Matt Mowry Blog

(Publisher’s Note: Business NH Magazine Editor Matt Mowry participated in a 90-day Commit to Get Fit Program at the Executive Health and Sports Center in Manchester, which is presented in partnership with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and the American Heart Association. He was one of 64 BetterU participants in NH participating between March and May in health clubs that are members of Tricia and Mike Benton’s Genavix Wellness Network www.genavix.com.Here are the blogs he wrote weekly about his expeirence.)

When the American Heart Association called me to see if I would be interested in participating in a wellness program and blog about it, I thought, why not? Those words rank up there with “I’ll be right back” and “Let’s go fool around in the creepy abandoned cabin” in horror movies.

I admit, I was not fully prepared for just how intensive a program I had signed up for. The 90 Day Commit to Get Fit Program at the Executive Health and Sports Center in Manchester is not for wussies. So I should have been out. I have tried and failed at losing weight more times than I care to remember. I always slide into my bad, but tasty, habits.

I am thankful, though, the American Heart Association (which partners with the club and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care for the program) asked me to participate. I have struggled with my weight most of my life. I am at my heaviest weight, and coming up on my 42nd birthday, I am on two medications for high blood pressure, suffer from bouts of gout and get to easily winded when I exert myself. Saying that I am out of shape is an understatement. At this point I would settle for having any shape other than round.

So I accepted the offer to be part of the program thinking I would learn some nutrition tips and get some expert advice on exercising. And then I went to orientation.

I learned during the next three months I will be taking part in a group exercise classes each week (there are 20 people in my class). This takes place in a room with floor to ceiling mirrors. If you added public nudity to the mix, you would have my fever nightmare.

The fitness coaches then broke the news that the first week’s goal is basically to get ready for week two, which is a one-week detox. That means if it isn’t a vegetable, fruit or water, it doesn’t go in my mouth. No processed foods. No sweetners. No meat. No carbs. And worst (best?) of all….no soda! Diet or otherwise. Sadly, my reaction was akin to being told all my best friends were going away forever.

To their benefit, the coaches tried to soften the blow. They brought in people who had gone through the program and experienced great success. They told us the average weight loss over the three months is 25 pounds. They told us how good we would feel and how much healthier we would be.

I, though, was fixated on the prospect of a week of only fruits and veggies and living without carbs for about a month (yep, other things get introduced back into our diet after the one week detox, but my precious carbs are off the menu for a few more weeks).

We ended the meeting with a group class learning squats, lunges and planks. I am not built for squats, lunges and planks. In fact, I spent most of middle and high school avoiding these very things in gym class.

I left the two-hour session feeling somewhere between excited and horrified. I was also starving. I didn’t have time for dinner before class so just grabbed a snack. Bad idea. I panicked. (Yes, I actually panicked at the thought of completely changing my diet). I stopped at Wendy’s and indulged in a spicy chicken sandwich and french fries (with a Diet Coke…you know…to be healthy. Yeah, yeah…I know).

It felt like a last meal for the condemned. I spent the entire drive wondering, could I do this? This is not some simple wellness program. This was three months of reprogramming myself. Each weekly class covers a different topic: low glycemic eating plan in week 3, dining out and grocery store strategies in week 7, behavior modification in week 8, stress management in week 10 (with other big topics in between). Each class is followed by such things as Pilates, strength training, yoga, spinning and other exotic activities I have read about, but never tried.

As I talked it out with friends and family, I realized a few things. One, nothing I have tried has worked permanently. So maybe what I really need is a complete shake up of my mindset. If I want to be healthy, I have to want it for myself and be willing to put in the hard work. And there are far more difficult things in life than eating fruits and vegetables for a week, as my vegetarian friends pointed out to me. (Oh yeah, you actually live that way. Huh.)

So I am moving forward with this adventure. I have already received a ton of support from the people in my life and learned just how concerned they are for me.

So why am I doing this? I am doing this so I can ride roller coasters again. I am doing this because I want to shop for clothes in department stores. I am doing this so I don’t ever have to worry if I will fit into a booth at a restaurant or a seat at a theater. I am doing this so I can go on an airplane without wondering if this is the time they will charge me for two seats.

