Yesterday when I did my weight-in I noticed something was different, I couldn’t put my finger on it at first.
Then It hit me, I had gone from losing 50 something % of my body weight to having lost 60.14% or 335Lbs, My Goal weight of 235Lbs has long been passed, I weigh 222Lbs right now, When I was 40 stone I thought to myself “To get down to 20 stone would be amazing, 18 stone would be a dream” but you know what ? The truth is, I know I can get down to a weight that I Never ever thought possible, 190 Lbs (13 . 6 Stone) Now truth be told, with my excess skin, I’m gonna be either under 190Lbs or around it, So does that mean I have reached my goal on my journey ?
Welllll……No…. You see if I dont have the operation then I have another 32Lbs to lose on my own (Something I am pretty confident in doing, if needed) so for now, I want to keep losing and give myself a nice bit of breathing space so that, no matter what happens, this time next year, I will FLY.
My body fat is now 17%, I look and feel great, but theres so much more I’m gonna do, theres so much more I want to be.
At a meeting last week I was asked “So, how much weight have you lost now then ?” I gave the answer “Almost 25 Stone now” the replay was “dont take the piss” 🙂 Anyway after being backed up the truth was out, and I was then asked “How did you do it ?” I was about to jump in with the answer CYCLING but then this followed “You must have gone to Weight Watchers to do that” the person asking was pretty shocked to see/hear what I had achieved without any assistance at all, but why do people automatically think “Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Gastric Bypass” When someone like me loses weight, its a shame as it can be intimidating to people wanting to follow in my footsteps….This is in no way a rant at the person asking, they were being genuine, but it does make me think, that, as a Country, we need to radically change our view on Obesity and how we tackle it.
Gaz
Cycle Of Life - Fix You 
Hi Gaz,
I think most obese people got that way through a lack of exercise. (Its damn hard work!) And making poor lifestyle choices.
And as we get bigger we can all find a million ways to give us a little “treat” to cheer our selves up, Chinese take away, Indian take away, Pizza, cheap booze the list of treats go on and on.
Less than five years ago I was NOT the 110kg lard bucket I have become I am 5ft7” short!
I just felt comfortable with my life and gave up on all that hard work in the gym and slid into a round of “treats” Saturday night in front of the telly “treats”, late night curry after a night on the beer with the boys “treats” and what did I end up with?
85Kg to 110Kg in less than two years, type two diabetes, raised cholesterol low self esteem, a wardrobe full of expensive clobber that no longer fits, sweating like a pig every time I go into a bar that is crowded and warm (whilst wearing my BIG BAGGY camouflage of the day of course) you know how it goes. Appalling fitness, backache, In fact the list of reasons to go and get a pill off the doc is a very long one.
BUT the fact is all I and millions like me need to do is bite the bullet get off the sofa and get on a bike! But that is the hard bit and it’s so much simpler to feel sorry for yourself and give yourself yet another “little treat”
Gaz please don’t look upon your success as having “achieved your goal” you have indeed achieved your written goals and that is BRILLIANT, but you have a family and your ultimate goal I am sure is to enjoy them every day of your now normal life!
What I am trying to say is you got your life back NOW enjoy it, as you know from bitter experience, exercise is not something we can ever turn away from again it is and should remain a part of your daily life and every day is another goal reached, remember you would NOT have had this many to enjoy at your previous weight.
Your right society does need to change its view of obesity, we must STOP letting people PC the nasty side of obesity away, people like me are not big, we are “FAT” or Obese! We have to get some kind of honesty back into dealing with overweight people my doctor laughs when he sees me and I quote “Geoff you are one my few patients that knows there is no pill to solve your problems” and you’re the only patient I feel able to tell “your fat get on with some exercise” That is WRONG Doctors should be able to tell the truth.
We MUST tell people there is NO Magic Pill route to weight loss you have to change your life style forever a diet alone will not make you slim you MUST exercise.
We need to get schools back into competitive sport, no one likes to lose, but being called a fat c***t is not nice either (I know!),tell kids is not bad to lose but it is good to try harder and you might not lose next time.
Geoff
I think you misunderstood me, I mean my Goal Weight, I have said on many updates that I am never going to be able to stop, I am going to have to carry on for life, if I dont, I’ll put it all back on and that WILL Kill me !
The Biggest goal I’ll ever have is to maintain my goal weight forever ….I wont know If I have achieved this, until I’m dead, but if I can until I die then i’d say “Goal Achieved” LOL
I WONT EVER STOP. TBH I will just do what I have done in the last 2 years, and that is to work harder every single day !
