Mark Mohammadpour of Chasing the Sun Health Coaching On The 5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight, And Keep It Permanently

It’s All Mental. The achievement of maintaining a healthy body weight is primarily mental. In a world where we’re often asked to check our egos at the door, I challenge my workshops attendees and clients to dig deep and ask themselves who they influence. Answers vary: from their family to the people they manage, to new professionals. This process helps us identify why our health is essential.

So many of us have tried dieting. All too often though, many of us lose 10–20 pounds, but we end up gaining it back. Not only is yo-yo dieting unhealthy, it is also demoralizing and makes us feel like giving up. What exactly do we have to do to achieve a healthy body weight and to stick with it forever?

In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve A Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently” we are interviewing health and wellness professionals who can share lessons from their research and experience about how to do this.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Mohammadpour.

An accredited public relations executive and certified health coach and personal trainer, Mark Mohammadpour is the founder of Chasing the Sun Health Coaching. Mark’s mission is to empower business leaders to get mentally and physically fit so they can shine. More than a decade ago, Mark started a journey that led him to lose and keep off more than 150 pounds. Through that journey, Mark has developed a practical and actionable approach to help people stay mentally and physically resilient. Before launching Chasing the Sun Health Coaching, Mark led award-winning public relations campaigns for global brands, including Adobe, Microsoft, and Samsung.

A proud and lifelong Portland, Ore.-metro area resident, Mark is a graduate of the University of Portland.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I grew up in Vancouver, Wash., just over the Columbia River from Portland, Ore. A proud only child of a registered nurse and an engineer, I grew up with two fantastic role models who were my biggest cheerleaders and the kindest people you could ever meet.

For more than 40 years, my mother worked her way up in her hospital as an evening supervisor, then running entire nursing departments. All the while packing my lunch, taking me to soccer practice and putting up with general teenage angst. God bless my mother!

My father was influential in so many ways. He loved to exercise. He was eager to have me start weightlifting at an early age. While I focused more on playing basketball and soccer, he was very wise with his interest for me to prioritize my physical wellbeing and ultimately inspired me to what I’m doing today.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

Early 2017 was a pivotal moment in launching Chasing the Sun. By 2017, I was nearly 10 years into my 150-pound weight loss journey. I was also almost two decades into my public relations career. Most significantly, my father passed away in February 2017. After he passed away, I was looking for a way to pursue something I’m passionate about, have knowledge about, and find a renewed purpose. After chatting with a personal trainer friend, I decided to obtain my personal training and health coaching certifications. I knew that I had the life and professional experience and passion for helping people like me find a healthy path for their lives. In the fall of 2019, I decided to go all-in and help business leaders to prioritize their wellbeing!

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

That’s 100 percent my incredible wife, Christine. I started my weight loss journey the morning after she accepted my marriage proposal in December 2007. She saw me at my absolute worst, still said yes because she loved me and believed in me, and ever since, she’s been my accountability partner through and through. And when I told her I wanted to pursue this business venture for the next phase of my life, she didn’t even blink. She’s been incredibly supportive and influential in telling my story and her own perspective as a human resources executive to play a role in leading corporate wellness initiatives that have a sustainable impact.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

I’ve had the honor to work with some fantastic managers and leaders throughout my career. One regret is not having a set of mentors outside of my organization who were helping to evolve my career. It’s something I highly recommend to professionals at all levels. Today, I have a Chasing the Sun advisory board made up of a diverse group of leaders who mentor me as I grow my business.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Both my mother and my mother-in-law are big fans of “Life’s Little Instruction Calendar.” I’ll never forget the entry on July 16, 2019. It reads, “The World needs a hero. What do you have planned for the rest of your life?”

By July 2019, I was in the middle of planning to launch Chasing the Sun. I kept thinking about my target audience: those in the public relations industry I just left. They’re tired, overworked, stressed, burned out, and constantly having to prove their value. And in the case of those who act as public information officers and who speak on behalf of hospitals and schools, they must write messages that have to be received and executed by the general public. Whether that involves speaking to the media about a real-time life-threatening emergency to designing pamphlets telling people how, why, and where to get their COVID-19 vaccine, they’re playing a significant role in saving people’s lives. And they are doing this while living their personal lives and do the best for their loved ones and themselves.

They are heroes to me, and why I want to serve them.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

The COVID era accelerated discussions about the future of work and our physical and mental wellbeing. For a number of us, our physical work environment will never be the same. In addition, I’ve heard from several people who have looked at this COVID era as the opportunity to revisit their life purpose and priorities. It’s given them a second chance at life.

The challenge that business leaders have is: how to successfully integrate these changes into their teams? How do you effectively run a team virtually from home? How do you support individual team members in their life while ensuring business objectives get done? I’m proud to work with teams on an approach to help improve transparency around expectations around taking time off, when to be online, why meetings need to be scheduled, and other aspects of work that can increase anxiety, stress, and burnout for employees when not clearly defined. I am excited to help teams understand how addressing these issues can help them thrive, ultimately benefiting the employee and employer.

