Hacking The Fat Man
What drives someone to contemplate ending their life at nearly 550 pounds, and what unexpected insight transforms that same person into someone who loses over 300 pounds? Drew Maness, an information security professional with 25 years of experience and former elite water polo player, takes you through his journey from rock bottom to remarkable transformation.
Drew opens his heart completely, revealing how he walked into a motel room in August 2022 with the intention of taking his life. Trapped in a body that caused constant, excruciating pain and believing he had exhausted every possible weight loss method, he had reached his breaking point. What happened next changed everything.
With raw honesty, Drew shares his breakthrough realization: what if he approached his body like a computer system to be hacked? This shift in perspective led to a revolutionary approach to weight management that finally worked after decades of struggling. His most powerful innovation? A cyclical diet framework that rotates different nutritional approaches throughout the week, preventing the metabolic adaptation that dooms most diets to failure.
The podcast delves into Drew's strategic use of supplements to combat inflammation, his experiences with GLP-1 medication, and the life-changing moment he realized his struggles weren't about willpower at all. This revelation freed him from the depression rooted in self-hatred that had plagued him for years.
Join Drew in his continued journey from 550 to see if he makes 175.
Hacking The Fat Man
Breaking Down Broccoli Sprouts: The Latest Performance Hack for Athletes
The natural world continues to surprise us with its abundance of performance-enhancing foods, and broccoli sprouts are the latest addition catching attention in athletic circles. This deep dive explores sulforaphane – the compound in broccoli sprouts that forms when cruciferous vegetables are chopped, chewed, or blended – and its remarkable benefits for reducing inflammation, lowering oxidative stress, and potentially improving energy efficiency.
While elite athletes might shell out $7 per serving for commercial broccoli sprout juices, I'm experimenting with growing my own in a mason jar setup that requires rinsing twice daily. The real question remains: does this trendy supplement deserve a permanent place alongside proven performers like beet juice (for oxygen delivery and reduced fatigue) and tart cherry (for inflammation and recovery)?
Beyond performance hacks, I share a breakthrough in my ongoing battle with digestive issues while taking weight management medications. After years of constipation struggles, a simple combination of oatmeal, Greek yogurt with granola, and frozen berries has dramatically improved my gut health – perhaps offering more practical value than trendy supplements.
My weight loss journey continues at 320 pounds down from my starting point, though I've made an important mental health adjustment by stopping weekly weigh-ins that were triggering negative thought patterns. This reinforces my core philosophy: sustainable health improvements must be easy to implement, bring genuine joy, and offer flexibility to withstand real-life challenges.
Whether you're considering adding broccoli sprouts to your regimen or struggling with digestive issues, remember that nature provides remarkable tools – but the best "hack" isn't necessarily what's trending. It's the system you can maintain consistently that brings better movement, improved wellbeing, and authentic joy to your life.
Discover daily tips and updates on the Hacking Fat Man journey. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for transformation deep dives and more insights.
Link to download the Hacking The Fat Man Diet, Schedule and Supplements
Hey folks, welcome back to Hacking the Fat man. This is episode 8. I'm your host, drew Maness. Today I'm going to take a look at some of the newest performance hacks that I've read or making the headlines broccoli juice, specifically, broccoli sprouts juice. I'll also provide an update on currently how I'm doing and some other items that I've been working on during the week. So here's a plan for the episode. We'll look at why athletes are that I've been working on during the week. So here's a plan for the episode. We'll look at why athletes are starting to do these broccoli sprout drinks, what the science says, how it stacks up against the supplements I currently use, and I'll share some practical tools that you can use, including a couple of my go-tos for dealing with.
Speaker 1:I've spent the better part of the last two weeks dealing with my digestive system and constipation. So I first, before I get started, a quick update on where I am. So I'm currently still holding steady. I think I talked about it last week, but if not, I'll bring it up again. You know, when I started the podcast and I started weighing myself every week or every other week, it actually started messing with my head a little bit. I was starting to focus on the wrong things again. If I didn't have a week where I lost weight, I felt that I was letting you down and letting myself down, and that's my own hangups, my own personal issues that I have to get through. And so what I have found to help me with this, that I've used over the last year, that I stopped last couple of years, that I had stopped was I'm only weighing myself. I was only weighing myself when I thought I had lost weight. Um, so, doing it every week and watching the weight just go sideways or up and down, it just it's too much for my, my mental healthness, um, if that's even a phrase, my, my mental health. So, yeah, when I think that I've lost weight, I will get jump on the scale again and I will give you guys an update when that happens.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, but I still, even without weighing myself, I can tell you know, right now I'm even right, the clothes are still fitting. The same, I don't feel that I've lost any weight. I don't feel like I've gained any weight, I just feel normal and that's okay. Shoot, if I live the rest of my life at this weight being down now. 320 pounds I've already won. So, yes, I'd like to get under 200, but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, and eventually the weight will fall off right?
