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This Thread is not so much for everyone else as it is for me, its just a way for me to log this process so hopefully, I can look back in a years time and physically see the story.
I am going to start by explaining my background and how I got here, maybe it will add a little more depth to this 'Diary', if you would like to comment at any point please feel free to, I will be updating this throughout the year, no doubt more frequently at first
Where did it all go wrong??? This is a question I have asked myself more times than I can remember.
I have always struggled with my weight, to say it has yo-yoed would be an understatement, at just 16 years old I weighed around 18 stone and had just finished 11 years or torment, although I always knew I was larger then everyone else, I never saw myself as fat, I would look around me and genuinely believe I was the same as everyone else, I didnt see what they saw and subsequently didnt ever see the worth in changing myself.
It wasnt until just after my 17th birthday I realised I needed to make a change, I wanted to join the royal navy, the problem .... I was unfit and knew in order to join, I needed to be able to run 1.5 miles in 11.13 minutes or less.... so on new years eve 2002 I started jogging, I started by running 1.5 miles, it took me 16 minutes and I was shattered by the end of it, but through shear determination I pushed on; and after 9 months I was able to run it in 11.12, JUST scraping the time limit, but as it turned out, the need to get fit meant eating healthy, and after the said 9 months, my weight had dropped to 15 stone... now this may still seem like a lot to some people but honestly, Im a naturally big guy, and 15 stone on me looked fantastic, I would go out to clubs wearing skin tight t-shirts and slim fit jeans just to show myself off, my confidence grew enormously, women were actually paying ME attention, then I joined the Navy, and things stayed the same for about a year, if anything my fitness improved, I was now running a mile and a half in 10 minutes 40 seconds, I had gained a little weight but I simply put that down to muscle gain.
It was after I joined the ship that things changed, there was nowhere you could really run, the weights were rusty and dank and the food served consisted mainly of burgers, chips and pizza,
Dont get me wrong, there was often a healthy option available, but when you have worked your arse off for 10 hours straight, more often than not you just want to eat something you enjoyed and get out with the lads... this is where issue No:2 came into play..... Beer......
Now Im not sure if you have heard the Royal Navys reputation about drinking, but its all true, I drank so much over any given month it was crazy, and lo and behold it wasnt long before I found myself in stores asking for a larger size uniform... at first it wasnt an issue, a little bit of extra weight never hurt anyone I would tell myself, then I would go back and ask for a larger size, then again and again... the problem was I was still passing my fitness test and I wasnt doing anything else the rest of the guys werent doing... yet I was the one piling on the weight....
After 3 years I made the decision to leave the Navy, I made the school boy error of leaving for a woman . hummmmmmmm
A few years went by and I just kept putting on more and more weight, I stopped fitness, I carried on eating and drinking whatever I liked and it wasnt long before I was 20 stone, the largest I had ever been, my mother kept telling me to join slimming world with her and eventual, with a monetary bribe I went, It was great, I ate loads yet by simply not mixing certain foods I was losing weight, and not just a bit, it was dropping off. After a year I was named my groups slimming world man of the year, I had dropped back down to just over 16 and a half stone and looked bloody good.... It was funny really, because my partner had stuck with me all the time I was fat and yet after the effort of losing the weight and slimming down, she then left me, and what do you think I did??? I went on a 6 month drinking binge, when I woke up I had put all the weight back on and then some... back to feeling depressed it was.....
Things stayed the same until the Lowestoft Airshow 2010, me and my mothers partners nephew..(Gary)... a guy who was also in the Royal Navy (had just left after doing 12 years) we out drinking when I mentioned going on one of the rides that was on the carnival, being a pair of drunken idiots it seemed like a good idea at the time, it turned out to be horrifically embarrassing... the ride attendant came up to me and said I wouldnt be able to stay on as I was to big. Imagine the embarrassment of having everyone sat watching me shuffle away!!
Now Gary isnt a small guy, in fact hes bigger than me, but he's also a lot taller and built well, saying that, he had also packed the beef on over the years so we made a pact, that by the next airshow, we would have both lost weight and would go back to the same ride we were turned away from; and thats what we did, I went from 21 stone down to 18, still not slim but a hell of a lot smaller than I was, airshow 2011 came and we went back to the ride, I wasnt asked to get off.... achievement reached....
Over the 2 days we drank over 80 pints of beer between us, then the weekend came and we drank some more, then Gary went back to Portsmouth and I just carried on, eating and drinking what I liked.
Why do I do this to myself you ask... the honest answer is I simply dont know, I lose weight and feel good about myself and then just try to make the most of it by going out all the time, Now after putting all last years weight back on I have decided to give it one last go, Lose the weight and keep it off, I havent weighed myself, I dont want to, seeing the numbers on the scales will only hammer home what a fool I have been, I know it back on, I can feel it, Christ I can see it, and whats worse is so many other people have commented on it, its a fantastic feeling when your told 'wow,, have you lost weight?' but its equally bad when someone mentions that you have put it back on...
