Come Get Healthy with Me!

A Journey to a Healthy Mind Body & Spirit

Matt Brannan

The Power of a Decision

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Four years ago I found myself at the bottom of a very deep and dark hole.  I had experienced two heart attacks within a year of each other, I had retired from my job as a nurse after many years, I faced few prospects for work, and I was depressed.  Deeply depressed.

At first I spent the majority of my time fooling myself into thinking it was going to be ok.  Surely the universe would have my back here.  I can do this.  I had no plan at all.  Just a vague notion that maybe it would just magically all work out.  Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, and guess what happened?  Nothing changed.

Then I slipped into the dark hole and stayed there.  I became very good at berating and hating myself.  I didn’t understand why this was happening to me.  I blamed everyone and everything around me.  But most of all I blamed myself.  I hated the man that stared back at me in the mirror, but somehow I also felt like I deserved this.  Many people in my life tried to help, but I wouldn’t listen to them.  What did they know?  They couldn’t possibly understand how I was feeling!

Last year I made a decision.  Not a half-ass kind of decision.  A real no going back, I will die on this hill decision.  This had to change, and I had to change it.

I was so angry, hurt, scared, depressed, hopeless, and sad, and that created a rage inside of me to say, “ENOUGH!!  I’VE HAD ENOUGH!!”  So I decided.  No more would I sit in that dark hole.  No more would I not show up for Katie.  No more would I feel sorry for myself.  NO MORE!!

Things started to change very quickly.  I started to work on me.  I discovered that the world wasn’t out to get me, it was just waiting for me to decide and take action.  I realized how painful it had been for Katie to watch me go through this, and exactly how wonderful she is for realizing I had to walk this path alone no matter how much it tore her up inside.  I discovered how much faith everyone had in me, even when I had none in myself.  Once I had found my hill, I was shocked at how many people climbed the hill and fought beside me.  I discovered how much love I have in my heart, and in my life.  I found out how grateful I am for everyone, every day, and every breath I get to share.  I stopped taking everything for granted and started telling people how much I appreciate them.  I learned to appreciate myself.  I learned to love myself again.

Don’t get me wrong.  There were struggles along the way.  There were days when the old me would try to wake up.  But I had already made my decision.  And I would never climb down from this hill.  Never.  Somehow a magic thing happened.  It made the struggle bearable.  It made the dark days lighter.  The decision gave me the strength to punch back.  The decision reminded me that life wasn’t happening to me.  Life was happening because of my choices.  There are still struggles.  But my decision is a bright beacon, a north star that leads me out of anything thrown my way.

In the last year, Katie and I have moved into a bigger space, we both work from home, our relationship has never been better, we take positive steps every day, I have learned to laugh again, and I have found a peace and serenity I didn’t know existed.  I wake up every day motivated, excited, happy, and thankful.

Are you tired of life the way it is?  Do you feel called to something bigger, better, exciting, and powerful?  Then make a decision today.  The kind of decision that there’s no going back on.  You are going to stand on the hill of this decision and die if necessary.  Because this hill?  This is your hill, and no one can take your hill.  Reach into yourself, grab that feeling, and climb your hill.  I know you’ll be surprised by the results.  And I’ll fight beside you.  That’s a promise.

Geeking Out

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The other day Katie and I were walking through Target and I stumbled across something that made me giddy like a young school boy.  I full on geeked out.  Like embarrassed Katie geeking out.  It turns out Nintendo has been releasing versions of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo from the late ’80s and ’90s.  I practically tackled people in the store to get to the salesman.  I had to have one.  If you can picture an older man, gray beard and all, sprinting for the clerk you’ll get the picture.  Real good look.

