Week 26 - Mission Accomplished - Or So Far So Good

I DID IT!!!!!

6 months ago I wrote my first blog saying how I wanted to lose weight and turn my life around. I was sick of being fat. Sick of being out of breath walking upstairs. Sick of making excuses for not going to my nice expensive gym. Sick of not being able to enjoy clothes shopping. And appalled when I caught my reflection in the mirror. And as I work in an opticians we have a lot of mirrors.

I needed a project that would focus my attention. I needed something different to everything I'd tried before. So no quick fixes by crash dieting for a month, 6 weeks, 8 weeks etc. No committing to it at the start and, as on numerous occasions in the past, giving up before I even got started. And most importantly, no achieving results but then slipping back into old habits and putting the weight back on as quickly, if not quicker, than I'd lost it.

This time I needed something I would see through to the end and I needed help to get there. So when Ash Jardine asked me if I would take part in his inaugural RockSolidRace and write a blog for his website in return for him setting up some PT sessions and nutritional advice it seemed like just the thing I needed. Firstly I would be getting structured training and proper advice about which foods to eat and which to avoid. But most importantly I was making my goals very public and would want to avoid failure at all costs.

It's fair to say that over the years friends and colleagues have supported my attempts to lose weight but after so many false starts they stop challenging you when you start to give up. That's not a criticism of them but a stark fact that they've all witnessed so many "this time it's different" comments that it was hard for me to be taken seriously. On the flip side I knew that if I struggled to keep going I wouldn't get such a hard time from them so it was easier to quit.

But with the blog I was baring my soul to strangers. And within days of my first blog I was getting such fantastic comments and support. It felt utterly
wrong to let them down.

So I'm typing this 6 months on and so much has changed about me. For starters I achieved my initial goal. I completed the 10k RockSolidRace. And believe me it was tough. We had torrential rain the day before the event and it was already going to be muddy. This resulted in a quagmire which was difficult to walk on let alone run. And that was before we had to carry things too. Along the way we had to climb in and out of swamp-like ditches, carry big logs uphill with our feet sinking into the mud. Carry a 20kg sandbag for a kilometre whilst also negotiating obstacles. Climb over a huge cargo net. Crawl through a stream with barbed wire above us so that just our heads were above the water. Climb walls and hurdle hay bales. But by far the toughest obstacle was climbing into a skip full of water and ice. Halfway along the skip was a barrier which meant you had to duck fully underwater to get to the other side. God it was cold. I felt like all my vital organs were shutting down.
But I finished it and at the end I felt an enormous pride that I'd completed something that 6 months earlier would've been impossible.

I've put together a slideshow of the event on YouTube and you can view it here: http://youtu.be/imLprVDZe40

Secondly as I mentioned in my last blog I actually enjoy sport again. Exercise has stopped being just about weight loss - although I've still some way to go for my ultimate target weight - and now it's just as much about the buzz of a good session. As a knock-on effect of this journey I've already set new goals to keep the focus and momentum. 6 months has been the longest I've stuck to a plan for in the last 25 years and I feel I've crossed over from short term fad diets to long term lifestyle changes in both my eating habits and exercise.

With regards to my training a massive thank you goes to Martin Hewlett at Exeter University Sports Faculty for setting this up with Ash. At times Martin has also trained me and I'm indebted to him for all his support. Also to another trainer there Tai who took me for a session and has constantly given me support and encouragement whenever I've seen him. But without doubt my biggest thanks goes to Lee Kirk who has been my PT instructor from the beginning. I learned very quickly to trust Lee so that when I thought I couldn't do something and he told me I could, I would listen to him rather than my mind. Lee has mixed up the training but always with a view that squats and upper body work were the key to getting me round the course. The legs power you around and the upper body lifts you over obstacles. Cardio was done as high intensity to raise my heart rate and assist with the weight loss. I've just trained again with Lee today and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future to keep me on target to reach my weight loss goal.






At the race I finally got to meet Morna Jardine. She is a Nutritional Therapist and can be found at www.vital-nutrition.co.uk. She is also Ash's sister and got roped in to giving me nutritional advice. It was brilliant to finally meet her after previously only speaking on Skype but I am eternally grateful for the "rules to success" Morna instilled in me. I now follow a very straightforward eating plan. I try never to skip breakfast. I aim for a mid morning snack. My lunches are always pre-planned so I don't end up buying a sandwich or worse still fast food. Dinners comprise of protein and veg (which no doubt will be replaced with salads if we ever get any warmer weather). I still have treats and cheat days but try to follow the 80-20 rule so that 80% of the week is healthy eating.

Anyway the story so far in a nutshell. I've lost 3.5 stone. My chest has reduced by 5 inches. My waist has reduced by 5 inches. My collar size has reduced by 1.5 inches. My blood pressure and cholesterol are better than they've been since I can remember. I try to train at least twice a week. I no longer see my weekly food plan as something I have to endure for a few weeks before returning to my comfort food. Instead I regard it as appetising and healthy choices.

In summary I'm a changed man. And I'm happy to say that my friends/colleagues have all said they didn't think I would stick to it and that because I have they are so impressed. Positive feedback is such a great feeling and helps keep me focused for the future.

Finally I must thank all the people who spoke to me at the race. I was very nervous about what I was about to face but within minutes of arriving people were coming up to me saying "hey Dave I've been reading your blog. Well done mate" or "There's Dave. Go for it". Even out on the course as I was passing people coming in the opposite direction they would call out my name. And on top of that the DJ called me to the front of the stage before our wave started the warm-up. I must say I did find this a bit embarrassing as I was just one of 2500 people there that day and didn't think I deserved to be singled out but I was also grateful that the DJ knew who I was and what I'd done to get there. But if I had any delusions of grandeur or started to get too big for my boots I was about to be brought back to earth with a bang. Standing in the queue to get my goody bag after the race a guy in front of me turned round and recognised me. He told me he had been reading my blog the night before and thought I'd done brilliantly. Seconds later I turned to look behind me and a guy said "hey you're that fat bloke off Facebook". Lol.

Thanks for reading and sharing my journey with me. I'll post more blogs occasionally as my training and weight loss progress but for now so long and I hope to see some of you at next year's RockSolidRace.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cowick Hill,Exeter,United Kingdom