For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly let us know why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field?

First is my personal journey of losing and keeping off 150 pounds naturally for more than 13 years.

Along with my weight loss journey, I’m a proud member of the American Council on Exercise (ACE) as a certified personal trainer and health coach, as well as a behavior change specialist. My certifications with ACE are essential because, like the public relations industry, personal trainers and health coaches must have a high standard of integrity and ethics. I also know that everything I teach is safe for my clients, which is the most critical priority.

Over the last two years, I’ve hosted more than 60 wellness workshops: from leading virtual retreats with executives at Fortune 50 companies to CEOs of non-profit organizations, college students, and public relations leaders for K-12 schools. It’s been an honor to play a role in this discussion.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about achieving a healthy body weight. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define a “Healthy Body Weight”?

The first is the physical. We must have a holistic understanding of physical health and how our body is functioning. We are constantly told the body mass index (BMI) is the main determining factor; however, that is just one aspect of a holistic look at your physical health. Someone might look at their height and weight, compare it to the BMI index and think they are healthy. This is why it’s critical to see your doctor and get an annual exam so they can do blood work and check your levels. Checking your levels and identifying where you need to evolve is the perfect start. We get overwhelmed when it comes to making health-related decisions, so if we can check to see that we have high sodium, cholesterol, glucose, etc., we can focus on just one area to address.

The second is mental. I ask my clients all the time: “how do you FEEL?” How do you feel in your clothes? How do you feel when you sleep? How do you feel when you move? How you feel will ultimately impact so many factors, including confidence. In a professional sense, as leaders, confidence is everything. Confidence impacts who and how we can influence people in a job interview, in a board room, and the case of many of my clients, on-camera speaking with reporters!

How can an individual learn what is a healthy body weight for them? How can we discern what is “too overweight” or what is “too underweight”?

No one should tell you if you’re overweight or underweight unless they are a licensed medical professional with the appropriate credentials to make that determination. Start with your general practitioner and schedule a yearly physical exam. The number on the scale needs to be put into context with other numbers, including your blood pressure and other factors, to determine your overall physical health.

This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to expressly articulate this. Can you please share a few reasons why being over your healthy body weight, or under your healthy body weight, can be harmful to your health?

A lot of people will focus on the physical impact. I want to focus on the mental impact that being over, or underweight can bring. When I was 350 pounds, I was breaking chairs in restaurants, had trouble sleeping during the night because I was experiencing sleep apnea, and struggled to walk up a flight of stairs.

Not feeling healthy caused me to feel incredibly negative, which impacted how I acted around people. I wasn’t my usual, cheerful self. I allowed my poor health to prevent me from fully being myself or experience life as I wanted to.

Feeling negative can potentially be harmful to one’s mental health, which could cause depression and other serious issues.

In contrast, can you help articulate a few examples of how a person who achieves and maintains a healthy body weight will feel better and perform better in many areas of life?

The amount of renewed energy you have at a healthy body weight pays off immensely.

Because I no longer have sleep apnea, I sleep so much better today. I fall asleep within minutes and, because I’m well hydrated throughout the day, I don’t wake up with tension headaches or dry mouth as I did in the past.

And because I sleep better, I feel more refreshed for the day. It takes me less time to ramp my day up and get going on my activities. Because I feel more refreshed, I am in a better mood and feel more confident in myself. This helps me show up for my family and my business. Through my work with 1:1 clients and my corporate programs, I must feel confident in my skin to deliver the counsel and guidance for my clients and workshop attendees, so they succeed.

Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently?”. If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uXKCSxIgSo

1. It’s All Mental. The achievement of maintaining a healthy body weight is primarily mental. In a world where we’re often asked to check our egos at the door, I challenge my workshops attendees and clients to dig deep and ask themselves who they influence. Answers vary: from their family to the people they manage, to new professionals. This process helps us identify why our health is essential.
2. What’s the Scenario? When I meet with my clients, we focus less on how much they ultimately want to weigh and more on a scenario they want to experience. Think less about how much weight you want to lose or gain and more about creating an image in your head. In my case, I wanted to feel confident in my clothes; I didn’t want to feel pain flying on a business trip while sitting in a middle seat in coach; I wanted to walk up flights of stairs without being afraid of getting out of breath. But most of all, I wanted to feel confident I could go to the doctor without being afraid they would tell me I was on a path to Type 2 Diabetes.
3. Your Time is Your Life. We need to shift our mindset around our calendar. A common reason we don’t focus on our health is that we tell ourselves that we’re too busy. We can make simple but impactful changes to manage our time. For example, I have a rule of thumb: every time someone has to postpone a meeting with me, I immediately use that time for exercise. Whether it’s taking my puppy on a walk or jumping on my Peloton for an impromptu ride, I take that time for myself. I consider it a gift.
4. Get Tactical. When it comes to weight loss or weight gain, we typically aim to quantify the amount of weight we want to adjust in a certain amount of time. Even if it’s deemed safe (as a rule of thumb, a “safe” weight loss progression is no more than 1–2 pounds per week), we put so much pressure on ourselves that we become derailed if we don’t achieve our goal. I ask people to get tactical, or what’s in their control. Focus on drinking a specific amount of water, sweating for 30 minutes at least 2–3 days per week, etc. Achieving these tactics will positive impact your mental health as well; who doesn’t love checking items off their to-do list?
5. What’s Your Plan B? Life gets in the way, that yoga class is canceled, the first dinner choice at our favorite restaurant isn’t available, or we receive an urgent call that disrupts our plans. Then we tell ourselves our day is ruined, and we can’t focus on our plan. Planning for those inevitable interruptions allows us to retain control of the progress towards the scenario we want to experience.

