The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Mike Schneider, owner of Jim Taylor Motors, lost over 200 pounds in the last two years using an unusual strategy. The change was so drastic that long-time friends didn't recognize him, even after he approached and conversed with them upon returning to Florida recently. Mike attributes his success to a different approach to weight loss. "I've had more people reach out to me on this than anything I've ever done in my entire life, which is just crazy." His motivation in sharing his experience is the hope to help others gain traction in their weight loss efforts.

Mike was always a big guy. "My whole life I've been big. I'm obviously a tall guy. I was 315 when I graduated high school. So that was really big, but I was always very athletic and big." He went on to play offensive tackle in college. He was also a walk-on player for the college tennis team. "I was always an athletic big guy. I never really thought anything of it."

"I went from graduating high school weighing 315 to playing college football at like 335. Then through 20s I was around 330. Then basically from like, through my 20s into my early 30s I was like 330 and 6'6. I was a big guy. My life was just being big. So I never had a frame of reference of not being big. Since I was 12, it always served me very well because I was always the biggest kid in class. I was strong. As soon as sports started in the seventh grade, being big was a massive advantage. It was never a negative in my life. It was actually an overwhelming driving, positive force in my life. I was coming at it from a different perspective."

"When Mackenzie, my ex, got pregnant with our first, she craved Blizzards for nine months. At the end of nine months, she had a baby come out of her, and I just ate Blizzards for almost an entire year." Around that time Mike also took a different job and became more sedentary. "Then I got mega big." After buying Jim Taylor Motors and eating out for a couple years, he gained nearly 100 pounds. "Long story short, I bought the store and got up to 410 pounds." But, at the time of our interview, Mike weighed in at 210 pounds.

The journey to physical health began with a trip to the doctor for a physical. "I have my pilot's license. I fly planes. I went to the doctor and did my physical and the doctor said: 'Let me ask you a question. you know, you're a big guy. How many 50 year old guys do you see that are your size?' I'm like 'Not very many.' Then he asked how many 'How many 60 year olds do you see that are 6'6 and 400 pounds?'" Mike replied "None." The doctor explained that the reason he doesn't know any is because they don't exist. He went on to say "You're a big animal. They don't last as long

as small animals. You have little kids. You just turned 40." The question of how long he wanted to spend with his kids before he was gone hit Mike hard.

The urgency to change his life didn't hit Mike hard until his four year old son, who had started wrestling at the time, told his father: "Dad, you're fat." Mike looked at himself, "I had a big belly and I was laying there." He realized he was indeed fat. "So I was like, 'Let's do some push-ups' since he was doing push-ups for wrestling. I could barely do 10 pushups." That was the beginning of Mike's weight loss journey. "Something clicked when Fred called me fat, and I was like 'Okay, we're doing push-ups,' And I could barely do any push-ups. I told myself 'I'm gonna start doing push-ups every day." Mike explained that he always saw himself as big and strong, but that it was a "horrifying thing to be heavy and think you're strong and then realize you're not as strong as you think you are." He began by setting out to be strong again.

Mike began his life change by simply setting a goal to do pushups every day. First thing in the morning, he would do 15 pushups, followed by 15 in the middle of the day, and finishing with 15 in the evening. The larger goal was to reach 15 pushups a day. Before long, he grew the goal to 100 pushups a day, breaking the sets up into however many he needed to reach his goal. His reasoning behind doing pushups rather than going to the gym was simple: 50 or even 100 pushups a day was no more than a few minutes worth of exertion. He told himself that the few minutes of exercise would be easy, and "there's no reason I couldn't get that done. Whereas, a trip to the gym is time consuming. In the time it took to drive, he could do his entire day of workout at home.

For the first 90 days, Mike did push-ups daily. He did not change his eating patterns or go on a strict diet. "I saw a pattern where people like think 'I'm gonna go on a diet' and they immediately change everything they do. Then they can't stick with it because it's too much. It's like your body just can't take all these long term habits and just get rid of everything in your life in one fell swoop." He reasoned that the incremental change was the best route for change. Early on, he also gave up snacking at night in favor of exercise when he realized that he was consuming calories and immediately doing pushups to burn off those calories. The changes reaped immediate rewards. He lost 20 pounds quickly, though he remarked that it is easy to lose weight when you're 400 pounds. Minor changes produced results quickly.

When he reached the 375 mark, Mike explained that he grew a bit hopeless because there was so much more weight to lose. "I started looking and it was a long way for me to lose weight just to still be heavy. I mean, to get to 300 and I'm still a big man. It's still a lot of work just for me to get to be not as massively fat." At this stage he began to make further adjustments to his habit changes. He started by setting more achievable goals. Instead of looking to reach 325 as his next benchmark, he aimed for 350. He also began to adjust his eating. "I started paying attention to calories and doing very simple things. I Googled how many calories do push-ups burn, how many calories does walking burn? Then I would Google how many calories are in what I'm eating." He began paying attention to his calories in vs calories burned numbers. That impacted his eating decisions. He explained that he would look at a hamburger and consider how much exercise would be necessary to burn it off before he ate it. This approach resulted in him eating less. He continued to eat out, but made healthier choices and managed to lose 75 pounds.

Eventually, Mike began to change his diet altogether and discovered the added benefit of mental clarity that accompanies eating less processed foods and junk in general. This began with him simply asking: What is the maximum amount of food I can eat with the least amount of calories? Fruits, vegetables, and chicken were the answer. In the end, he adopted a version of the Paleo diet. He attributes this change with helping him lose weight and keep it off. "The reason I started eating healthier has nothing to do with weight loss. It's unbelievable how much clearer your mind operates when you're not on processed foods. It's crazy. I could never go back."

Mike continues to eat healthy and exercise rigorously. He recently added a unique activity to his evenings: riding a pedal cab around Fort Benton. He offers free rides and meal deliveries in Fort Benton. "Here's the thing: I'm gonna be on the bike anyways. I just ride it because I like riding." Though the offered service hasn't garnered a lot of demand, but he is hopeful that it will.

Throughout the interview, Mike commented that his hope was that his experience could help others gain traction in their efforts toward losing weight and getting healthier. "If there's a God in heaven, it'll be something that helps people catch traction and motivate people."