Matthew Gross (Part 2)

Meet Ariel and Lucas, your guides on Lifestyle Strength, as we bring you inspiring tales of resilience and the pursuit of well-being. In this episode, we promise you'll uncover the secrets to transforming your health amidst life's whirlwind. Our guest, whose journey from athletic competition to overcoming a debilitating injury, reveals how accountability and motivation fueled their path toward a healthier life. They share the raw truth of hitting rock bottom with five herniated discs and the powerful motivation to live longer for their loved ones. 

Join us as we explore the real struggles and triumphs of a weight loss journey marked by a year-long commitment to dietary changes before introducing exercise. Discover why allowing yourself grace during setbacks is crucial and how balancing indulgences with long-term goals is not only possible but essential. Listen in to gain valuable insights and encouragement to start fresh and thrive, even when the path seems daunting. This heartfelt conversation will leave you inspired to embrace a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Support Ariel by booking a massage:
https://www.competitorsedgemassage.com/

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https://www.hydefitnessconsulting.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to mastering health and well-being in the real world.

Speaker 2: 0:04

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 1: 0:14

We're here to share real stories and expert insights about embracing a healthy lifestyle while balancing the everyday hustle.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve wellness and thrive amidst life's challenges.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Let's dive in.

Speaker 3: 0:27

On the calls did you? You know?

Speaker 1: 0:29

obviously taught you how to count calories. Yeah, what did you find was the most useful from those calls?

Speaker 3: 0:37

Was it the technical information? Was it just the?

Speaker 1: 0:39

like I got to show up every day and tell these people what I ate.

Speaker 3: 0:44

Or was it the?

Speaker 3: 0:44

other people on the call with you know other people going through the same thing. What was it for you? A lot of it was the accountability of all right, I'm in this program to lose weight and I want to lose weight and I wanted to. I don't know, it was more a lot of competition too, like, all right, I want to lose weight and I wanted it. I don't know, it was more a lot of competition too. Like I want to lose more, I want to be top dog, you know. So channeling some of that drive that you had in sports, yeah, yeah, a lot of that and just a lot of. I just wanted to be healthy, you know, I just wanted to be able to live a lot, live longer, be healthier, you know hurt and just be there for my wife, you know right, or just want to be able to hang out with her, and, yeah, hurt yeah that's a good, that's good motivation.

Speaker 3: 1:40

That's uh sounds like you were convicted.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yeah, you know I. I think that's the thing that a lot of people don't really feel when they start.

Speaker 3: 1:50

You know I around people all day to say one things, but then they act in different ways. Sometimes they're, you know, they're even paying for it. Yeah and uh, you know you could tell the difference in the ones that really want it. Yeah, because they're going to make it happen. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you just have to hit that rock bottom and then it'll just click. And that's what happened with me. I mean five herniated discs and being in pain. That's a pretty tough spot. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Yeah, I still work, but you still walk your whole route with five discs. Well, I didn't really walk it kind of worked with me okay.

Speaker 3: 2:37

I mean I didn't walk as much as I eat I should, but I did what I could, yeah, and went every day, you, and worked and I was hurting, but I just did it. But you know, now it's better and I hardly have any pain. I have some arthritis, but it is what it is Right, it's better than what it was. Yeah, absolutely, it absolutely is. Did you feel like through that whole journey would you say it was?

Speaker 1: 3:05

yeah, absolutely it absolutely is. Did you feel like through that whole journey? It would you say it was over the course of what like two years or so, that you got.

Speaker 3: 3:12

Well, the diet was about a year, okay, and After that, that's kind of when I started doing the exercise. Okay, that's when I introduced exercise into my life. Okay, did you find any point in time before you got to the exercise Like, were you like I'm going to give up? Did you have any struggles there, like hard days? Are you just like I'm not, I'm not going to do this anymore? Yeah, I mean, everybody does.

Speaker 2: 3:38

Everybody has hard days.

Speaker 3: 3:40

Yeah, you just got to put that hard day aside and just be like all right, that day happened, I can start over. Yeah, this hotel in the holiday season reporting this and I tell my clients I'm the type of coach that I'm like go have the meal, put it behind you, no good.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Yeah, you know there's no good in just saying that you can't have this and your whole family's there and you know all kinds of things are going on, all kinds of reasons that you should enjoy yourself. It's not that you can go crazy, but it's like just go eat the meal, don't make a big deal out of it. Wake up tomorrow morning.

Speaker 3: 4:19

Get back on your routine, move on, yeah. It wake up tomorrow morning. Get back on your routine, move on, yeah it's one meal.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Yeah, it's the same with the hard days. You just gotta. Just gotta move on like you still, if you still want it right, yeah, which you did.

Speaker 3: 4:30

Yeah, I mean, it's it's one day, it's one meal, it's not gonna ruin everything. Right, it's a progress. It's a marathon, not a race. Yeah, yeah, that's how I looked at it. You know you run a marathon. I mean I haven't yet, but I've done 5k's, but is that on our list? Are you gonna run a marathon someday, someday? Yeah, it's we go. One of my goals I might run one with you. I have to say it on here, otherwise I won't do it. I mean, that's my accountability is having somebody to run against. Yeah, I mean, 3.1 miles is a lot.