My first experience with a Nintendo was nothing short of magical and hilarious.  My best friend and I had somehow found a copy of Jaws and took it home to try it out.  Jaws is not a great video game.  In fact, it’s not even a good video game.  Ok fine.  It sucks, but that night we didn’t care, and to us it was the greatest game ever made.  We stayed up all night playing that stupid game.  I’m not even sure we beat it.  Many hours later, the sun was coming up, we hadn’t slept a wink, and we were still laughing and carrying on.  We had so much fun.
Maybe Nintendo is not your thing, but think back to a time when you were young and play felt good.  The innocence, laughter, and love.  Not a care in the world but what you were doing in that moment.  Now we all know adulting sucks, and it intrudes on every aspect of life.  The messenger of misery comes and goes, and sometimes it feels like he just won’t stop showing up.  Sometimes the younger boy excited about a crappy video game based on a movie about a man eating fish seems so far away.  A whole lifetime away.  I promise you he’s not.  He’s just been forgotten, put in the corner of the attic.  Sure, he’s dusty and neglected, but he’s still there, waiting for adult me to brush him off and let him play again.
My encouragement for you today is to do some soul searching.  Find the fun things deep inside that you used to love to do.  Then go out and find a way to do that again, even if it’s only as long as a game of Donkey Kong.  You might just find yourself in a great place.  You might also just happen to find something you didn’t even know you lost.

My Journey Here

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I’m going to come clean here about my journey.  My diet in the past was really bad.  Like worse than you’re imagining.  So as we begin this journey of clean eating and getting healthy, let me take a few minutes to tell you a little bit of my journey.  I hope this will help you to see that no matter where you’re starting on the healthy spectrum, you’re not alone, and I am here to help you along.

My previous diet consisted of fast food at least once a day, enough Coke to drown a small group of water buffalo, hot dogs, Cheetos, Pringles, Fudge cookies, and anything else with a saturated fat content above 100 % of my daily intake.  To say my diet was bad is a complete understatement.

The problem for me was that I have a good metabolism and really never gained a pound from any of these escapades.  Now I can hear you grumbling through the computer.  What do I know about the struggle if I never gained weight?  I know I felt lethargic and sick a lot, never thinking it had to do with my diet.

Now the real kicker here is I’m also a Registered Nurse.  You would think I would know better, and in so many ways I did.  I just didn’t care.  That is until I had a heart attack while sitting at work one night that almost killed me.

Having a heart attack is scary, sobering, frightening, overwhelming, and depressing.  As the weeks go on, I will dive more into this topic.  I feel it deserves a blog post of its own.  But I want to pull the curtain back just a little and give you something to think about.

Having the heart attack made me realize my diet and lifestyle was a complete reflection of how I felt about myself on the inside.  It’s not that I didn’t care about my diet. I didn’t care about me.  It’s not that I didn’t know any better. It’s just the knowledge of what to do wasn’t enough to overcome the loud voices in my head telling me I didn’t deserve to be healthy.  And it took almost dying to open my eyes.

I will be writing a lot more over the coming weeks about my journey, but I want to be upfront about this now.  We will be posting diet tips and tricks, recipes, workouts, encouragements, videos, and fun and silly things often right here.  But we’re also going to dig into the why.  Why is health not the most important thing in your life?  It’s one thing to help with the body, but we’re also going to be working on our minds.

If you’re reading this, know that I genuinely care where you’re at right now, and excited for where you’re going to be.  I wouldn’t want to be on this journey with anyone else.  Cheers and we will talk again very soon.

Cheating on Your Diet Is Good?!?

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One of the major lessons taught to all of us as children is not to cheat.  Some of us didn’t listen very well and subsequently found ourselves in the headmaster’s office with a bare bottom and a paddle whistling through the air heading towards its destination with incredible speed and cruelty.  Afterwards, we walked uncomfortably back to the classroom, shoulders hunched, bottom throbbing, swearing to ourselves we would never cheat again, or at least not until the next math test.  Like I said, some of us didn’t listen very well.
Well I have great news!!  It turns out cheating on your diet is actually good!!
Ok.  Before you click the little red x in the corner and write me off as a cheating flake, hear me out.  It turns out that cheating on your diet may actually help you to lose weight.  You see our bodies are actually really smart.  Smarter then an eight year old looking at his buddies math test right in front of the teacher.  When you cut calories and start restricting your diet, your levels of leptin begin to fall.  What is leptin you ask?  Well first I’d like to know who names this stuff.  Seriously.  Anyways, leptin is a hormone in the body that keeps you feeling full and kicks up your metabolism.  When you cut calories, the amount of this hormone begins to crash causing your metabolism to slow down.  Uh oh.
It turns out that leptin is sensitive to glucose so some athletes have started a practice call refeeding.  Again.  What is with these names.  Couldn’t they call it like binge training or Cheeto lifting?  These planned meals after a workout cause increased muscle synthesis and lowered body fat according to scientists.  I’m sorry.  Cheeto say what?
It turns out you can benefit from splurging every now and then.  Here are some great tips for cheating without getting caught.

