OMG – I look like my old man was my reaction to a photo, I need to do something.
Click here to follow the res of My Weight Loss Journey
The key point of all this was that I had found inspiration, role models and a purpose for changing my life not just losing weight. I had a load of knock backs in those early months but I didn’t give in. I also set myself some really tough objectives for someone my age, obviously I was lucky that I had things like the NZ trip in the pipeline to help me focus.
This picture with my eldest lad out mountain biking on Boxing Day 2016, the day the scales tipped 17st, frightened the hell out of me, because I looked so much like my dad who was always fat in my opinion.
I went on a diet blast and had my weight back down to 16st by mid Feb, but it drifted back up to the mid 16st by the summer.
In July 2017 I took over running my youngest lad’s U13 football team. During the first training session I started to get frustrated as I could hardly run and all the joint pains meant I wasn’t fit enough to show them what was needed, I didn’t want to be the angry old man who shouted at them but couldn’t do himself.
The problem was my joints resisted every attempt to join in, I could run and get the ball but that was about it.
In the same month we took on a new member of staff (Penny), she was around 50 and had set herself the objective of running in the Bristol half marathon, I was amazed at her energy and determination, she was going to the gym at 7am every day. Not only that, her hubby was still playing competitive football at 50, how on earth was that possible. I thought, well if you can do it so can I, I had a role models.
A key piece of the jigsaw happened in August we went on holiday to France. I took the mountain bike as I thought this could be my starting point. I set my self a target of 100km during the week, I did 80km in the first 2 days, so I reset the target at 200km and did it in 5 days. As you can see, I never lack energy or determination.
More exercise helps joints
Obviously I was knackered but what I didn’t expect was that after 3 days ALL my joint pains were gone, ankles, toes, knees – the lot were painless. 2 days after completing the rides they were all back. By accident I discovered that the best remedy for joint pain is to use them, its what they are there for.
I went to the gym a few times when I came back and after a week the joint pains were gone again exercise was clearly the medicine for my joint pains not just a way of losing weight – bingo. We had a family trip to New Zealand planned for Xmas, so I set myself a target of downhill mountain biking in Queenstown, which meant getting a lot fitter.
Inspired by my new objective I started looking for more exercises and I’d thought about walking football. My pal was doing a thing called Man v Fat (www.manvfat.com) so I joined him as it would help me with the boys football as well.
I hadn’t kicked a ball in anger for 15 years but I was back in the zone on the pitch immediately and loved every second – even if my body hurt like hell for days afterwards.
By the end of Sep 2017 I was running with the boys during training and warm ups, but at the beginning of October disaster struck, riding too hard on the mountain bike I lost control, hit a tree and broke 3 ribs. Out for 5 weeks but I kept going to the gym and pedalling and jogging.
I made a come back at the beginning of November which lasted a weekend, I had another disaster, I didn’t warm up properly with the boys on Saturday morning and tore my thigh muscle. Another 5 week layoff, but I still went to the gym, the weight wasn’t moving but I was definitely getting fitter.
Beginning of December, I was back running when another injury struck, it turned out to be an inflamed tendon in my shoulder (rotator cuff its called) from too many weights and it severely restricted my shoulder movements so I decided to take it easy in the lead up to Xmas otherwise I wouldn’t be doing the bike ride in Queenstown.
The NZ trip had a big effect, we did lots and lots of activities and I was feeling really fit and healthy, my weight was still not going anywhere but I was much fitter.
This is one of the lessons I’ve learned from this, you can be fit and healthy and still be overweight.
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