Thanks for your concern that I am going to get out of the zone mate, I ppreciate it, but that aint never gonna happen 😀
Gaz
Hi Gaz
I am VERY pleased to have got it arse upwards, well done yet again.
Its cool mate, Dont worry, Its probs the way I wrote it.
Gaz
I’m sure I’ve said this a few times on here but what you have achieved Gaz is amazing. You are living proof of what getting up off your arse and actually tackling a problem head on can achieve.
As I’ve been following your progress I’ve tried to find ways for me to comprehend how much weight you have lost. At first I imagined carrying one (of the many!) kids I’ve spawned around on my back but then you easily surpassed their weights and I’d have to double up. Then you got close to my total body weight in WEIGHT LOST! With what you achieved in total you’ve now surpassed my wife’s body weight (she’ll kill me for that comment!) At 25 stone lost that’s 2 “me’s” plus probably one of the middle kids and that is awe inspiring!
As always mate I appreciate your encouragement, but when you put it into words like that, well, even I cant failed to be blown away, and as everyone knows, I’m my own harshest critic but you have summed it up much better than I ever could have, thanks mate.
Gaz
Dude, awsomeness incarnate!
As you’ve said, I like you have done what I’ve done on my own, other than my virtual fat and not so fat cycling mates of course, but lets not underestimate the power of the web here, maybe we should all on our next Docs visit highlight what a great community we have here?
Oh and Geoff, being honest is the first step, you’re dead right. And don’t get me started about the PC brigade, ARRRRGH I CAN FEEL A RANT COMING ON!
Agreed, The power of blogging has helped, there is nothing like being accountable to 32000 people I have never met 🙂
Geoff/Clive, What I wanted to add is that by looking at my target weight and lowering it and taking up running I hoped the post was more a case of “Yes I am so close, but I am changing who I am, what my goals are, and how my life will pan out”
As I said in a media interview, I can see the “Never ending Finishing line” up ahead, i’ll never pass it, but I will be RIGHT there !…..I cant pass the finish line though as the goal here is to live the rest of the whole of my life at a healthy weight. I cant ever say goal achieved until after my life is over though 😀
Gaz
Rant away Clive you will no doubt be “preaching to the converted here” and it does us all good to get it off our chests now and again! And you are 100% correct please please please lets ALL tell our GP’s about this incredibly motivating place we call Gaz’s ther emore people that see this I truly believe the more lives will be improved.
Incidentally on the subject of Doctors as I have already said I now have raised cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. On this one occasion I did fall in with the docs wishes and agreed to take the “Statins” he prescribed.
VERY VERY IMPORTANT WARNING NOTE
I do not suggest that anyone who is prescribed Statins stops taking them without first consulting a doctor NOR do i suggest what happened to me is common to everyone prescribed these often life saving drugs.
————————————–
I started taking the statins and within 48 hours felt like I had been hit by a truck I ached all over ( I had been advised there may be some aching) but what after 5 days I slid into another truly massive depression and had huge rages and temper issues I stopped taking them after 30 days but it took me FOUR MONTHS before I felt well enough to get back on my Bicycle!
I wonder how much closer I would now be to reversing my type 2 Diabetes and lowering my Cholesterol had I just carried on doing what my Doc had already told me was the right thing!
BUT he was just trying to help me along.
This experience has merely reinforced my belief in the “There is NO magic pill approach to weight loss and general well being”
I’d say its best I dont say what I have done against medical advice 🙂
For me, I was damned if I did and dead if I didnt, I took the gamble and it payed off for me 😀
Geoff, Dont forget, 2 short years ago I had type 2 diabetes (High Blood pressure and MANY more medical issues), Today I DONT !!! There is a way to come back from it mate and IMHO Its not via drugs, unless like me, your drug is cycling 😀
Hi Gaz,
I have to agree with you 100% I don’t like the concept of taking a pill and all my problems will go away THEY WONT and all those pills did for me was ruin a regime that WAS working, and give me a whole load of other problems.
All of which took me away from attaining my goal of stopping being a fat dollop, personal fitness, well-being and making the most of my life again.
On a positive note my new regime is showing results already so I will be starting my 15 mile each way commute as of Monday 15th there it is said!
Why oh why did I stop cycling when I was 20!
Well done there mate….Keep it going 😀
I asked myself the same question over and over again, Why the HELL did I stop cycling at 17 ???
But at least we are dealing with it now eh ? Sure its gonna take us time, but it took me over 10 years to get into the state I was in, so a return of 2 years to get back to “Almost ” where I was seems worth it to me TBH.
The best 2 year investment you ever made? I bet it is!
