Back in January I made the decision to change my lifestyle by getting fit and losing some weight. I made the decision after not doing any form of exercise for 4 years gradually putting on weight and tipping the scales at bang on 15 stone!

What a fat fuck I thought to myself whilst looking in the mirror, I was in XL tee-shirts and busting out of my 36″ waist jeans, like a slowly inflating blimp.

I decided to do something about it on Thursday 10th January 2008 at the ripe old age of 30, I picked up the phone and called my local YMCA gym, before I knew it I had an appointment with the manager and an annual membership (along with one for my wife).

Step one complete, I had done the hard part and got off my fat arse next step to make some changes to the stuff I was eating.

I drew up a list of all the bad things I ate & drank in an average week, it read something like this:-

• 2 to 3 cans of Coke a day
• Fish & Chips
• Lots of Cheese
• Pizza
• McDonalds
• Steak & Chips
• Bacon Sandwiches
• Currys
• Chicken Fajita’s
• Beer 8 to 12 cans
• Buttered Toast (white bread) for breakfast
• Tea with 2 sugars and milk

It didn’t make pretty reading. I then decided to go through the list and keep 4 things I enjoyed the most. I chose:

• Pizza
• Currys
• Beer
• Tea

Oh my god, I’m going to starve I thought to myself, I needed to pad it out somehow so devised a cunning plan. I needed to ban the stuff I ate most and tweak the other dishes to include healthier things like veg, salad and low fat alternatives to things like cheese and as you can put fruit, veg and cheese on a pizza it had to stay on the list. Steak too, I love a rib eye so on they went, fish (tuna), chicken kebabs with salad - this was more like it, the menu was coming together. Next on was Beans on Toast & Soups. It now read:-

• Healthier Pizzas (made on pita bread)
• Currys - Indian & Thai
• Beer - Limited to 8 bottles per week, once there gone that’s it! (unless we are going out ; ) which is a couple of times a month)
• Tea with 1 sugar and milk
• Steak and Veg (brussel sprouts tossed in a bit of light spread, cauliflower & broccoli)
• Tuna Sandwiches on wholemeal bread
• Chicken Kebabs with salad on pita bread
• Beans on Toast (no butter)
• Soups
• A smoothie for breakfast
• Soda water & fresh juice (half and half 250ml)

So we went shopping and bought healthy and to my surprise our weekly shopping cost less - result! This gave me the incentive I needed to lose pounds and save pounds all in one go - a win-win situation.

The main casualty’s on my list where Coke & Chips which I decided to ban. I also eat much smaller portions - roughly 2.5 fists of food. My daily eating routine now like this:-

• A Smoothie for breakfast
• Mid morning cup of tea
• Wholemeal roll x2 for lunch - one with tuna, one with a cuppa soup
• Bottle of water
• Meal for Dinner from list above
• Fruit Juice & Soda Water to drink
• 1 or 2 bottles of San Miguel Beer in the evening

So far so good I’d managed to keep beer in the list, just not as much.

Next up was to search the net to look for exercise tips. I stumbled upon a website with a picture of a fat man who gradually wasted away to an extra in the film 300. A muscle bound freak after 28 weeks, that’ll do for me.

I went on to read all about anaerobic training and the idea seemed to make sense, warm up for 10 minutes, run fast for 3 minutes, jog for 5 minutes, run fast for 3 minutes, jog for 5 minutes then run fast for 3 minutes and warm down for 5 minutes.

Follow this up by a program of weights gradually building in weight, 10 /15 minutes on a bike then some sit up’s (except my beer belly was too big) and push up’s (like as if, I hadn’t been able to do one of these since I was 10 years old!) so I decided to skip this bit.

On my first visit to the gym I threw myself into it - I was absolutely knackered. I couldn’t breath let alone move the next day, but I stuck with the eating and the day after went back to the gym and did the same work-out.

On leaving the gym I stepped on the scales, they read 14 stone 12 pounds I’d lost a whole 2 pounds in just 2 days, it felt amazing!

I stuck to the routine with my meals and exercise for 2 weeks losing a whole stone or so I thought. The next day I found out that the scales where actually broken and where replaced by all new digital super scales. I stepped on.

Fucking, bastard. I had gained 7 pounds.

Looking on the bright side after a few beers I realised I had still been losing weight, just not as fast. Loosing the weight was great and I felt full of energy.

As the weeks passed the cravings for coke and chips started to surface. So my wife and I decided that we would have a McDonalds (1 every 2 weeks) Coke, chips and a burger all in one sinful meal and man it never tasted so good!!!

If you can’t let your hair down at weekend then there isn’t much point. A bit of what you fancy does you good - I couldn’t agree more you need a treat every now and then (just remember to do a bit more the next time your at the gym).

So there you go we are now on 26th February and my current weight is 13 stone 12 pounds. I go to the gym every other day for between 45 mins to 1 hour 15 minutes, I’ve dropped a size in jeans, my old Large tee-shirts are starting to fit - I’ve even started to get mini Hulk Hogan style pythons and I can now do 10 push-up’s for the first time in 20 years. I can even make love without breaking a sweat ; )

So do yourself a favor, make the change and I promise you will lose weight, it’s not easy at first and you will get addicted to the exercise but that can’t be a bad thing.

I will keep you posted on the reduction of my beer belly - whilst still drinking beer!!!

Spread (low fat) the Love.

John.

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