I am doing this so I can grow old with my wife.

I know the three-month program is only the start of a long journey. But I am hopeful it will give me the tools to live healthier. So, look for my weekly blog about my progress in the program and share with me your own experiences with trying to become healthier. The company would be welcomed.

Shrinking my Bottom Line—Week 2

How vegans don’t go around randomly slapping people is beyond me.

I survived my one-week detox that the program requires to allow your body to get rid of all the chemical junk it’s accumulated. I endured a full week of eating only organic vegetables and fruits and only drinking water and herbal tea. I clung to the lie that it would get easier as the week went along.

Never trust skinny people. It didn’t.

I know people have endured far more hardship than eating healthy, but Holy Carrots, Batman, if I heard one more crunch of a celery stick I was gonna lose my mind. I am a sugar junkie and carb lover through and through. So it was not unexpected, but still rather pathetic, that by 3 p.m. on day one of the detox, I was ready to mug a deliveryman for a pizza.

The first day happened to be when a big snowstorm blow through, so I took a vacation day and thought I would ride out the first day at home rather than subject my coworkers to my whining.

My wonderful wife made sure I was ready for the week. That Sunday, we hit Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to shop for organic fruits and veggies for the week. We spent more than $200. No meat, no processed foods, just fruits and veggies. And not a single one was laced with gold. I have no idea how healthy people can afford to live longer.

So I was fully stocked going into day one. Fortified by my morning breakfast f an apple and herbal tea (don’t be jealous!), I decided to get some meals prepped for the week and dove into the detox recipes the program supplied. I made a winter vegetable soup our coach recommended. I have never chopped so many vegetables in my life. By the time I was done, I knew my apple energy had been sapped. But it looked and smelled delicious. Inhaling the aroma as it cooked, it gave me hope. I can do this. It looked hearty with all its chunks of vegetables floating in it.

My mistake was following the last direction. Put it all in a blender. My hearty soup turned into baby food. Yummy baby food, but baby food nonetheless. As I sipped my lunch and crunched my way through a salad, my hope began to wane.

By day three, my boss and a co-worker walked into the break room to find me staring into space listlessly chewing on a celery stick—my afternoon “snack.” I preface this next part with my boss and co-workers have been uber-supportive of me doing this and have been terrific. But apparently at that moment, I looked so pathetic all they could do is laugh. Not in a taunting way, but in the way you laugh at the video of the puppy trying to go downstairs for the first time. He’s struggling, but darn it if he’s too cute doing it.

Honestly, I felt hungry the entire week. I ate “full” meals regularly and had snacks as recommended. But the hunger pangs snuck in quickly. I have also never drunk as much water in my life. That also meant going to the bathroom more than I thought was humanly possible. It was bad enough I looked like a pregnant woman without having the bladder of one as well.

And then came Thursday and Friday. Or as I remember them, the days God tested me. On Thursday I had a speaking engagement at a LUNCH TIME and then I was going to see our Publisher tear up the dance floor in the Dancing With The Stars fundraiser event for the Manchester Community Music School. (She was, by the way, awesome!).  The next morning, I had to be up bright and early to moderate an education panel for the Dover Chamber of Commerce during a BREAKFAST event.

Not only were these potential food landmines for me, but also involved me not be irritable and being coherent. Woof!

So I planned out my meals and ate before each of the events. The toughest one was the fundraiser. There was passed hors d’oeuvres.  “Yummy macaroni cheese on a spoon?” “Would you like to try this blank wrapped in bacon?” (I don’t even remember what was wrapped in the bacon as my mind froze at bacon). The servers proffered up these tempting treats close enough to smell them. I white knuckled it, but got through without eating any of it. Just water, thanks! 

I made it through all three events with flying colors and was pretty proud of myself. My wife even surprised me with a massage appointment at a spa on Saturday to celebrate (and to calm the irritability).

