, but as soon as the holiday was over, I was back.

From October to December, I got down to 177 lbs. My initial goal was to get below 175 lbs but by doing it in a sustainable way (not by eating 500 calories/day for one month and achieving it fast but not healthy). I continued on my health journey in January and decided that when February rolled around, I would start allowing myself to eat all my favorite foods on the weekend. Instead of one cheat meal or cheat day- I would give myself the weekend (I’m not trying to be a body builder, right?). It was a great decision. I would workout HARD for 5 days and eat clean and then get all my favorite things. Sure, it started to annoy my girlfriend that I would plan my weekend meals starting on Monday, but we made it work. And then… COVID.

In the first weeks of lockdown and not being able to go to the gym, my girlfriend suggested that we run outside and do ab workouts inside. I had never done much cardio in my life but decided to try it out. We started running regularly - 2-3x a week and went from doing an average of 1.5 miles to 2-2.5. My biggest goal was that I wanted to come out of the pandemic with having kept up my healthy habits. I wanted to look in the mirror and be excited. As the months kept going, we eventually got a pull-up bar and dumbbell. We started allowing some sugars like fruits and various types of vegetables, rice, etc. into our weekly clean diet. I finished 2020 weighing 145 lbs.

So far in 2021, the healthy lifestyle has stuck- eat mostly clean meals during the work week, and have some fun on the weekends. We run an average of 2.5-3.5 miles 3x a week, I do ab workouts 2x a week, and arms 2x a week. It isn’t a body builder amount of lifting, but it has kept me at this current stage of 148 lbs, strong core and working on my obliques! I love that it has become a lifestyle and not a quick diet. Thank you for your inspiration and for showing the pathway for me and so many people around the world. Something that I think is so SO important is that I know I couldn’t have done any of this (50lbs of weight loss) without the support I had. I am a terrible cook and my incredible fiancée completely changed her diet to be able to cook healthy dinners for us every night of the week. She loves running and pushed me to try it. She is 100% the reason why I’m able to make the mental shift from chicken nuggets to broccoli. Additionally, I have a stable job and supportive family and friend group- all essential to being able to take the mental leap of making a lifestyle change.

Thank you again for the inspiration!

Ben

Meal Prepping Struggles

Having food prepared…

My failures seem to be things I’ve thought through a million time, made firm policy on, found to be successful, and then rationalized a single deviation which eventually becomes an avalanche covering up my past solutions. 

Getting back to it is often more difficult than it should be. 

I need to have my meals as sorted as humanly possible. Nothing left to chance, no eating on a whim. Part of that is meal preparation, and part of that is making sure I get to the grocery store before my fridge has run dry. 

But sometimes I’m tired, or don’t otherwise prioritize my time to get to the store on time and a proper thought through meal can become an inadequate pantry hodgepodge. 

So here I sit, writing to you from my car, fridge bare as a newborn babe, about to walk into a restaurant for dinner, FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK. 

I’m going to rectify this tomorrow because my sanity is waning. 

I wish you all the meal prepping success to be had!

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: AJ Ing

Over the past year and a half something finally snapped in my brain and I managed to transform my body in a way I never would have imagined. I've always struggled with my weight, I'm 5'11 and my weight topped out at around 270lbs. In 2015, I was actually able to lose around 30lbs and get my weight down to around 240lbs. At that point It was the "healthiest" I had ever been and then I slipped up and within a few months put the weight back on and then some.

My transformation journey started after eating a sickening amount of food on Christmas Eve 2020 and getting a apple watch that constantly told me I wasn't move enough, I finally decided I was finally tired of over eating to the point of sickness and being unhealthy overweight.

Between December 2020 and June 2020 I managed to drop 100lbs by moving a lot more and eating a lot less. In all honesty I didn't know what I was doing during my diet and went about losing the weight in a very unhealthy manner. I was lucky enough to start learning about proper nutrition towards the end of my diet and started reverse dieting after hitting my goal weight of 160lbs and subsequently lost an additional 20lbs bringing my total weight lost to 120lbs in just over 10 months.