Speaker 1:I've gotten a number of people that have reached out hey, I've dropped 60 pounds, or 30 stones, or whatever it was, and I've plateaued. Well, when you lose weight, your body will start to reduce, your metabolism will reduce, and so plateau isn't out of the question. You will not stay in a plateau. Your body will eventually your metabolism slowing will not. After a while, it will pick back up and it won't stay low anymore. So, anyway, enough on that. So, yeah, I'm still holding steady. I've gained some muscle. I think I've lost some fat. Yeah, the mirror just is telling me more than what I need the scale to tell me.
Speaker 1:So one thing I've noticed over the last month, though, is when I slack off on my supplements, I pay for it. My joints stiffen, my cravings start to creep back in, even my own mental health starts to go down, and my risk for a gout flare up starts to go up. In fact, I recently about a week ago had a situation. It wasn't full-on gout. I recently, about a week ago had a situation. It wasn't full-on gout, but it was something going on with my foot that hurt and it felt gout-like, but it wasn't at the toe, it was in the arch. So I don't know if I just strained my arch or something, but anyway it was enough of a warning sign for me to make sure to get back on my—make sure I'm taking my supplements every day. So I have done that and I know I move better and I sleep better and I feel sharper when I take them. So next week I'm actually going to go over I think it's been a while I'll go over all the supplements that I am taking. I know I referred to a few of them the tart cherry, the cinnamon, the beets, the H and B turmeric, vitamin D3, magnesium, glyconate, vitamin K3. Two, but anyway, I'll go over a more um next week. So, but I am doubling down on consistency. And now let's, let's, let's talk about broccoli juice, broccoli sprouts juice, and whether it, whether I'm actually going to start it or not. So to understand why broccoli is suddenly in the news, let's rewind a bit.
Speaker 1:Beet juice was was one of the first big performance enhanced well, outside of, you know, steroids, but natural supplement beet juice was one of the first. And why it was the nitrates. Nitrates turn into nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, which helps with your blood pressure and improves oxygen delivery. And for cyclists that meant longer rides with less fatigue. For anyone that was working out it would mean less lactic acid and less fatigue in your body, and it also meant lower blood pressure and better circulation, which is why I actually take it was for all those reasons.
Speaker 1:And then tart cherry and this was something new to me from the article. I didn't realize tart cherry had. I found out about it from my brother specifically for gout. I hadn't realized that it'd become a performance enhancing supplement, so it was a little bit of a you know. Hey, that's cool to find out it was. But it's rich in antioxidants and it's great for recovery, reduces soreness because I've talked about the inflammation reduction, even improves sleep to natural melatonin. And that's how I got started. I was desperate to stop the gout pain and tart cherry was one of my first real hacks, and it didn't just help my feet, it gave me a bridge or a crutch back to mobility and helped me start moving. And in fact it was from there that I even got started on the diet, because after I started taking the supplements I started realizing I was losing weight primarily because I was moving more.
Speaker 1:Now the sports scientist research is turning to broccoli sprouts, not for the nitrates and not for the melatonin, but for a compound called seluraphane. Seluraphane is created when you chop, chew, blend cruciferous vegetables and I'm not going to say that word that often, but those are cruciferous are broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts. I like three of the four of those. I am not eating anything kale, it's just not sitting in the plant waiting. It forms as part of a chemical reaction when you're actually chewing it and digesting it.
Speaker 1:So what does slurphane do? It lowers oxidative stress, that's, the cellular damage caused by free radicals. It reduces inflammation Okay, you've got my attention there One of the biggest drivers of pain and chronic disease and in my case gout. So I'm interested in it for that purpose and also improves how efficiently the body uses energy. Think of it like updating your operating system so it runs smoother, giving more RAM or something like that. And some early research says it could actually protect the brain and even reduce risk of certain types of cancer. So it's very interesting still early on.