I thought I was home free. But oh, without work to preoccupy me, it was a looooong weekend.  Friday night the cravings hit hard. That’s the night my wife and I get Chinese take-out or pizza. The spaghetti squash and eggplant just didn’t cut it. My wife, who also did the meal plan (but with some protein and carbs so she wouldn’t pass out), was feeling it too.

By Sunday evening I was ready to climb the walls. I was willing to do things for a hamburger that my mom would be ashamed of. I was ready to wave the white flag, even though I still had a day of detox to go. And I succumbed. Sort of. We’re only supposed to have three servings of fruit a day. I had my allotment. But I needed a sugar fix. We had a mini watermelon in the fridge. I cut a couple of pieces; the watermelon sugar hit my system and it felt goooood.

You may be thinking, what’s the big deal. Watermelon is a fruit, and it was allowed on the detox plan. The problem was, I ate it all. The entire watermelon. In one sitting. Physically, I felt great after doing it, actually. But I felt guilty. And then I thought, hey, when I binged before it often involved a candy bar or eating an entire bag of caramel Chex mix. This was fibrous sugar water that was my big cheat of the week. I can live with that.

I got through Monday, got through strength band training at the end of our health class at the club, and the next day, when the program switched to incorporating proteins and some fat,  I enjoyed a salad at lunch with CHICKEN!!!!! Oh dear God, I reacted like it was a tub of snickers. I tore into it like it had run over my dog.

Would I want to do the detox again? No thank you. But there were some good things to come out of it. I learned I have a lot of supportive people in my life. My wife, mom and sister improved their diets in solidarity (Best family ever.)  My friends provided tons of support in person and through Facebook, which helped tremendously. My coworkers cheered me on at work.

I found some vegetarian dishes I really enjoyed (spinach salad with pear is really good! Celery still sucks). I learned I can control what I eat and I can overcome my cravings instead of them overwhelming me.

And, oh yeah, I lost 13 pounds and went down two notches on my belt. And this past week, I wore a shirt that didn’t fit me two weeks ago. So all of that is keeping me moving forward.

Shrinking My Bottom Line – Weeks 3 and 4

The thought of having one of those giant rubber balls as a desk chair just seemed laughable to me.  First, I’m a klutz, so balancing my giant buttocks on a ball seems more akin to a circus trick. Second, I weigh enough that I have a fear that sucker will burst under pressure.

So imagine my horror when our group exercise last week involved those same giant rubber balls. Not only did the coach ant us to sit on these (in front of an audience no less) but we were then instructed to, while holding hand weights, walk ourselves partially off the ball until just our head rested on the ball and the rest of our body resembled the strangest table ever made.

I nearly walked out of the class then. I still had that fear of popping the ball, and in front of an audience no less. Instead, I gingerly planted myself on it, and remarkably, there was no explosion. But I still had that doubt. I can barely walk a straight line sober, (ask my wife, who has to redirect me often) never mind make myself into my own weight bench.

But then again, I didn’t think I could make it a whole week just eating fruits and vegetables, and I managed that. So I started moving my feet, felt my body slowly rolling off the ball, my back straightening out. Next thing I knew, I was a human table, my body supported by my feet on the floor and my head on the ball. And I started lifting the hand weights. I was in awe. And then she instructed us to roll ourselves back into sitting position on the ball.

I actually laughed at that notion. It wasn’t pretty, but I managed to do it. And yeah, I felt pretty damn proud of myself. On the other hand, watching myself in the floor to ceiling mirrors stepping up and down on a platform while swinging the ball side to side with both arms, I felt more like a reject from the worst Busby Berkley dance number ever choreographed.

I have met with a trainer who gave me a personalized workout routine that combines strength training with aerobic exercise (in my case, the treadmill). I have never been good at maintaining an exercise regimen. There’s nothing about it that appeals to me. But I know I’m not going to lose this weight if I don’t get serious about it. So I have carved out time to exercise, and stopped using the excuse that “I’m too tired to go to the gym.”

I have learned quite a few things for my gym visits:

• I can push myself that bit further when I think I can’t.

• I do feel better after exercising (that’s a tough one to admit because I hate it when skinny people are right).

• Old guys are waaaay too comfortable being naked in the locker room.

