Hi there, my name is Tom.
From about 5 years old or so I was always a slightly chubby little kid.
Flash forward 10 years or so and I was pretty much your average nerdy teenage boy, I loved video games, sports, music, hanging out with friends and all that sort of jazz.
All throughout school I was bullied because of my weight. Quite simply as far as most other kids were concerned I was the fat nerd and that's all there was to it.
The shame of it is when I look back now at old pictures, especially from my latter teenage years, I wasn't even that heavy.
But we all know that kids can be cruel and in my mind at least I was a ten ton behemoth.
So I decided to do something about it. I started running and cycling everyday, I was in the gym at least 5 days a week and was involved in martial arts training for upwards of 15 hours a week.
Within a year or so I was in pretty good shape. Compared to how things had been before I felt like a million bucks and was finally at a point where I had some self confidence in how I looked and how others saw me.
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| 200lb of mean :P |
I was on top of the World...
Around Christmas 2004 things were starting to slow down at work and I was made redundant, it sucked to be out of work but I made the best of things and stayed positive during 2005.
By the begging of '06 things hadn't really picked back up and I decided to leave the UK and to join my family in the south of Ireland.
That's when things started to fall apart.
Work was harder to find than I had been lead to believe and a few things I had in the pipeline never really materialised. I was missing my friends and my old life in England and if I'm honest with myself was most likely suffering with mild depression.
Before too long I had started to comfort eat and was going out partying whenever I had the chance to do so.
Without really noticing I managed to undo all the good work I had put in and by the end of the first year I had gained about 45lbs.
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| Mid 2008 - 280lb |
From late 2007 onwards my life in Ireland steadily improved. I had a steady income from a decent job which I ended up staying in for the next 6 years!
However as my standard of living increased so did my weight.
At my heaviest I was tipping the scales at around 315lb
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| Summer 2009 - 310lb approx |
Between 2007 and 2012 I would occasionally do the whole yo-yo dieting routine. I would throw myself into visiting the gym for a few weeks and would cut out fatty foods yada yada... sure I would lose 10 or 20 lbs but before long I would feel like I was torturing myself and things would grind to a halt.
Magically of course the 10-20 lbs would be straight back...often bringing a few friends along with them
In July 2012 I got engaged to be married and later found out that come February 2013 I would be a Dad - scary stuff!
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| July 2012 - 275lb |
At this point I was sitting at around 275lb and decided that if I was going to be a responsible Father I should do something about my weight.
And I did, for about 6 weeks...
Throughout the pregnancy I was yo-yoing pretty hard, I must have lost well over 100 lbs during those 9 months.Problem is of course I gained them back as well.
Eventually when my daughter was born on February 16th 2013 I was a little lighter at about 265lb...not much to show for 9 months of supposedly taking things seriously!
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| Feb 2013 - 265lb |
Becoming a Dad is without doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was so happy I could have flown to the Moon and back.
So of course being happy I put on a few pounds, about 25lb to be precise. By the beginning of Summer I felt like crap.
I wasn't sleeping right, I was tired all the time, my back hurt constantly, I had no energy...the list of complaints I had at that point was endless.
In June last year I had a bit of a wake up call. A coworker passed away at age 46 leaving a young family and a few weeks later a good friend of mine had a massive stroke at 48 years of age leaving her disabled for life.
I realised I needed to man up, stop finding excuses and take things seriously. If not I was well on my way to being next.
Being Summer and having a few parties and BBQs planned with relatives flying in from all over I decided to be sensible.
I would cut back where I could right away and then set myself the target of starting my "serious diet" from the start of August.
This is me at the start of my serious phase:
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| August 2013 - 294lb |
As of 20th February 2014 I am now tipping the scales at 213lbs. That is a full 81lb lighter in 6 months.
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| End of January 2014 - 215lb |
It hasn't been easy, but then nothing worthwhile ever is.
If I can manage to change my life around and improve my health than so can anyone.
I'm going to be posting regular updates of my own progress along with diet and workout plans which have worked for me and some hints, tips and advice which has really helped me.