Speaker 1:The problem is you have to eat mountains of raw broccoli to get enough seluraphane for those benefits. I mean you have to eat a lot raw broccoli. To get enough salurophane. For those benefits, I mean you have to eat a lot of broccoli. That's why they're focusing on the broccoli sprouts is because the broccoli sprouts supposedly contain more of the salurophane and are smaller and easier to digest than the full broccoli leaves.
Speaker 1:Now, if you've watched any of my daily diaries, there have been a number of times where I've made a morning smoothie and I use frozen broccoli. It doesn't matter whether it's orange or vanilla. I'll actually throw frozen broccoli into my morning smoothie. And the real trick there is you don't really taste the broccoli when you add it to the smoothie like that. However, if you don't have the right blender blade, it can become very grainy and sandy. So I use an Osterizer, an Oster blade. They've been the best since the last 80 years. I just don't think you can beat it. It will pretty much turn anything into liquid form. So good job, oster, keep that up. But yeah, so you can add broccoli in.
Speaker 1:But to get this benefit with seluraphane, you're going to have to add a lot in and it's probably more than I'm willing to eat. I eat a lot of broccoli and I'm still not at where the levels I would need to be to get any of the benefits they're talking about here. The Cycle World article did talk about this product called Nomeo N-O-M-I-O and that is a broccoli sprout juice that you can buy. It's only $7 a serving. Now that's a little high for me. For just a supplement, $7 a day Sounds like a lot. So I will be looking at how I can add this without really pumping up my dollars like that. Not something I'm interested in doing it, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So what does slurphane do? It lowers the oxidative stress. It reduces inflammation. It may improve how the body uses energy, the efficiency of the body using energy and, yeah, cancer, and I've already talked about this, so I'm sorry I'm repeating myself. So let's pause on the performance for a second and talk about something a little bit more practical.
Speaker 1:I spent the better part because one of the reasons when I think of broccoli it's fiber, and you've heard me talk on the show in the past of my problems with constipation, taking the Manjaro or the Zepbound. That slows down your digestive system, and I've spent the better part of three years being constipated to the point. Over the last two weeks I just had had it, I was done with it and completely threw out my fasting day and everything else just to focus on it. And what I went back to, or what I focused on, was water-soluble fiber, and specifically in the form of oatmeal. So I've added oatmeal. Now, it's funny, I hate carbs so much that even just thinking about using oatmeal Now you can buy oatmeal with a ton of sugar in it, and I think that's part of the problem.
Speaker 1:You can buy granola with a ton of sugar in it, and that's part of the problem is. So I had to go find healthy versions of them without the added sugar. Um, I'm not really a fan of the April apple and the maple and, uh, you know, I kind of just wanted plain with butter, um, and so that's what I started doing. I started taking having oatmeal uh, oatmeal at least once a day, and then I've also added in Greek yogurt, which helps with your gut biome, along with healthy granola, using the frozen berries that I have in my fridge for smoothies. So, frozen berries I heat them up so they're not as frozen or defrost them. I add the Greek yogurt to it with some of the granola, and actually I found that to be fairly enjoyable and it took about a week and a half. Excuse me, but it for the most part.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say it's helped cure it, but at least it's put me on a much, much better path to it. You know, when we're adding supplements and we're adding things to our diet, broccoli is something that's a lot of fiber that you're adding, just something to keep an eye on. But let's compare that to broccoli juice. You'd be choking it down for maybe a slight performance boost. Meanwhile, the yogurt berry oatmeal combo can reset your digestion and keep you regular and support your long-term gut health, which is a much bigger win for me. So while I actually had read this Cycle World article last week, I haven't added it until now, and part of the problem is the amount of broccoli and broccoli sprouts that you have to eat to get the benefit. As I mentioned, you can go buy a supplement, and supplements look pretty expensive right now.