Plan your cheats and limit them to once a week.

 

Your cheats shouldn’t be every night with a tub of ice cream while binge watching The Walking Dead.  That’s not cheating.  That’s just a lifestyle.  Trust me.  I know about this one.  Seriously though, by planning your cheats, you get the benefit from the cheat but are still able to quickly get back on the clean eating train through the rest of your week.  And it gives you a goal to aim for during the week.

Make the cheat a meal, not a snack, and not all day.

 

You shouldn’t splurge all day long, and you shouldn’t pop the top of the Pringles jar and not stop.  But you can have the steak, baked potato, and split a dessert with your partner.  Mmmmm.  Steak.

Try not to splurge with your trigger foods.

 

What is a trigger food you ask?  For me it would be Pringles or Cheetos.  I know.  Big surprise.  It’s the foods that you can’t stand just to have a little bit of.  Like ice cream.  Mmmmm.  Ice cream.  Oops.  Sorry.  It’s best to avoid these trigger foods for your cheat because if you’re anything like me, self-control goes out the window and before I know it, a cheat has turned into a cheesy dust finger coated nap inducing binge fest.
So plan your cheat and enjoy it.  And no need to worry about that pesky headmaster.  He’s not watching anymore.

5 Common Myths About Diets

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So it’s time to get healthy.  You’re committed.  You’ve set your intention.  You’ve even picked an accountability partner and a start date.  Then you go on the internet to do some simple searches for diet tips and you’re immediately overwhelmed with five thousand articles each claiming they’ve found the one true diet that will make you look like a supermodel in 14 short days.  The next diet claims that eating only fat will make you skinny.  The next article shouts that all fat in your diet is bad and should be eliminated all together.  It’s loud, confusing, and obnoxious.  So today we’re going to cut through all the noise and discuss the top five myths about diets and find out the real truth.

Myth # 1:  The Best Way to Lose Weight is to Go On a Diet

Wow.  Bet you didn’t see this one coming right out of the gate.
The idea of a “diet” is to “start a program” that is specifically designed to help you lose weight.  The problem lies in the mindset.  If you look at a diet as temporarily doing something different in order to achieve weight loss, the odds are you’re going to stop doing it.  My best advice?  Don’t go on a “diet.”  Instead, decide you’re permanently going to change the way you eat.  Find a plan that works for you in the long term, and then make sure you’re eating the right amounts to encourage weight loss.

Myth # 2:  Eating Smaller Portions More Frequently Actually Boosts Your Metabolism and Promotes Weight Loss

This theory has been floating around the internet for a very long time.  The idea is that if you keep adding small amounts of food, your metabolism is always in high gear leading to more calories burned overall.
The truth is much different.  The amount of food intake has little to no effect on metabolism.  The one thing that does affect your metabolism is bigger muscles.  Yep.  You heard that right.  One pound of fat free muscle burns about 14 calories a day as compared to a pound of fat that only burns about 3 calories a day.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but 14 calories a day adds up over time and can certainly lead to getting off those pounds, so try lifting some weights or any kind of strength training.

Myth # 3:  Don’t Eat Anything After 7 at Night

There are three things you must remember:  don’t expose them to bright lights, don’t get them wet, and whatever you do, don’t ever feed them after midnight.  Gremlins is one of my favorite movies from my childhood and this myth completely reminds me of the warning given by the sage old man.
Your body burns calories morning, noon, and night.  Your cells don’t have a wristwatch they look at to decide when to burn calories.  The truth is most people who eat at night are tired and mentally fatigued from the day and the snacks they grab tend to be unhealthy.  So it’s really not about the time of day, but the snack itself.  If a tub of ice cream accompanies your Game of Thrones binge watching, maybe try a piece of fruit instead.