My biggest challenge came at the end of week 4. Our parent company, Millyard Communications, puts on the Made in NH Expo. It’s all hands on deck for four days. It’s also four days of being surrounded by delicious, fattening foods with free samples at every turn, grabbing food when you can and aching feet form being on concrete all day.

There’s no refrigerator for me to se at the hall, which makes it tough to keep fresh food around and stay away form processed food as the program calls for. For four days I did not eat at regular times as the program called for. I did not get in all my food groups as the program calls for. But I did my best, stayed away from the treats, subsisted on salads from one of the vendors, and got through.

I’m happy to report I am down 18 pounds and five notches on m belt. I think I’m going to put my “can’t” thinking behind me, and keep focusing on can.

Shrinking My Bottom Line – Week 5 

I feel like I’m more obsessed with food now than before I was trying to be healthy.  I want to know what it’s wearing. (Is that sexy creamy dressing you have on or just a sheen of oil?). I want to know where it’s been. (Did you jet all the way from Brazil packed with pesticides or did you mosey over from that cute organic farm down the road?) And I want to know how often I can see it. (Are you green and leafy so I can have you anytime, or do you have some naughty bits that I can only indulge occasionally.)

My refrigerator should get a restraining order against me.

Okay, seriously, I actually do feel I obsess more about food now. If I’m not planning on what to eat, I’m prepping meals, worrying about eating on time (the program calls for eating essentially every three hours to keep the metabolism going), and then writing about what I ate in an electronic journal.

My eating went from a hobby to homework. (I know, food is fuel and not recreation.)

It is a good thing that I am more aware of what I am putting into my body. Before the program, I would wolf down dinner and not think a thing about “having seconds,” which was essentially another full meal. No wonder I ballooned.

Now I actually measure out a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips for a rare treat. (And yes, I enjoy each little morsel more than any grown man should.)

The good news is I just received comments back from my coach in my electronic food journal (that is a phrase I never thought I would type in my life) and she actually commented I was not eating enough for my afternoon snack (a phrase I never thought I would hear in my life).

So I will struggle and endure and add some more food to my diet. (Fine, I’m downright giddy about that prospect.).

Now I am off to celebrate my adorable niece’s ninth birthday tonight.  And while I will be stalking the birthday cake like a cheetah after an unaware gazelle, I will resist. This morning, the scale showed I am down 20 pounds.  Between the weight loss and my niece, life is plenty sweet without the cake.

Shrinking My Bottom Line - Week 6

Dante missed a ring in Hell—and it’s a giant, never-ending spinning class.

At least that was my thought when I saw the rows of stationary bikes waiting to be mounted by my classmates in the BetterU program. I loved riding a bike as a kid. It was a ticket to freedom. Riding a stationary bike is only a ticket to a sore ass.

I lasted three seconds on that sucker before my nether regions were screaming at me to get off. But I hung in there. I actually looked forward to the times our coach told us to stand up on our pedals. That was no picnic on the legs, but I was game for anything that got me off that bike seat. 

Before I get to this next part of the story, though, I want to emphasize I that like my coach. She’s energetic without being annoyingly peppy and pushes us without coming off as a sadistic taskmaster (re: she’s not an evil Jillian Michaels). However, I did learn skinny people have a completely different clock when it comes to exercise. At one point she exclaimed, “We’re almost done!” I nearly wept with joy. “Only seven more minutes!” The tears nearly turned to sobbing. Thank God my sweat masked them.

I will admit, spinning was a great workout, but my butt cheeks, and other delicate parts, are just not up for that, so I have scratched spinning off my “I should try that again!” list. Our coach assured us that you can buy gel seats and exercise pants with gel padding, however, my body rejects spandex. You’re welcome everyone. And, bonus, after you do spinning for a while, you develop a callous that makes it less painful, we were told. If there is one thing I want to avoid in life, I’m going with a callous anywhere in that vicinity, thank you.