Speaker 2: 5:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:10

I mean, growing up, I'm an asthmatic. I have my whole life, you know, and growing up I ran a mile, you, I ran a mile growing up and just couldn't do it. My asthma got the best of me. It's too hard to breathe, yeah, but now I can do a 5K, no problem. Yeah, well, I imagine you've 26 years, you said at the post office, so that'll do it to you. Yeah, you put in the work every day, yeah, I mean, actually that was one of my first goals, was running, was doing 5k? That I mean.

Speaker 3: 5:47

As far as exercises, as far as exercise, yeah, and I first thing I bought was a treadmill and when I it's tough, I mean I knew with my asthma it was bad and I've always been scared of running and that you know and everything. So I'm like, all right, let's do this. And so I started at once, a day I get on there, walk a mile, and I would do it every day until it got easy, and then I'd either go faster or I'd put the incline in and then I would just keep doing that over the day. Just one mile, yeah, and this is after walking during your day. Right, how many miles would you say? Not to sidetrack from the conversation. Do you know how many miles you walk in in any given day like a normal route? Well, I have, I have a driving route now, okay, but back then probably my routes would have three miles, okay.

Speaker 3: 6:57

So you spend, yeah, what, eight hours a day outside walking, yeah, and who knows what weather, and then you get home and you would do another, yeah, another walk for a mile. Yeah, yeah, that's what I would do. That takes, that takes dedication. I don't want to be doing something with my hands at that point. Yeah, yeah, and you know, I I have that. I have pictures on my phone of me backing my heaviest and I would look at that. That'd be kind of my motivation, a lot of it too. So that helped with the treadmill. And also I would, instead of sitting there in my sitting there on the couch, eating, and I would put my iPad up on the treadmill and watch a movie or watch a show or watch whatever while I'm doing it. Yeah, I think that's why I love the treadmill, because I can do that.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Yeah, I got in.

Speaker 3: 7:52

I've never been a runner either Um always lifting weights or, you know, running through sport by playing ultimate, having a reason to run rather than just that steady state and I got motivated this last summer to run more and I would do underdog fantasy football drafts.

Speaker 3: 8:12

So in between, when it wasn't my turn, I would be jogging and running and it was my turn to slow down and walk, make my pick and then start running again and that would take 45 minutes. So I'd just go as hard as I could. But that's the great part about treadmill, because you can kind of distract yourself and gamify it a little bit. Yeah, it works. Yeah, it was treadmill. That was the best investment I bought was that treadmill? Yeah, I had it for two years and then I think I was getting up to I was doing what was it? 10 minute miles. I got down to Pretty solid amount. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, then I got into 30 minutes. I would put on a show.

Speaker 2: 9:06

I do whatever.

Speaker 3: 9:07

I can see how far you go yeah, and then when the show was over I looked down I'm like, oh, it's been 30 minutes, all right. Yeah, did you keep a log of it?

Speaker 1: 9:16

to like see how you're progressing, or did you just kind of like mentally keep track?

Speaker 3: 9:20

um, I mean, the treadmill kind of remembers, it, kind of shows you the last workout you did. But I also would, I would have I bought a calendar and every day I would put how many miles I went that day on the treadmill. Did you find that that helped you keep that competitive edge like for yourself, where you're like, okay, I got to do, I got to do a little bit better. Just gotta do at least this, at least that, yeah, that, even that. Yeah, I always got to improve. You know, if anything, just point one right in the treadmill, just anything, just keep that. Say you're doing a five Speed on one incline and do that for a week. Just keep that. And then the next week just do 5.1 or go up one in clock. Yeah, push yourself then even just a little bit. Now look down and make our well, more weights gone down. Yeah, I think I, I was down to like 265, I think. And then that's kind of like when I plateaued.

Speaker 3: 10:32

Okay, I think that's when I learned about pickleball, and so where are we at in timeline? You're what, like a year and a half ish in, I think? Yeah, about a year and a half, maybe two. So I think I learned about pickleball in about 2022, somewhere around then. That's how I heard it. I first heard about it, yeah, I think it's when the craze started really happening. Yeah, right there, right after COVID was starting to come towards the end. Yeah, I mean, I was actually.

Speaker 3: 11:13

I actually heard about it on a podcast. Someone said they were, they went and played pickleball and I'm like who's this? Yeah, on my phone and went on YouTube and was like, oh wow, I know it's kind of like ping-pong, yeah, and tennis, and you have backgrounds of both of those things, right? Well, I never played tennis. Okay, I played ping-pong, table tennis. I've heard whatever people say. I've heard it both ways, and I I played ping pong my whole life too. I mean, we had ping pong table growing up and my church had it and we just I'd go on my summers and I'd go and play ping pong, you know, with all the kids and like, oh well, this kind of looks like fun.

Speaker 1: 12:04

So 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've missed. Again, thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.