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Matt Hoover
By Kelly Burgess
Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a father who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man and a father. Above all, the Dad of the Month is dedicated to his children. Rich or poor, famous or not, he shines as an example of what fathering is all about.
Matt Hoover may have lost a lot, but he's gained even more. Hoover was the grand prize winner in season two of The Biggest Loser, losing 157 pounds in nine months. During his time on the show, he also met his future wife, Suzy Preston, and regained a sense of purpose that he'd somehow lost as a young man.
Now Hoover has a new book out, Matt Hoover's Guide to Life, Love and Losing Weight (Skyhorse Publishing, 2008), devotes himself to motivating others and, most important, he and Susie are full partners in parenting sons Rex, 22 months, and Jax, 7 months. Hoover is serious about leadership and setting a good example, and being a husband and father is at the top of his list.
"Being a role model for my children in loving themselves and loving others starts with the way I treat their mom," says Hoover. "Everyone has to take time for themselves and that includes moms. If she can watch the kids while I go to the gym, I can do the same for her."
This quiet confidence and easy leadership is a long way from the troubled young man Hoover was just a few years ago, when he went from being on top of the world to nearly hitting bottom.
"There were 29 kids in my graduating class and I grew up in a pretty typical household where you had curfews and guidelines and rules," says Hoover. "You grow up like I did and then you go to college and find out you can stay up until 3 a.m. and it's great! Except then you have to get up at 7 a.m. to work out and that's not the best conditions for an athlete."
Hoover's misguided lifestyle decisions began the domino effect that eventually ended his wrestling career – training too hard on too little sleep, combined with poor nutrition and too much alcohol, led to injuries that kept him from wrestling. Without that, a sport that had defined so much of his self, he didn't know what to do.
"I never identified myself as a student, but as an athlete, and when that fell apart I had no identity anymore," says Hoover. "That's where my downward spiral started."
Hoover started drinking more heavily and his eating got out of control. His marriage fell apart after only a year, something he attributes to his own behavior and his failure to live up to their shared dreams. Before long, he weighed more than 350 pounds and was drifting through life.
"A commercial came on that said to apply for the next season," says Hoover. "It seemed like it would be easy to win. After all, I'm an athlete. I'm tough. I went to the computer and found out there was a casting call the next day just two hours from my house. I thought, what's the worst that could happen? I didn't realize how that small choice would change my life."
Cast as the "angry ex-athlete," Hoover says that was a fairly apt portrayal of how he felt. He was determined to win the show and threw himself into the routine of exercising for hours every day and eating the controlled food portions. It wasn't until makeover week – well into the show – that he actually had an emotional breakthrough, and he attributes that to Suzy.
"During the show we didn't like each other," says Hoover. "She was too happy and I was too mean. Then, toward the end, everyone got a makeover but me – I was just being a jerk and trying to hang on to my bad attitude. Then, when I saw how great everyone looked, I felt bad. Suzy, who was a hairdresser, ended up cutting my hair for me and it was a letting go. That was my epiphany."
Unlike Samson, when Hoover lost his hair, he regained his strength and decided he would not go back to the angry young man he had been. Three months after the show, he and Suzy went on their first date and he proposed to her on The Today Show.
However, they've since gotten things under control and are focused on living a healthy lifestyle every day, with family walks and healthy meals prepared at home. Part of the reason he wrote the book and has started a health and fitness Web site, Body Evolution (www.bodyevolution.com), is because he wants the average person to understand that there are no quick fixes and that daily living can make it hard to stay healthy. He wants to give people hope and help them understand that they are capable of doing this at home.
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"So many people watch the show and think that's the only way they can lose weight," says Hoover. "Part of the problem is that they think they're going to get the results they see on the show, but the reality is that we don't have bills to pay, we don't have to deal with families or life or anything – we just work out and eat perfectly. People get false expectations."
As Hoover sensibly points out, there were 250,000 applicants for 15 spots in season three. If everyone who didn't make it started eating right and working out at the beginning of season three, they'd probably be in a pretty good place by now, four years later.
At the moment, Hoover is happy with his weight and his goals. He's an athlete again – and not an angry one – training for the Ford Ironman World Championship. He tries to ignore the critics who point out that he gained back some of his weight, preferring to focus on the fact that he's kept off 100 pounds for more than a year – an incredible accomplishment. The births of his children have also profoundly influenced his attitude toward his health. He says his kids have logged more stroller miles than any kids he knows, and he and Suzy try to make everything they eat so they know what's in their children's food.
"My greatest joy is coming home to my wife and kids," says Hoover. "People think role models are on TV or in music but the biggest role models are in the home."
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