That is what is so good about what you have done… I know how hard it is sitting on a bike at 6am in the dark, the pissing rain and wind but to undo all that damage in just two years really is a great inspiration to others
NO ONE but NO ONE has to think “OK this is me for life” we CAN all do something about this modern day plague.
As I have said before I am 53 years young (I know that’s cheesy!) When I was at Infant Junior and Secondary school, the fat kids were the exception to the rule.
That is a fact and one that no PC orientated knobber can alter no matter who it may offend
In the whole of human history the majority of humans were not fat!
As such our bodies have never developed systems to deal with this massive over load of food we can have without having to chase it and kill it.
This modern day plague is man made
In 1973 when I was 16 none of my mates had cars! (You walked or went by bus!)
In 1973 the only time we ate Chinese was in a restaurant with mum and dad!
***In 1974 the first ever UK McDonalds opened in Woolwich South London!***
In the 1980’s more young people than ever owned cars, the playing fields were being sold off, people had more money in their pockets and less time than ever before, and the fat kids slowly started to grow in numbers in our schools.
THIS IS NOT COINCIDENCE they really do need to start putting health warnings on what I will call “Danger Foods” and making certain Children do a lot more exercise at school if nowhere else.
In the Danger Food category I include:
Indian: Full of Palm Oil salt sugar colouring and god knows what else !
Chinese: Full of fat sugar salt and god knows what else!
Thai: Full of Coconut fat this stuff is so bad for you they tell ALL heart patients DO NOT EAT ANYTHING WITH COCONUT IN IT!!) sugar salt and god knows what else!
Pizza’s (In the UK they are allowed to use dough full of fat to make them cook quickly) pepperoni sausage is 50% pure saturated fat! As for the Pizza hut so called Spicy Beef & Spicy Pork topping you simply do not want to know how its made and what of!
Mc Donalds (Enough said, but no matter what their ad men tell you about sourcing local ingredients, its what Mc Donalds do to them that makes it so bad for you! Did you know Ears lips eyelids penis skin and mechanically recovered meat are all allowed into Mc Nuggets and other McD products and can ALL legally be called meat!
Mc Nuggets are actually made from a paste that is squeezed out of an item similar to the one your mum used to ice your birthday cake with into little moulds so they are all the same shape!)
Burger King (Have you ever taken a whopper beef patty and put it on a piece of kitchen roll to see what comes out of it? And just wait till its cold and see if you still fancy a Whopper!)
Kentucky Fried Chicken (The clue to the fact “its not good for you”, is in the name surely!)
Subway (If you don’t choose carefully Coleslaw and dressing are both FULL of fat!)
Almost anything out of a chippy unless you remove the batter from the fish and only eat a few chips without the so called tomato sauce they provide it full of sugar!
Any pre prepared meal: be it from M&S Tesco Sainsbury Iceland Asda Morrisons or ANY other outlet they are ALL full of sugar salt colourings & preservatives that are NOT good for you.
Also microwaving them takes about 80% of the vitamins that are left after their processing OUT!
Can you think of any I missed out
Nop I cant thing of ANYTHING You missed mate LOL 🙂
I will say tho, 2 years investment after 20-some-years of abuse …I cant have asked more of my body, I have beat the crap out of it in the last 2 years and it just screams back ” MORE MORE MORE” Its amazing …….I have said it before and ill say it again….IM LUCKY !!!
6am in the “Pissing” Rain is what makes us cyclists, as opposed to people on bikes mate 😀
Gaz
6am in the “Pissing” Rain is what makes us cyclists, as opposed to people on bikes mate 😀
I never thought of it like that!
I like the cut of yer jib young fella me lad!!
I was thinking of having a T-Shirt Made with that.
“6am in the “Pissing” Rain is what makes us cyclists,
As opposed to people on bikes
Gaz-39 Stone Cyclist”
Waddya think ? 😀
I think its a damn good idea!
How about
Gaz says
“6am in the “Pissing” Rain is what makes us cyclists,As opposed to people on bikes!
It was dark very windy and chucking it down in jolly old east London / Essex boarders this morning at 5.45am and whilst trying to re thread my chain in the dark on a hill with the wind whistling up my jacksy plus I had forgotten to replace my handy latex thin gloves in my seat pack so I got filthy! Those words ran through my head and I actually laughed so I thank you for your wit Gaz old chap.
I thought about it too today
MEANTAL Head winds, wet shoes ALL day at work, wet coat, tired legs, mental car drivers…..I LOVED IT
I am deffo gonna get one Made Up now 😀
Old Man ? HOW DARE YOU LOL
ps how do I get an avatar please?
Google Gravatar 😀