And so here I am, just into January and I have decided to not only change the way im eating but to start my fitness back up as well... Im going running........
I am going to start by explaining my background and how I got here, maybe it will add a little more depth to this 'Diary', if you would like to comment at any point please feel free to, I will be updating this throughout the year, no doubt more frequently at first
Where did it all go wrong??? This is a question I have asked myself more times than I can remember.
I have always struggled with my weight, to say it has yo-yoed would be an understatement, at just 16 years old I weighed around 18 stone and had just finished 11 years or torment, although I always knew I was larger then everyone else, I never saw myself as fat, I would look around me and genuinely believe I was the same as everyone else, I didnt see what they saw and subsequently didnt ever see the worth in changing myself.
It wasnt until just after my 17th birthday I realised I needed to make a change, I wanted to join the royal navy, the problem .... I was unfit and knew in order to join, I needed to be able to run 1.5 miles in 11.13 minutes or less.... so on new years eve 2002 I started jogging, I started by running 1.5 miles, it took me 16 minutes and I was shattered by the end of it, but through shear determination I pushed on; and after 9 months I was able to run it in 11.12, JUST scraping the time limit, but as it turned out, the need to get fit meant eating healthy, and after the said 9 months, my weight had dropped to 15 stone... now this may still seem like a lot to some people but honestly, Im a naturally big guy, and 15 stone on me looked fantastic, I would go out to clubs wearing skin tight t-shirts and slim fit jeans just to show myself off, my confidence grew enormously, women were actually paying ME attention, then I joined the Navy, and things stayed the same for about a year, if anything my fitness improved, I was now running a mile and a half in 10 minutes 40 seconds, I had gained a little weight but I simply put that down to muscle gain.
It was after I joined the ship that things changed, there was nowhere you could really run, the weights were rusty and dank and the food served consisted mainly of burgers, chips and pizza,
Dont get me wrong, there was often a healthy option available, but when you have worked your arse off for 10 hours straight, more often than not you just want to eat something you enjoyed and get out with the lads... this is where issue No:2 came into play..... Beer......
Now Im not sure if you have heard the Royal Navys reputation about drinking, but its all true, I drank so much over any given month it was crazy, and lo and behold it wasnt long before I found myself in stores asking for a larger size uniform... at first it wasnt an issue, a little bit of extra weight never hurt anyone I would tell myself, then I would go back and ask for a larger size, then again and again... the problem was I was still passing my fitness test and I wasnt doing anything else the rest of the guys werent doing... yet I was the one piling on the weight....
After 3 years I made the decision to leave the Navy, I made the school boy error of leaving for a woman . hummmmmmmm
A few years went by and I just kept putting on more and more weight, I stopped fitness, I carried on eating and drinking whatever I liked and it wasnt long before I was 20 stone, the largest I had ever been, my mother kept telling me to join slimming world with her and eventual, with a monetary bribe I went, It was great, I ate loads yet by simply not mixing certain foods I was losing weight, and not just a bit, it was dropping off. After a year I was named my groups slimming world man of the year, I had dropped back down to just over 16 and a half stone and looked bloody good.... It was funny really, because my partner had stuck with me all the time I was fat and yet after the effort of losing the weight and slimming down, she then left me, and what do you think I did??? I went on a 6 month drinking binge, when I woke up I had put all the weight back on and then some... back to feeling depressed it was.....
Things stayed the same until the Lowestoft Airshow 2010, me and my mothers partners nephew..(Gary)... a guy who was also in the Royal Navy (had just left after doing 12 years) we out drinking when I mentioned going on one of the rides that was on the carnival, being a pair of drunken idiots it seemed like a good idea at the time, it turned out to be horrifically embarrassing... the ride attendant came up to me and said I wouldnt be able to stay on as I was to big. Imagine the embarrassment of having everyone sat watching me shuffle away!!
Now Gary isnt a small guy, in fact hes bigger than me, but he's also a lot taller and built well, saying that, he had also packed the beef on over the years so we made a pact, that by the next airshow, we would have both lost weight and would go back to the same ride we were turned away from; and thats what we did, I went from 21 stone down to 18, still not slim but a hell of a lot smaller than I was, airshow 2011 came and we went back to the ride, I wasnt asked to get off.... achievement reached....
Over the 2 days we drank over 80 pints of beer between us, then the weekend came and we drank some more, then Gary went back to Portsmouth and I just carried on, eating and drinking what I liked.
Why do I do this to myself you ask... the honest answer is I simply dont know, I lose weight and feel good about myself and then just try to make the most of it by going out all the time, Now after putting all last years weight back on I have decided to give it one last go, Lose the weight and keep it off, I havent weighed myself, I dont want to, seeing the numbers on the scales will only hammer home what a fool I have been, I know it back on, I can feel it, Christ I can see it, and whats worse is so many other people have commented on it, its a fantastic feeling when your told 'wow,, have you lost weight?' but its equally bad when someone mentions that you have put it back on...
And so here I am, just into January and I have decided to not only change the way im eating but to start my fitness back up as well... Im going running........
