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Lifestyle Strength
We discuss ideas, principles, and tactics that help people improve their position in life. With a background in fitness, Lucas strives to empower others by sharing amazing stories of challenge, transformation, and growth.
Lifestyle Strength
A True Story of Transformation with Matthew Gross
What happens when a collegiate athlete trades the bustling city life for the serene landscapes of Northwest Arkansas? Meet Matthew Gross, our guest on Lifestyle Strength, and hear his transformative journey from an active youth to a letter carrier who faced real-life challenges of weight gain and lifestyle changes. With insights from both Ariel, a seasoned massage therapist, and Lucas, a Northwest Arkansas fitness mentor, this episode offers a unique window into how Matthew navigated his path towards health and well-being, influenced by a spontaneous move inspired by family ties and the longing for greener pastures.
Join us as Matthew shares the pivotal moments that sparked his decision to embrace a healthier lifestyle, shedding unwanted pounds and embracing an active life once again. His story showcases the profound impact environment and support systems have on personal transformation. Whether you're on your own wellness journey or simply curious about real-life stories of change, this episode is packed with motivation and practical insights. Discover how balancing the hustle of daily life with wellness goals can lead to a more fulfilling life, inspired by Matthew's incredible journey.
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https://www.competitorsedgemassage.com/
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https://www.hydefitnessconsulting.com
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to mastering health and well-being in the real world.
Speaker 2:I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of experience in holistic health, and I'm here with Lucas, a seasoned fitness coach, who's transformed the lives of hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 3:We're here to share real stories and expert insights about embracing a healthy lifestyle while balancing the everyday hustle.
Speaker 2:Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve wellness and thrive amidst life's challenges.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in.
Speaker 3:Today I'm joined with Matthew Gross. He has been an acquaintance of mine for a little while now. We haven't got to spend just a ton together, but my interest in pickleball has brought us a little bit closer between mutual friends, and he has an amazing story. So, matt, I'll just let you introduce yourself you know to everybody what you do, um and tell us just a little bit more about you. Know why you decided to to lose the weight in the beginning and how much weight you lost?
Speaker 4:okay, um well, I'm a letter carrier, worked for the post office, been going what 26 years. Started, went to community college for about six months, got hired on the post office in the next sense, started in Phoenix, arizona, just throughout the years. And you know life gets at you, it goes fast, yeah, yeah. Year after year is just Live a life, not care, not care in the world, you know.
Speaker 3:Then one day you realize our gain, 40, 50 pounds and I mean when I graduated high school I was 190 and then, and Matt's a tall guy I don't know if y'all can see, if you're not watching the video I meant how tall you. Six three, six three, okay, so 190 at six three is pretty pretty lame, yeah, I mean I, I did a lot of sports in high school.
Speaker 4:I mean I played baseball, a little bit of basketball, swimming, wrestling. I grew up with my dad and played racquetball, so we played a lot of racquetball growing up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you were active a lot when you were younger then, yeah, I was very active Multi sport. Yeah, so you were active a lot when you were younger then, yeah, I was very active Multi- sport yeah. What did you? Did you pursue anything into college, or was it or community college? Did you do anything during that? Or I didn't really do anything in college.
Speaker 4:I mean I was. I did get an offer for swimming. I was like a tenth of a second off the school record, oh wow. And and 50 meter, 50 meter, uh, freestyle. Got an offer for that to uh some college in Ohio.
Speaker 3:Not the big ones but it's still swinging at collegiate level.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I decided to go you know, go to community college in Phoenix. It's where I met my wife, so it was a good decision, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'd say so. It's funny how those decisions that you don't think are, you know they're impactful, but you don't realize how impactful they are in the moment when you're making them, and then you leads you down a road that ends up ultimately shaping your life in a different way. Oh yeah damn.
Speaker 4:And then got the offer. My dad, you know, he was a postmaster built out in Phoenix, so he got me to take the test and got hired. Like six, eight months after I took the test and then got busy with that, stopped doing the sports yeah, all I did was work. Yeah, then about time to eat healthy, you know? You know, just let those. Yeah, I forget about all the little things. And right, just over the years I just gained some weight and then we decided to get out of Phoenix. Mm-hmm, hot, a lot of people I think there was like three million, something like that, probably more than that, but yeah, a lot bigger than northwest arkansas.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah. Why'd y'all decide on here what y'all decide?
Speaker 4:northwest arkansas. Uh well, my wife was born and raised in fort smith, okay, and then her dad, uh, lives up here, so I moved, he came and visited and I just fell in love with it, yeah that was our green.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the green instead of the, the orange, the brown.
Speaker 4:Not everything's covered in dirt.
Speaker 4:Right, right, right so so was it when you moved here that you took an interest in health and like trying to try to make better decisions well, I mean, when my first winter here I learned about black ice okay, because I've never dealt with snow or right ice or any of that I was walking on my route and I slipped and I fell and I ended up breaking my back and so I got it. I had five bulging discs and I went through the rehab and everything. I got it down to two and they ended up doing surgery and it was that time where I had gained most of my weight. Okay, and I want to say before that I was about 290 and after, after that I I went up to about three thing. My doctor said 384 was my highest, wow.
