This is What Getting Older is Like with Matt Buckner: PYP 361

Matt Buckner's low point came one day about 9 years ago, when he was 41. He was getting ready for an international business trip, and realized that one of his key medications, tramadol, was going to run out during the trip.The drug, which Matt took for the back pain caused by his morbid obesity, was one of five meds that he consumed every day. The others were for hypertension, high cholesterol, acid reflux, and depression.Matt also suffered from sleep apnea; his wife would force herself to stay awake at night so she could hear when he stopped breathing and wake him up.While waiting on line at the drug store, without an up-to-date prescription since he couldn't get in touch with his doctor on short notice on a Friday afternoon, Matt looked around and saw the other people in line. All of them old and sick. There's where he was headed.Matt took action.

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He started with keto and extreme caloric restriction, which helped him lose 50 pounds in a single month. But it was unsustainable, and he was not a nice, happy person during that time. He would deprive himself of food and work out hard at the gym as punishment, as expressions of self-loathing.Eventually, he discovered Forks Over Knives on Netflix, and the suggested next movie was Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. While eating a whole-food plant-based diet made some sense to Matt, it was the extreme deprivation and maniacal focus required by consuming nothing but vegetable juice that really appealed to his inner masochist.The next set of influences, including Rich Roll, Josh LaJaunie, and Rip Esselstyn, gradually shifted Matt away from his carbophobia, and into a lifestyle that was predicated on self-love rather than self-loathing. And one that was sustainable from both physiological and psychological standpoints.Here's Matt meeting Josh for their first run together:

Matt is now one of the unofficial running coaches for members of the super-secret “Missing Chins Run Club,” and has been a huge help and inspiration to many others who want to shift to a healthy, active lifestyle.Matt's hope for this podcast – and his public advocacy in general – is to inspire people to realize, “Hey, if that guy can do it, then so can I!”As he approaches his 50th birthday,