The BetterU class has been a font of fascinating information though. We’ve been learning about reading food labels. I did not know that ingredients are listed in order of weight, with the most prevalent listed first. It is shocking, even in foods that alleged to be healthier for you, how often sugar, in some form, shows up in the first three ingredients. It is no wonder our population is waddling around. 

For all my vetching, though, I have to say this program has been life changing. I now exercise four to five times a week—and actually sweat and push myself—where before I would complacently go home and sit in front of the television all night and occasionally make a half-hearted, 20 minute, low-impact attempt at exercising. I eat salads regularly and even have begun to enjoy them. I’m learning to actually turn down treats (I abstained from ice cream cake at my niece’s birthday party), and faced with a chocolate cherry cake at a co-workers celebration, I cut myself a only small sliver (hey, a man can only resist so much cake temptation in a single week). Before the program, I would not have thought anything about cutting a honking piece of frosting yumminess for myself.

I was a diet soda fiend before this. I would have three or four glasses or cans a day. In the six weeks that I’ve been on the program, I have not had a single drop of soda. It’s been water, water, and more water with the occasional unsweetened ice tea thrown in for good measure. That is a personal victory.

And how can I complain when, sweet Baby Jesus, I got to eat carbs again this week! Yes, one serving of carbs is mine for the taking daily. I have added whole wheat toast to my breakfast. Mid-week, I held off until lunch so I could have a half turkey sandwich. And tonight, I finally can indulge my former junk food Friday habit just a bit with a couple of slices of homemade pizza with whole wheat crust and tons of veggies on it with a salad. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but during the past six weeks that has been my one former food love I have missed the most.

Even with limited carbs back on the menu, I still managed to lose two and half more pounds this week, for a total of 22 and half pound weight loss. Today I am wearing practically new jeans that I had outgrown and could not quite fit into last week. I am gaining a new wardrobe of clothes that have been sitting in my closet for a year untouched. (Granted, I am shrinking back into my fat clothes, but hey, it’s progress.) I am down another notch on my belt. I feel more energetic. I feel healthier. And people are starting to notice the weight loss.

It’s all keeping me going on a very long journey that will last well beyond the 12 weeks of this program. The weight loss so far is a drop in the bucket of what I want to ultimately shed, but every drop brings me closer to a healthier life. (Jeez, all these freakin’ endorphins are taking my edge off!)

Shrinking My Bottom Line – Week 7

I cheated.

There, I said it.

For my wife’s birthday, she decided on seafood (not one of my favorites) and I had some healthy choices I could make (a limited number of their dishes are not fried). But the siren call of…and yes the shame is mounting as I cop to this…chicken tenders was too much to resist.

On the plus side: I didn’t get fries and I got the small portion instead of the mound o’tenders I used to get.

On the negative side – I didn’t get a salad and I ate an entire baked potato. All those lessons on eating well were drowned out by the reptile part of my brain demanding grease and I gave in. And worse, I didn’t exercise that day.

Don’t worry, my body appropriately punished me with a minor bout of gout.  But if I’m completely honest about it, it was worth it. Those tenders tasted really good. Although, they left a greasy film on my tongue afterwards that my healthy foods don’t, and I am going to remember that, and the gout, the next time the reptile speaks up again.

The good news is I stuck to my eating plan and exercised the rest of the week. (The previous week, I worked out six out of seven days— unprecedented in my life—and I’m determined to do the same this week.) I’m not going to torture myself over “chicken tendergate,” nor am I going to use it as an excuse to dive into orgy of grease and sugar as I’ve done in the past. 

I’m just moving on and getting back to exercising and eating well, because I have discovered during this program that I actually have will power and self control when I choose to exercise it.

Unfortunately, I’ve also learned that I am a grunter. Our group exercise this week was using free weights and as we neared the end one of the repetitions, I heard this noise emanate from deep inside of me as I struggled to push the weights up one more time. And it was not manly. It was the whimper of a little girl. A high-pitched “ungh!”  As if someone had stolen my dolly.  So I need to work on either quelling the grunt (it’s not constant. I’m not that obnoxious) or at least work on deepening it.

