The Beginning

2009 was a year I will never forget. Still hurting from loss of my father at the end of the previous year, priorities in my life had taken a huge shift.

One of the highlights of my year was a trip to Romania helping a charity called Habitat for Humanity to build new houses for local orphans. What I saw there will stay with me forever, not least the enduring sights of this wheezing hulk scrambling up and down ladders and squeezing onto scaffolding.

In December 2009, my wife Debs and I went on holiday to Thailand. We had the most amazing time and met some wonderful new friends. When I got home, like most people, I uploaded the photos to the computer.

What I saw made me speechless.

The old adage about the camera adding 10 pounds must have come to bear on these photographs. Were 4 cameras trained on me? I knew I was a big guy, but not like that. The difference between my own body perception and the reality was immense. I had no idea I was just so, well, huge!

I knew immediately something had to be done. My health was suffering, my heart starting to flutter, and I'd already had an "in-denial" run in with my GP over very high blood pressure. Thoughts of my health immediately made me think of Dad. I really had to change.

I had followed diets before, but each time had failed after 4 or so months. Previously, I'd set myself weekly targets, forecasts, projections of the exact date I would reach my goal weight, everything. The Project Manager in me just wouldn't lie down! I had to have programmes, plans and projections. In the end, I had lost a few stone before falling behind and ultimately giving it all up as a bad job and putting the weight back on.

If I was forced to guess,I would say I've probably lost 10 stone in my life in 3 or 4 bursts, but have regained it. Why, I couldn't say. Probably some combination of psychology, boredom, chasing targets, short term thinking.

This blog will set out the results as I strive to have a "normal" weight for the first time since 1995. I'm making this all public so that you, my friends and family, can keep me motivated and on track.

It's probably worth saying that I've set this blog up in early July, so ignore the dates on the posts for now and rely on the headings to the posts themselves!