About Me

My name is Maik. I was born in 1977, I am a father of three and live with my family and our two dogs, Qyu and Onni, in the beautiful Odenwald region.

I work in Frankfurt. When I commute to the office by public transport, the journey takes around one hour and forty minutes each way. On those days, I can easily be away from home for twelve or thirteen hours.

That is my everyday life.

And it is precisely within this everyday life that I want to make a change.

Why Health Is Personal to Me

Health did not become important to me only when I started thinking about this blog. Digestive problems have accompanied me since early adulthood. Many examinations followed, with different findings and repeated attempts to understand why my body reacts so sensitively to certain foods and habits.

I stopped smoking a long time ago. Later, I also gave up coffee completely. For many years, I have consumed little or no alcohol.

But that did not resolve everything.

My digestive system still reacts quickly and clearly when something does not agree with it. After a comprehensive stool analysis, I therefore began a targeted programme to improve my gut health, which lasted for more than a year. At the same time, I changed my diet: more fibre and plant-based foods, less sugar, fewer highly processed products and, wherever possible, fewer animal-based foods.

This improved many things.

My bowel movements became more regular, the bloating decreased and my blood test results also began moving in a better direction. Nevertheless, my digestive system remains sensitive and still tells me quite directly when something is not right.

At times, that can be exhausting.

But it is also honest.

Why I Am Starting Again

Even so, I reached a point at the beginning of this blog where I was not satisfied. At a height of 1.76 metres, I weighed around 95.6 kilograms when the blog began. I often feel that my weight hardly decreases, regardless of what I eat or how little it seems to me.

I do not yet know whether my diet still does not suit me, whether I misjudge portion sizes, whether metabolic or hormonal factors play a role, or whether several things are coming together.

I do not want to draw a premature diagnosis from that.

But I also no longer want to simply accept the situation.

At the same time, it would be dishonest to look for the cause only outside my own behaviour. I move less than I did before the pandemic. My fitness has declined. Work, commuting, family life and everyday responsibilities require time and energy.

Convenience also plays a part.

All of that is part of the truth.

That is why I do not simply want to begin the next diet. I want to understand what genuinely works in my everyday life and what does not.

I want to become stronger, more mobile and more resilient again—with simple means, a diet that suits me and routines that do not disappear again after only a few weeks.

The greatest challenge for me is not getting started.

It is continuing.

Why Qyu and Onni Are Part of It

Qyu and Onni are also part of this project. Not because dog training is at the centre of my health journey, but because I encounter the same themes there: observation, consistency, timing, patience, mistakes and gradual development.

A dog shows very quickly when an idea is not working.

That is not always comfortable. But it is honest.

Dog, body and mind are therefore not separate worlds for me. My body shows me what is changing. My mind decides whether I continue and whether I take my body’s signals seriously. And my dogs show me every day how important clarity, observation and consistency are.

I am not a finished role model or a health expert who wants to tell other people how they should live.

I am someone who has already changed several things but is still a long way from reaching the goal.

And someone who does not want merely to start again this time.

I want to learn how to continue for the long term.

Without show. Without miracle promises. And without pretending that I already have all the answers.

That is who I am.

And that is exactly what Hund. Körper. Kopf. is about.

I explain in more detail how this project began and why I document my journey publicly in “Why I Write This Blog.”