Despite that embarrassing confession, I am proud of what I am learning and accomplishing. I not only worry about fitting in time to workout, I’m actually making the time instead of excuses. And I’m seeing the results. I don’t get winded going up stairs anymore. I feel stronger. Someone told me the other day that my pants look huge on me. (I am just a few pounds away from fitting into the next size down!) I took my blood pressure yesterday and it is no longer high, but falling in the normal range for the first time in a long time.

My belt, which was at the last notch and feeling tight when I began this program seven weeks ago, is now on the furthest notch in and next week I expect I will need a new belt.

And I have lost 25 pounds.

And that is what will keep me honest going forward.

Shrinking My Bottom Line – Week 8

This week was all about finding those behaviors and triggers that cause us to make poor food choices or prevent us form exercising. Or, before I was in this program, any day that ended in Y.

Oh, and we’re supposed to develop strategies for preventing them. My list of shame spirals is long and dark. Let’s start with the one-hour commute, each way, to work. I’m not a morning person, so sometimes I would grab some cereal, but more often than not I would swing by Dunkin Donuts and grab a plain sesame seed bagel (because getting cream cheese would make it unhealthy. No one can scam me better than myself).

The ride home was even worse. I never did wise up enough to pack a healthy snack to tide me over for the ride home. So inevitably I would stop at a gas station and get a diet soda and some how convince myself that the lack of calories in that made up for the entire bag a caramel flavored Chex Mix I would gobble up on my ride home or the two Little Debbie Snack Cakes (because when you can’t decide on one, why not get both. After all, Little Debbie wouldn’t offer me something that was bad for me….right?)

 If I was really hungry, I was able to convince myself that stopping by Wendy’s (wow, I’m beginning to realize I have a thing for women with food) or Mickey D’s for fries or even a cheeseburger was okay before going home and polishing a full meal.  Perhaps “convince” is too strong a word. It was more like, “HUNGRY. TURN INTO WENDY’s NOW!!”

And then there are all the networking events I go to. It wasn’t until I started eating healthy that I realized all the delicious empty calories I consumed regularly at these shindigs.  You know the bacon wrapped, cream cheese stuffed calorie bombs I’m talking about. Or those sit down awards dinners where the cheesecake is put right away to mock you throughout your salad and dinner.

 

So now I don’t stop on m way home unless I actually need gas and make sure I have fruit, nuts and water for the ride home. I actually eat breakfast before I leave the house. (I’m amazed Dunkin’ Donuts and Wendy’s haven’t issued a missing persons report. “We haven’t see him for eight weeks. We’re very concerned officer!”)

I eat a healthy snack before I go to a networking event and say no to all those cheesy fried nuggets being passed around under my nose. (I should get an Oscar for my performances. “No really, I’m fascinated by every word your saying and am not really just watching you eat bacon wrapped shrimp like it was food porn.”)

Instead, I keep focused on eating healthy and actually exercising because I like the results I’m seeing and I know I am one slider away from a food orgy at a chamber event. I like the fact that I now freak out my associate editor. You have to understand; Erika and I somehow get along great despite being polar opposites. She is neat, orderly and very healthy. She’s training for a mini triathlon. She swims, runs and bikes, and eats lots of healthy food. So it was weirding her out a little when I started showing up with a similar black gym bag and she realized we were eating similar snacks. (I promise I am not Single White Femaling her.) She has been a great supporter though, offering exercise and recipe tips. (Thanks Erika!!)

And I have now lost 27 and half pounds. My clothes are loose on me. And life feels bacon wrapped and oh sooo good.

Shrinking My Bottom Line – Week 9

Never get cocky. That’s the fat using survival skills and sending your brain messages that it’s okay to have a cocktail or another chocolate covered strawberry. It’s what fat does when it feels threatened. It’s a scientific fact…that I discovered.

That or my own coping mechanism for sliding back into some bad habits. But I like my scientific theory better.

What can I say, I got cocky this week. I went out with co-workers for dinner before seeing Grease at the Palace. I ate a healthy meal, but I ordered my first drink since I’ve been on this program, despite knowing I wasn’t going to have a chance to exercise. I had no regrets though. It was good. And it had beet