The emphasis of this series is how to maintain an ideal weight for the long term, and how to avoid yo-yo dieting. Specifically, how does a person lose weight and then maintain that permanently?

Journal your experience. Everyone will have their own system and process, so it’s up to you on your method. My recommendation is to document information on your successes so you can refer back to them when you have a setback. We all need reminders of how we made significant changes to our lives. Three examples of things to document include:

• The foods that make you feel good tomorrow (not in the moment).
• The exercises you enjoy and how you feel immediately after that workout.
• The times that you had a tough day and didn’t make time to exercise, but you didn’t waste it on making poor eating choices. This is a fundamental shift in our mindset that we are burning energy by simply living and breathing.

What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to lose weight? What errors cause people to just snap back to their old unhealthy selves? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?

The first is that I don’t believe in “cheat” days or meals. Changes to your diet shouldn’t feel restrictive or unsustainable. If I have an excellent week for six days (1,600–1,800 calories/day) and splurge (4,000–5,000 calories) on day seven, knowing my body and my metabolism, I will have ruined that entire week prior. Consistency is key. Rewards should come regularly, not held for a special time.

The second is that, especially if you’re losing weight, know that you will plateau for days if not weeks or months at a time. During that time, your body is adjusting. That’s why I recommend that 1) you know this going in, and if you plateau for an extended time, make a minor adjustment to your intake and exercise, and 2) you start your weight loss process with sustainable changes that are within your control.

How do we take all this information and integrate it into our actual lives? The truth is that we all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

I think the main one is when we’re told to do ALL these things. That’s overwhelming. For me, it’s about momentum.

The first thing I did when I started my weight loss journey was examining my breakfast. I used to start my day with a 500-calorie mocha and a 500-calorie scone. By 8:00 a.m. every morning, I had consumed 1,000 calories. I realized that, as long as I have some caffeine, I can switch to green tea. On the taste scale, a complete 180-degree shift, but on the calories scale, also a 180-degree shift! Zero calories. And my heavy scone? I switched to a protein-filled 300-calorie spinach feta wrap. Based on that single change, I cut my calorie intake by 70 percent for breakfast alone (700 calories per day or 3,500 per week). And guess what, I was still satisfied and felt better fueled for the day ahead!

The start does not have to be overwhelming. It’s one meal or short walk at a time while you build momentum. Then, see it snowball in the coming weeks and months!

On the flip side, how can we prevent these ideas from just being trapped in a rarified, theoretical ideal that never gets put into practice? What specific habits can we develop to take these intellectual ideas and integrate them into our normal routine?

Making a healthy weight change requires proactive thinking. One example is around exercise. Preparing the evening before by laying out your clothes and putting them somewhere to remind you to put them on and start your exercise routine is critical. I tell my clients and workshop attendees to decide on their eating and exercise when they’re at their strongest mentally. That might be on Sunday mornings; it could be 1:00 p.m. on weekdays. Whenever you feel your strongest is when you should map out the coming days or week on how you’ll make yourself a priority. The last thing you want to do is decide on dinner at 7:00 p.m. after working all day, missed lunch, and you’re hungry for anything and everything. That’s when poor decisions are made.

Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Along with my role in helping business leaders prioritize their wellbeing, I want to play a role in empowering families to prioritize their wellbeing as a group. I am concerned about kids today and their relationship with food and exercise. If any organizations are looking for someone who has a lot to say about this topic, wants to roll up their sleeves, and help, please reach out!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

Christiane Amanpour is at the top of the list. I’ve always admired Christiane’s intelligence and journalism integrity. I know she was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer and going through treatment; we are all pulling for you for a speedy and complete recovery.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Please visit chasingthesunpdx.com, follow me on Instagram or Twitter @markmoh, and on LinkedIn. Please feel free to email me as well: mark@chasingthesunpdx.com

Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.