Speaker 1:The other thing I saw was people are starting to grow it and I guess it's really easy to grow. I bought this. It's a mason jar with a lid on the top where you put the sprout seeds in and you rinse the jar twice a day and let it just kind of grow. Now I'm week day five of this. It usually takes five to seven days before you can start harvesting it I guess this is the right word for it. So I'll let you know how it goes.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking that I'm going to add this as a kind of a salad base grab it, throw some lettuce or throw a little bit of vinegar and olive oil on it, some salt and pepper, and eat it that way. Or I may just end up throwing it into a blender and juicing it that way. But I'll let you know at the next podcast how I see to do it. So, but it's because of the amount of broccoli that I'm not really sure I'm going to add this fully to my diet, but I'm I'm interested to see if it does anything. I'll try it. I'll try anything just once. But yeah, I just I'm not really sure it will be habit and having to grow it or the cost of it, but we'll, we'll see.
Speaker 1:I think the sprouts with on a sandwich or the sprouts as a salad base, I think could actually kind of work. So we'll see how that goes. My problem is actually rinsing having the need to rinse and water the plants twice a day. I barely water my gardens twice a week. So we'll see how that goes. But anyway I'll let you know.
Speaker 1:But you can add more broccoli to it. I've talked to your diet. If you want to help get it. You can also add Brussels sprouts or cauliflower if you want those. You can also get supplements for it. I'm not really sure I'm willing to pay the supplements just for broccoli sprouts just yet, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:And then just I guess I'm kind him and Han here a little bit. The article was great because, like I said, I did not know that I knew performance athletes were using beets and I did know. Well, I did not know that they were using tart cherry. And then this broccoli, the salurophane sounds interesting as one that could potentially add to it. So I'll let you know how it goes, or you can let me know if you want to try it and see how that works out. Yeah, so how do I kind of talked about this a little bit. How does it fit into my larger framework?
Speaker 1:So let's, let's talk about so on, on Mondays I'm fasting, which actually, with this new oatmeal and granola, is I'm. Now actually maybe I'm going to see right, because what I've noticed is I fast Monday. I do very light eating Tuesday and Wednesday and that actually I think leads to because I have putting so little into my digestive track it actually leads to constipation. So what I may be doing is adding oatmeal to my fast day a hundred calories, 170 calories or whatever it is. So making oatmeal, a breakfast of oatmeal, like I said, 170 calories, a basis across, much like I have the lemon water um across every day. That's what I'm, what I'm kind of thinking about right now. Actually, I'll probably end up doing it. Tuesdays and Wednesdays will still be a micro fast, a little bit more calories, but again, oatmeal or granola will probably be a consistency across the mornings.
Speaker 1:Thursdays I'll either do a modified zone or more of a keto protein heavy, and then I go into the full modified zone on the weekends for flexibility. A modified zone is still protein heavy. It's protein with, with. Actually it's a handful of protein with two handfuls of Broccoli right is kind of my main meal for that. So on top of that I layer my supplement stack right. So talked about it Beets, tart, cherry, cinnamon, turmeric, vitamin D3, k2, magnesium, my omega-3s, hmb. But yeah, next week we'll go over it.
Speaker 1:This is, it's a system, right, it's not a single juice or a powder or a single meal, it's not one type of meal, only eating this one thing. That got me from five, 50 pounds down to the low two thirties. So again, I'm just reminding myself, and you know this, this last month and a half I've kind of been slacking on my supplements, which have led to slacking on my diet, which is probably led to why I'm plateaued. Right Is, I'm maintaining and I'm going to jump back into it and start driving down, especially towards the end of the year. My goal was to be close to 200 by the end of the year and I'm right there. So I'm going to be making a run run at 200 here by January 1st, hopefully.
Speaker 1:But broccoli, this broccoli juice, january 1st, hopefully. But broccoli, this broccoli juice, these broccoli sprouts might be one more addition to the system, but it's it's again not. One thing is is never the cure all, but if it has benefits, and I see benefits. But I already may be getting the benefits just because the amount of broccoli I already have in my diet. So this one's going to be interesting to see where it goes.
Speaker 1:But again, the the you know, the real thing to remember is it's got to be easy, it's got to bring me joy. It's got to have flexibility into it and I got to be able to do it without thinking, because if I have to work too hard, it feels like starting to feel like a chore. I know myself I will stop doing it for a week or two. Even my supplements, which do bring me joy, I sometimes have a problem with sticking with. So just a reminder for all you out there.
