I'm a Newbie, but I have a lot to offer...

M

Matthew Good

New member
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to pop in and introduce myself.

I'm a Registered Dietitian with a M.S. in dietetics, as well as having a certification in Adult Weight Management.

So that's the boring stuff. The more interesting is that I was about 330 lbs. in college and now weight in the 200's. I have kept that weight of for the past decade or so.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns...I'm all ears!

Dedicated to your weight loss success,
Matthew Good, MS, RD, LD

P.S. You can call me Matt :)
 
Hi Matt

Welcome to the forum. Its great to see you here.

Well done on both your qualifications and personal weight loss.

I can imagine that being 130 pounds overweight was a topic for conversation on your course. LOL I know that no end of people thought that I needed to be told that I was overweight so I imagine that it was magnified for you.

You are a really interesting (and most welcome) person in our midst.

Did you choose the subject to help you to deal with your problems or did you deal with your weight in order to improve credibility once you would be working in the field?

Were you large as a child or did you gain weight late on?

Well done for maintaining your weight loss for a decade. Do you still have to work hard on maintenance or does it come naturally for you now? Have you gained weight at all during that period - then pushed things back down - or have you stayed constantly in the area of your goal weight?

Margaret :)
 
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Hi Margaret,
thank you for the warm welcome!

I was always "big boned", as my mother would politely call it, but never obese. Always an athlete growing up. But when college came, no athletics and a lot of beer and fast food spiraled me out of control! I gained over 100 lbs. in under 2 years.

I was originally studying psychology in college and switched to nutrition for obvious reasons. Imagine being a 330+ pounder and having to tell the class on the first day, "I want to help people lose weight." That wasn't easy.

In regards to your question about about maintenance...

I don't want to discourage people, but I still have to work at it. I love food. I fluctuate from 200 to 215. When I start creeping above that, I know it's time to hit the treadmill and log some extra miles, and pay a little more attention to my diet. For the most part, I have come to a happy place in my life where I can balance the goods and the bads.

I'll be honest, the six years of studying nutrition and physiology were necessary, but my background in psychology and having gone through it myself provided me with priceless insight into what my private clients need from me. I have a completely unique approach to losing weight that mixes the standard science of nutrition and physical activity with the mental attitude needed to do so.

I know I am a newbie, and I understand the reasons behind not allowing us to link out for spam reasons. However, I wrote a book on my success story, detailing the methods that I used to physically and mentally lose weight. I'll be running another kindle promotion here shortly which will allow people to download the book for free. If this is something that is allowable, I can provide the link when the promotion starts. I just don't want to overstep my boundaries in the forum!

I love being able to help people lose weight, and that's why I am here. Anything I can do to help out...just let me know!
 
There are indeed quite definite rules on spamming - and there is an "no links" policy for new people...

It is best not to overstep boundaries without getting permission from the owner. I will happily mention your arrival in the moderation area so that the owner and more experienced moderators are aware of your presence.

I think that the issues associated with maintenance is one of the most interesting areas... And an area close to my heart since I failed maintenance when things got very stressful - hence the reason for my 2013 project to hopefully push me back down to goal...

It is great that you want to help. We have a never ending influx of new people who come here looking for direction... While for some it is a matter of wanting to feel comfortable with the way they look (which in itself is a fully valid reason for being here) - for others it can literally be a case of life and death or at least quality of life and life expectancy. My husband's father died as he turned 47 from a heart attack due to his severe level of obesity. A number of people have posted on these boards who have seen what the potential impact can be.

In any community of this type there is a definite need for education. There are people who are seemingly unaware of the benefits of good nutrition - the targets that they could be aiming to hit with macros... the potential benefits of hitting those targets. The concept that less calories is not always better... People that have read one too many magazines which talk about 1000 calorie a day diets and think that they need to eat at that level to lose weight... people that think that they would never be able to lose weight because they are sure that they could not cope with eating at that level long term...

There is a definite need for your help.

If someone were to send you a message asking for details about your ebook then I suspect that the owner would not mind you providing them - but I know that there are definite rules against any poster saying "I have an offer - email me for details"... It seems reasonable to me for you to put in your diary something along the lines of "I have been busy today working on my ebook on weight loss". Naturally the owner has the final say and there are other mods with a lot more experience in moderating on this forum than I have.

I know that in the past various professionals have individually been given "a degree of latitude" - but they tend to have helped a lot of people in the forum first. LOL I can think of one professional who made over 17,000 postings... The vast majority of these postings give no hint as to how people could contact him other than through this forum. Like you - he was principally here in order to help others.
 
Thanks again Margaret. I get wrapped up in helping people. I spent hours in here today scouring to see where I can help. I also spent some time scratching my head at some of the misguided advice. And I came across a few obvious spammers. I'm here to lend a hand to anyone who needs it, and I will leave it at that.

I'm sorry to here that your maintenance efforts fell a little short. I have a saying I use with my clients..."Willpower is a fickle friend. There when times are good. No where to be found when times are bad."

Congrats on the progress you have made again, and keep up the good work. Remember, the fastest way to lose weight is not to quick. The second fastest way is to start again immediately every time you quit! Make "I'll start on Monday" a unspeakable phrase in your home. Make your mistakes, learn how to avoid and deal with them in the future, and move on.

Thanks for making me feel like a part of the team,
Matt
 
Thanks for your congratulations.

My weight gain was fairly predictable...

I got to goal in 2009 after a 2 year project. I took my body fat percent down to 21.7% at age 50 when I declared goal and maintained it fine for 2 years (give or take a couple of pounds of my zone)...

Then I had a very stressful 2011... Firstly in early January my mother in law (who is now 90) was taken into hospital for 9 weeks. Before she was out of hospital my husband was rushed into hospital. He needed an emergency operation - and when I tell you that his BMI was turned 62 you will imagine how worried I was.

Fortunately things went well and he did actually lose some weight - which was a blessing as he ended up having five operations in total across 2011.

He is still morbidly obese - but thankfully a smaller morbidly obese... :)

Before the end of 2011 it became obvious that we would need to relocate 300 miles as my parents are 90 and 95 and were having difficulty in coping... This caused a lot of upheaval with my husband looking for new work and having to renovate our house to a level where we could rent it out... Then the move itself... That was basically the story of 2012... And settling in to living with my parents - not easy when you are in your 50s...

To make my weight gain even more predictable - I'm a PCOS lady...

Frankly - it would have been pretty surprising if I hadnt gained a bit...

At the end of the year I decided that I really needed to get back to the forum and do something about it before things got out of hand...
 
Matthew Good said:
And I came across a few obvious spammers.
Click to expand...

We do get spammers and also people that come here that strongly suspect that they are about to spam.

If you see anyone who is actually dropping spam on the forum - please report it. Each post has a grey footer bar with things like "edit post" and "reply" on the right hand side. On the left hand side there is a triangle with an exclamation mark in it. If you click on that it gets reported to the mods... That way we know to check it out.

We have a lot of people who come here looking for good advice and support. They do not need to meet a salesman trying to convince them that some magic pill is all that they need. We do our best to try to keep the board clean - but things are bound to creep through...
 
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