In 5 days (June 17th) It will be one year that since I hit my goal weight of 160lbs and have actually managed to maintain my weight and have found a diet that is both sensible in portions and nutrition that I actually enjoy. My current goal now is to try and build more muscle as I did lose a lot with my poor dieting approach, but I really can't believe I managed to transform my body in a way I never thought would be possible and keep it that way.

All the best!

AJ

Acute vs Chronic

My condition is chronic. It will require treatment for the remainder of my life. This was initially a hard pill to swallow. But even before I was aware of it as a possibility, I ran from thoughts that could lead me to this understanding. 

I wanted to treat fatness. Fatness has plagued me since my earliest memories, the first half of which I had diets done to me as a punishment for my fatness, and the second half of which I punished myself with them. But I always believed they would work, and in fairness, they did. 

Had my fatness been an acute condition, it would have been solved many decades ago. I can lose weight, and much like the plaster cast is a useful solution to a broken bone, diets produced weight loss for me. However, unlike a broken leg, my fatness just returned, time and again, or stalled well before I was anywhere near satisfied with its reduction. 
My stubborn fatness, like a perpetually broken leg always returned. Losing weight through so many fad diets, simple fixes, and by doing what I now think of as 'get rich quick schemes', I continued on the hamster wheel of loss and regain for many years. The easiest most efficient solutions (which come with such great marketing!) were those that I gravitated towards, whether in my reading, discussions with the myriad of doctors and nutritionists I consulted, and even in the media I consumed. The easiest most efficient solutions did actually reduce my fatness! So I returned to them time and again. 

        But these solutions were nothing more than band-aids, useful for the short term, but worthless in addressing my chronic condition. Worse, even then dealing with my excess weight, was the idea that the weight itself wasn’t the problem. Dieting is hard, but harder still is confronting the fact that for me, dieting was only addressing the symptom, the byproduct of my issues. 

The only positive change I’ve seen in all my many years/decades, of dieting, has been submission to the idea that I will forever be managing this condition. The minute I stopped struggling against this idea, trying to rationalize it out of existence, the moment I accepted it, I was ok. I was at peace.

I invite you, to step off the hamster wheel of fad diets, and do some introspective reflection. What’s your relationship with food like? Are there any compulsions or habits there that assist in an undesirable predicament? Like me, do you use food to assuage discomfort? Have you ever felt the euphoria of binge eating? I used to stop only long enough to make room for more. I am a sneak, eating in secret has some allure for me. Digging into this stuff was the first step onto the path of management, and I hold no hopes that this condition will miraculously disappear either, I submit to that. I relax into the understanding that escape will be a daily practice, and there is no finish line. It’s not easy, but there’s more satisfaction in my life today, because I want to see all those aspects I hid from for so long.

Ethan Suplee

Spotlight: Caleb Hickey

I've always been a heavy guy, but after college I got a desk job and my weight got way out of control.

One day my leg started to hurt, like I had a cramp, and then like I had pulled or torn a muscle. Over the course of a couple of days it got so bad that I could barely walk without being in agonizing pain. When I (finally) went into a doctor's office, they said I probably had a blood clot and sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed that I had a clot that ran from the middle of my thigh to the middle of my calf.

They admitted me through the ER, and in the ER they weighed me. I hadn't weighed myself in at least a year, and thought I was a little over 300 pounds. The scale said I was at 352, and I was shocked. I had no idea I had gotten so heavy. I knew I had to make a change.

I was in the hospital for a week, waiting for the blood thinners to kick in, and during that time I asked for a nutritionist to visit me. You can find contradictory answers for everything online (Keto is the best, or Keto doesn't work, carbs are great, or carbs will kill you), and I needed help to know what to do. I was expecting a big, long lecture on what different macros did, and how my body processed different foods, but she told me that weight loss was as simple as calories in vs. calories out. It was so encouraging because I felt like I finally had a path forward.

After I got out, I started to count calories and stay in a caloric deficit. My family was worried that I wasn't taking it seriously when I told them I just wanted to cut 500 calories per day out of my diet, but I knew that I had to make a big change, and to do so was going to take a long time. Sustainability was key.

And the weight started to come off! Over the course of a year and a half I lost 100 pounds, and am continuing to work towards a healthier weight and lifestyle.