Clean Challenge Winner: Noah Sussman
Noah “Man-Candy” Sussman won April’s Clean 30 by losing 7% body fat. At the beginning of the challenge he had 19% body fat and weighed 188lbs. At the end he was still 188lbs but had reduced his body fat to 12%. What Noah didn’t expect when starting the Clean 30 was that after only 1 week he would be able to stop taking his prescription for ADHD.
By the age of 16 he was prescribed 40mg of Adderall in the morning (a very large dose) for his lack of ability to concentrate and comprehend. He was only able to concentrate about 1/3 of the time and if he needed to study or concentrate during the evening, he would need another dose.
In the morning he would have to take it right away otherwise he couldn’t get out of bed. He would wake at 7am, take it, and sleep for 30 minutes until it kicked in and then was able to get out of bed. If he ran out during college, it wasn’t even worth going to class because it was like he wasn’t even there.
Noah had a pretty typical North American diet. His breakfasts were sugary cereals, pop tarts and toast. Lunches would be sandwiches and wraps. He ate lots of dairy, cookies, cakes and donuts. Most of his main meals were processed foods like pizza and hot pockets that he microwaved. When he was trying to be healthy he would go for lean options instead of full fat. He thought being healthy was eating less. A healthy day of eating meant cutting out food. When he did this he would just end up feeling hungry and tired.
During the first 2 weeks of the Clean 30 he was really strict with his eating because he had a broken tibia and was only able to do the Aerodyne, rowing and body weight workouts. He knew he had to be even more strict with his eating to remain competitive in the challenge.
After the first week he ran out of Adderall and found that he could wake up normally. He started to notice that could get through a day of work and was able to maintain his focus. He didn’t feel the need to rush back to his doctor to get it re-prescribed.
By the end of the Clean 30 his blood pressure and resting heart rate were lower, he had more confidence both in his body but also in social situations because he could follow and participate in conversations. He also began to look at food as fuel and his performance improved.
Over the summer, he slowly reintroduced dairy, chocolate milk, sugar, grains, pizza, and pasta. He experienced a decrease of performance and increase of body fat. He also felt his ability to concentrate was reduced depending on the amount of sugar and grains he ate.
Now he sticks to a Paleo diet to stay drug-free and perform better.
This is Noah's personal story about his own experiences and decisions. Consult your doctor before altering your prescribed medication.