catchygetsfit-ter

[catchygetsfit-ter]

365 days later...

So... I have absolutely no idea how to start this.. but here we go.

Just over a year ago, my daughter likened me to a gorilla and Daddy Pig from Peppa Pig.

It killed me inside. She was absolutely right though. I was the biggest I had ever been. But.. it wasn't always like that.

I have always struggled with my weight. Ever since I was 11 years old. Always had the round bulbous tummy, ate a little too much, had the 'puppy' fat and didn't exercise enough.

I tried multiple times to lose weight over the years, the first real time I decided to try was age 20. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I didn't join a gym, I didn't focus on my diet, I didn't have a plan and shock horror - I didn't lose the weight.

Age 25 I decided to join a gym. That's all I did though, I went regularly, hit the exercise bikes for an hour at a time, treadmill for an hour.. then guess what I did.. went home thinking, I've done 2 hours of exercise, where's the takeaway menu, I've earned that today. I didn't lose the weight.

Age 27 I joined a gym, bought a tub of protein powder and some expensive attire and got to it. Again, no plan, no research into routines, eating plans, but I knew I needed to lift weights this time so did that. I did the classic, tried to out train a bad diet. Do you know what though, I had some success. I lost some weight initially, I felt better. I was accidentally doing what I now know is a dirty bulk. I was building muscle, I was getting stronger, I was getting fatter though. Guess what I focused on? Yep, the number on the silver shiny thing on the floor of the bathroom. It was going up, and up. In my head I needed to stop everything, the gym was clearly not working. Fuck it. I might as well go back to before. Again, I didn't lose the weight.

New years eve, 2012. Age 28. My friend is getting married and I go to put my suit on ready.. (Why I didn't check earlier than day of I don't know) and I can't fit in it.. the trousers, the jacket wont fasten, the belt is too small. I Feel embarrassed, ashamed and frankly disgusted. I put together an outfit, swearing that my new years resolution will be to sort myself out.

I spend January 3rd 2013 sat on my laptop looking at fitness advice. I find it difficult to work out what's going to work for me, what's good advice, what's bad. I take three things away from my research.

1) I need to do 3 sets of 10 reps for every exercise

2) I need to track my food.

3) I need to work my abs every day to lose belly fat. 4) Record my progress, logs, photos, vlogs.

Back then I didn't know that a good chunk of that chose to take, wasn't actually correct, but the people on the internet looked in great shape - they clearly were right, look at them and then look at me.

However - I followed it and I got results.

I was 21 stone 3lbs / 297 lbs / 134kg at the start.

I tracked everything, how many reps I did, at what weight ( I wasn't training to failure at this stage, I wasn't aware of the premise) the calories I had (I set myself a limit of 1200 a day, again I know now this was far too low) I did a daily vlog about what I'd done that day, I took a progress photo each week and what cardio I did each day.

I did a 45 minute treadmill walk on a morning before work, I then went to the gym and did strength training after work. Rinse and repeat 6 days a week and then relax on Sundays. I had blips, but I never really had a full blown fall off the wagon, 6 months later I was down from XXXL T shirts to L or M depending on where they were from. I was very pleased. I'd lost a LOT of weight. 5 stone in total. 70 lbs or 31kg.

I started my 30th birthday the lightest I'd ever been, but things were about to fall apart again. I'll detail that in the next post. Thanks for reading.