Wednesday 19 May 2010

My health & fitness challenge - The background story

I only wish I started this Blog a year and a half ago when I began my life changing health and fitness regime, I fear now I have long since forgotten vital details of just how hard it was. It began in October 2008, I reached that moment where I realised I was unhappy with myself, the path my life was following and decided enough was enough, time to make changes and fast. It was at that time that I quit smoking, got myself a tattoo and joined my local gym all within a few weeks. As change goes it was radical enough for me at the time. In an attempt to help quit the cigarettes I booked myself a hypnotherapy session, however me being the impatient person that I am I was not willing to wait another two weeks until the appointment to get started so I quit myself, I did get the hypnosis done also but I believe I had done a lot of the hard work before then.

Ironically I quit cigarettes and got a tattoo within a few days of one another, the irony being my tattoo is Latin, the translation meaning "Never give up". See post on tattoo for more info on that. That time was a real eye opener for me, I had been wasting my life and allowed myself to get into a cycle of not caring about myself, my health or my happiness. Time for that to change. In hindsight I also think I needed a hobby, you get stuck in a routine of not doing anything, watching tv, eating and before you know it the months and years have started to pass by. I was very much in need of changing that. I am a big believer in the philosophy that things happen for a reason, I believe the timing of all this coinciding was for a reason.

I am excellent at following instructions, I did not think of myself as a pioneer or a leader until recently. In October 2008 I was willing to be told this is what you have to do now go do it. When I joined the gym I wanted to get some preparation work done myself so that when I met my instructor I had a little fitness. This was a complete waste of time however as he managed to wear me out in ten minutes of moderate exercise. I imagine the job of a fitness instructor is very rewarding and also very frustrating at times, you cannot do the work for people and so often you hear about people joining the gym in January, go for a few weeks and then never go back. Most gyms do there business in January (a very good reason why you will never get a good deal from a gym in January). I was determined however not to be one of those people, I made a promise to myself that I would be at 13 to 13.5 stone or approx 85kg's at some time in 2009.

My starting weight in October 2008 was 16 stone or 102kg's approximately. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of myself before I began, that would have been useful but I was afraid of failure I guess. I just wanted to go about my exercise and not make a big deal about it then. I prefer to do rather than talk about it. Over the course of the next six months I worked tirelessly to achieve my goals. Meeting with Tylot (gym instructor) every 4-6 weeks or so to change my programme so as to ensure I was challenging myself the whole time. By June 2009 I was at my target weight of 85kg's but by then I was unstoppable. I had become so obsessed with health and fitness that I could not stop, ease off and just relax a little. I think when you come from a position of being overweight, to being at your target you suddenly think to yourself, what do I do now? That is when the idea for the trek came along, I wanted something to train for, something to focus all my energy on from that time, It was meant to happen.

If you remember I said earlier that I think things happen for a reason? I believe that all this time I was being led to Everest. My obsession is now on getting to the top of the world, it does not have to be today, tomorrow or even next year but over the next 10-15 years I want to be standing on top of that mountain thinking what next.

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