Speaker 3:So you swung from like like in high school yeah, a hundred pounds, that's, that's a big or almost over almost 200.
Speaker 4:That's, that's, that's a lot man, that's a lot of weight. Yeah, I mean I hurt my back not being active and just I don't know it's hurting all the time, and just eight.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, I mean that can be easy to do because you know, especially somebody like yourself who you know you've. It always sounds like you'd always just kind of came naturally, like through sports being active. And it's easy when you're young too, especially if you're. If you're active, if you know it's part of your life, but it's not to the level of like making a career out of it. You know it's not your job to do it. Maybe you don't really. You know, look what you're eating so much you don't take it quite as seriously, and so you know you're able to maintain while you're young, when you are active and you can do all those things and you have an injury and something that puts you down and it's easy to slip into that hole yeah, it was.
Speaker 4:It was very easy. It was very easy to you know, put everything to the side and just you know eat.
Speaker 3:Do you find like there's comfort, like in food?
Speaker 4:Kind of I mean it was food really wasn't like a it's still of, isn't a priority to me. I mean, I'm not like, oh, I have to eat. It's just you know. You sit there and not just like, all right, what do I do? Right, you know. And then you just, you know, grab whatever and just start snacking, and you don't even think you're doing it so you felt like it was just kind of mindless for you, almost like it, just it just.
Speaker 3:You woke up one day and you're like, wow, like yeah, yeah, yeah, and then just one day I'm like what am I doing? Yeah, did you think that the injury kind of pushed you in that direction, like it gave you enough pain to want to open your eyes a little bit?
Speaker 4:um, a little bit Like it gave you enough pain to want to open your eyes a little bit. A little bit. I mean it was a lot of factors went into the decision to start losing the weight. I mean I lost my parents about four years ago and that kind of pushed me to the edge. And then my wife got pregnant and then I was kind of like, alright, what am I doing? I was kind of like the catalyst like tipping me over the edge, yeah, and so I started looking into different things. I mean I have tried, you know the quick diets, you know the atkins, the just everything trying to lose weight. You know my whole life, you know, and you lose that weight. But the second you get off of it it just comes back. Yeah, comes back with the force.
Speaker 3:How many times did you, had you tried those things? How many times did you swing?
Speaker 4:Probably six, six, seven times. Yeah. Now I mean then, uh, I heard of this weight loss thing to my insurance and they offered they offered it for free, I mean it was. I mean I mean I checked my insurance they're like, hey, you'll try this program. And so I did that and it was kind of a keep you in check, like hey, check in every week, like some accountability, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you go to this like a zoom meeting, you know, okay, and then you wait and you just kind of talk with a counselor it's kind of a group session, right, and they helped you like learn what's good, what's bad, you know, kind of kind of like counting calories, yeah, you put in your data what you are, your height, your weight and everything, kind of just all right, this is what you shoot for. And so I tried, you know, I I started coming off, um, and I coming off, and I lost probably 40 pounds within the first six months, you know, and I was losing a lot. I think I ended up losing 80 pounds. That first year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you lost quite a bit, cuz I remember I think I met you right around that time. Yeah, I remember the first time I met you I I was like he's a big guy, yeah. And then the next time I saw you, I think a few months later, I was like is that the same guy? It slimmed down quite a bit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I ended up when I was done with the program. It was a year long, I think. I ended up losing about 100. So I got back down to about 280, 285. So I was back down to where I started before the injury, and that was all I did Just the counting calories, just the counting calories, and showing up weekly, yeah, every week, yeah, every week for a year. And no exercise, no, nothing. All I did was food.
Speaker 3:Just looked through food. Did you make any changes to the things that you were eating specifically, or were you just tempering your portion sizes?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I didn't cut anything out. I didn't like, oh, I'm only doing carbs or I'm only doing protein. It was more of portion size. Now I was have a steak, you know vegetables, potato, and you know just your basic portion size, and how does it?
Speaker 3:just not overeating right yeah, eat till you're full, right, then you're done kind of learning how to be intuitive with you, know what your, what your body's telling you that you need, and then you know how it feels to eat that food and and not feel like you can you just cram stuff in your mouth? Yeah, I've had. I've had that in the past. A lot of my clients have had that. Yeah, where are you just kind of watching Netflix and it's easy just to continue to eat food? Yeah, you don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you. Just you don't the show and you look down and like what'd that bag go? And then you feel terrible.
Speaker 3:And you're just sitting there like what did I do?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then you tell yourself I'm not doing that again, and then the next show comes on, and then you sleep the next day and then it starts all over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We want to invite you back next week as we continue the conversation and be sure to follow us on social media to get all of our content and clips and anything you might have missed. Again, thanks for listening.
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