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YSU Teacher's Book Sheds Light on Shedding Pounds
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- If New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and live healthy seem impractical after years of botched attempts, take a look at Matthew Good.
Good, YSU human ecology instructor and owner of Good Health Industries in Youngstown, shed more than 100 pounds and has kept it off for more than a decade. And now he’s written a book about his success.
Before becoming a registered/licensed dietitian, entrepreneur and weight-loss expert, Good was a YSU student. During his first two years of college, the 6-foot 2-inch Ursuline High School graduate went from 220 pounds to a little more than 330. After changing majors several times, Good vowed to learn everything about nutrition and earned a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. He then went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Akron, where he lost most of the weight he had gained, slimming down to about 240 pounds by age 23.
“I would not say that I did everything the right way at this point in my life, but I was happy with the progress that I had made,” said Good, now 36. “With every mistake that I had made, I had learned a lesson directing me one step closer to how to do things the correct way.”
In April, Good’s book, Zero Resistance Weight Loss: How to Lose Weight Naturally and Fast, was released.
“Have you ever known exactly how something could be accomplished, but when someone asked you to explain it to them, your answer was coming up short?” Good said. “This is how I felt when people would ask me about my weight loss journey. I have learned countless lessons over my years of gaining weight, losing weight and keeping the weight off … my next step was getting my years of experience on paper.”
Good structures personalized weight-loss programs for clients through questionnaires tackling health habits, self-image and readiness to change. He advocates modest changes — eating breakfast, fitting in fruits and vegetables, switching to whole grains, walking a few miles a week — until they become a lifestyle. Maintainable healthy habits are far more effective than today’s “dieting techniques,” he says.
Also, weight loss involves much more than “calories in versus calories out.” Good recommends avoiding a perfectionist outlook and, instead, viewing weight loss as a “spectrum of shades of gray.”
“I have learned that weight loss attempts are often viewed as ‘all or nothing,’ or ‘black and white.’ The problem is this is not a realistic way to live your life.”
He added: “Keep it simple. Change what you can. Forgive yourself for your mistakes.”
Good’s book contains a series of related chapters regarding simplistic behavior-change methods that allow someone to succeed at weight loss.
“There is not a single page dedicated to food or exercise in my book. It is a journey of identifying the single biggest obstacle that stands in the way of a vast majority of us ever being able to lose weight — ourselves.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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