The start of my story, I think is a fairly common one. As a kid I was fit, healthy and active. After leaving college I got a job in an office and it was largely down hill from there. Sitting at my desk for most of the day, followed by getting married and just a few years later children. All of which conspired to mean that I didn’t do enough exercise, ate too much of the wrong stuff, drank too much and surprise surprise I got fat.

This is me in my mid 30’s (clutching chocolate eggs!).  Sorry for the poor quality image, but I wasn’t keen on being photographed and never thought I would be starting a weight loss blog. At the time I hade a 48 inch waist and was incredibly unfit and unhealthy. I also had lost a lot of my confidence and energy, spent evenings sat in front of the TV, watching life go by.

I can’t truthfully say what the spark was that made me want to sort my life out, probably just an acceptance that enough was enough of not really liking myself or what I had become.

I started by cutting out the junk food and wine, and started to exercise, initially training to do a triathlon, all of this had some effect but not enough and I just ended up skinny fat, and as soon as I stopped training the weight went straight back on.

Over time I found better ways to lose the weight and keep it off. This revolved around 3 core areas: (In order of importance)

• Fasting
• Diet (Cutting out the carbs and eating well, lots of good healthy food with no restrictions on amounts)
• Training, specifically strength training, kettlebells and hiking. Definitely no boring long slow cardio workouts.

I have managed to keep off the weight and enjoy pushing myself doing different challenges. This picture is of me last year (now early 40′s) whilst completing a Tough Mudder – a 13 mile extreme obstactle course, having just been through a skip full of ice!! I have lost over 5 stone of fat, and 16 inches off my waist.

Having lost a lot of weight, people always ask how I did it, which turned into sharing my experiences and giving advice, a few years later I decided to start this blog, and the rest the say is history.