Speaker 1:The other thing I want to remind everyone is I'm not a doctor. I'm giving you my health advice from the point of a fat man, and this is what I'm thinking and why I'm working on it. But you should be working with your doctors and or your pharmacist on the or your pharmacist on the supplements you take to make sure that there's no interaction with them. If you haven't noticed, I tend to stay close to uh, natural supplements. Right, I'm? I'm not doing testosterone boosters or or things like that. You know, listen to the start of the list beets, cinnamon, tart cherry, turmeric those are spices. So, anyway, just a reminder that you should have your doctor check out your supplements now and again.
Speaker 1:So here are my takeaways after reading that Cycle World article One, completely happy that I discovered that tart cherry was being used as a performance enhancer. That was a surprise to me. But so I am curious about these broccoli sprouts and this cellulophane. But if you're looking at doing it or adding this to your diet, start with food. You know I'm trying to grow the broccoli sprouts. We'll see.
Speaker 1:Right now I'm kind of staring at it a little sideways because it seems like, you know, it was something where I could just set it and leave it for five days and then eat it. That would be great. So I have to do something with it twice a day. I can't guarantee I'll always remember to do it twice a day, so it's that's going to be interesting. More than likely I may end up just purchasing a supplement, something cheaper than $7 a serving. But start with food, then try supplements. So I'm starting with food first, then I'm trying supplements. Especially if you want a higher dose, look at the broccoli sprout extracts. They're easier than just drinking the juice or juicing your own, but juicing your own will always be cheaper.
Speaker 1:But again, a reminder this is something interesting, but I'm not a fan of chasing trends, so you shouldn't go chase every trend that's out there and try to take every supplement that that's comes across and tells you to do it. Stick with the ones that work for you. You know, I I have people that swear up and down about glucosamine. I'm staring at it cause I have a bottle over there, glucosamine chondroitin. Um did absolutely nothing for me, um, but yet I I know people that swear up and down, you know healed their knee, knee problems. It's not doing anything for me, so I cut it out of my, out of my, my diet.
Speaker 1:Also, remember to prioritize your gut health. Taking the supplements can have effect on your gut health, good and bad. I so far, I'm I'm pretty pleased with this yogurt, granola, berry, oatmeal combo thing, that I'm doing that, so much so that I'm probably at it to every day now, and I'll keep you informed on that just to help with my digestive health. My stomach feels better, my intestines feel better than they felt in three years, so I think I'm onto something there and then measure the results. The end of the day, it's the quality of your life, right?
Speaker 1:The best hack isn't the one that sounds sexy or is awesome Ooh, that's fantastic. It's the one that helps you move better, one's that makes you feel better, live better and gives you joy in your life. You know so at the. In closing, at the end of the day, nature keeps giving us tools, and constantly amazed at how much the natural world is actually giving us everything, pretty much everything we need there the fact that dark cherries, the colors, the tomatoes, anything red actually helps with inflammation, and that we know that now beets for oxygen and tart cherry helps for recovery, and now broccoli with the cellulophane. But again, as I just mentioned, the real hack isn't the food, it's building something that you can live with and a system that reduces the inflammation, forces the digestion, helps you move and keeps you in the fight. That brings you joy. It's got to be easy to do and it's got to bring you joy and that's what keeps the waste off, that's what keeps the joy in.
Speaker 1:And you'll know I mean literally, I can pick up my supplement. My body kind of tells me what that supplement does for me. It's a feeling I get when I, when I look at them again glucosamine, chondroitin. I pick it up and my body doesn't have any reaction to it. But I pick up the tart cherry and my I can literally feel my body relaxing. Same with the uh, same with beets, same with cinnamon. So anyway, that's what keeps the weight off. For me, that's what helps me, that's what helped me lose 320 pounds.
Speaker 1:For all of you out there struggling it. And, uh, I want to make a shout out to fit the fat Gabby, who I've been watching your uh, struggle, not struggle, but your journey, um, and I want to encourage you to keep going. My older brother, if you're listening still, keep going at it, keep doing it. We'll do it together and you can do it. But it's all about bringing joy and it's all about making it easy on your life and doing what you need to do to make your life the life you want. It's not just about the weight and it's not just about the scale. So I'm Drew. This was episode eight of Hacking the Fat man. Thank you for listening and I'll catch you in a couple of weeks. Thank you, bye.