Myth # 4:  Cut Your Calories Down A Lot!!

Ok.  This one gets a little tricky.  If you cut your caloric intake down to say 1200 calories a day, yes you will lose weight.  The problem is that it won’t last for long.  Our bodies are amazing machines that are able to detect when we go into “starvation mode.”  On an extremely low calorie diet, the body gets very good at being efficient with the calories it’s been given to ensure your survival.  Also, because you feel deprived and hungry, the odds of long term success are much smaller.
The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to try a modest calorie restriction that you are comfortable with and then never stop.  Like Myth #1, this will set you up for the greatest level of success.

Myth # 5:  Diet Foods are Helpful With My Diet

Not exactly.  Low-fat, Low-carb, diet foods are everywhere in the grocery store.  They promise to make the process of being on this diet painless and easy.  The catch?  Just because they are low-carb or low-fat doesn’t necessarily mean they are low-calorie.  Just because something says diet on the label doesn’t mean in fact it is good for you.  Also, there’s a tendency to eat more of the diet food because it’s healthier.  The increase in serving size negates the healthy aspects of the food in the first place.
Look at the nutrition label and continue to control your portion sizes to promote weight loss and good health.  And don’t believe everything you see on the food labels.

I’m Good At Overeating

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This story about overeating starts and ends like every story where I’m at a restaurant. First, I’m handed a gargantuan menu with more writing than War and Peace, asked what I’d like to drink, and a complimentary basket of something is lovingly placed on the table right in front of me. At first I think to myself, I’ll just have one breadstick. Just one to tide me over until I order. Then I start digging into the menu. After page 37 I’ve narrowed down my dinner choices to my top 12. The waiter comes back and asks if we need more time. What do you think? I haven’t even reached the halfway point of your menu yet. And can you please bring more breadsticks? Choosing my optimal dish from your menu is real work here. Yes I’d like a refill on my Coke too. Thank you.

An hour later I’ve eaten more food then some people eat in a month, I’m leaned back in my chair wondering how in the hell I’m going to make it to the car, and I’m debating whether the fact that I’m sweating is a sign I’m having a heart attack or maybe it’s just hot in the restaurant.

Why do I do this to myself?

First of all, I’m not alone. That doesn’t make this story less glutenous, but it does make me feel better to know I’m not alone sitting in the shovel + face = me club. Second, it’s become so much easier to overeat now. So let’s take a look at why that is and maybe I can figure out how to keep my next chair from being a forklift.

Portion size –

It turns out that portion sizes in America have been growing in direct proportion to our waistbands. And the cruel trick is that visual aspects of a meal have been shown to influence how much we eat. For example, if you put pork chops in front of my beautiful wife, and a whole pig in front of me, I’m just as likely to finish my plate and report feeling less full afterwards. Sneaky eyes tricking my brain. So it’s pretty important to be aware that you are likely to eat however much food is on your plate, regardless of amount.

Variety –

So I’m at dinner and I’m on my 12th breadstick. Don’t judge. You know they’re good. After that many though, I’m getting kind of bored with breadsticks. The good news is the salad just came out. And it’s green so it must be healthy. Just when the salad is making me a little too green, out comes my soup, and then my main dish, and my side dishes are waiting for me after that, and then ice cream. You get the picture. Too much variety can cause us to eat more than we would otherwise. In fact, researchers found that people ate four times as much when given multiple different foods. Four times? Amateurs.

Distractions –

The TV is on tuned to Westworld, the popcorn is popped, the butter is melted, and my Coke is on the coaster. I’m ready to go. An hour later the popcorn is gone, the Coke is empty, Westworld is over, and my wife is upset because I didn’t share a single piece with her. How did that happen? Well first, let’s be honest, I don’t share well. Second, I didn’t even realize I was eating. Eating while distracted by something else interrupts the mechanisms in our bodies that would normally stop an eating session, like feeling full. I tried to explain this to her. I didn’t know eyes could roll that far back into someone’s head.

So the answer to all of this is to eat mindfully and be aware of portion size. At a restaurant now, I might eat only half of the meal brought to me and no breadsticks. Practicing mindfulness while eating helps, and I don’t need a wheelchair assist to get to the car after dinner.