I thought that I would take a look back at my fat loss journey so far, the highs and the lows.  Click on the graph image above to enlarge it. Back in January 10th 2008 I weighed in at 302lbs, this isn’t the heaviest I have been, the heaviest weight that I can remember peering back at me on the scales was 322lbs.

Anyway, the journey from January 10th 2007 was sparked by two things; first my doctor telling me that I’d be lucky to see my 40th birthday, and secondly I read that 1 pound of muscle can burn up to 50 calories per day.  With this I got some weights and set my alarm for 4am (and still do!) and hammered away.  I started on some mad pills (come on I was so ignorant at the time!) that promised some super thermal fat loss, but all I got was a faster heart beat, paranoia and the super ability to not need any sleep.  After stopping the pills before my heart exploded I had to come to the realization that there are no short cuts to permanent fat loss, not weight loss but FAT LOSS.

Weight loss is what you’ll get on short cut, fad diets; their weight loss means (for most of the time) muscle loss, body fluid loss, brain cell loss, and maybe a slight loss of fat.

Fat loss is what you’ll get on a progressive nutrition and exercise plan that causes you to have a major lifestyle change (one-day-at-a-time) that will last.

You also need to accept a new paradigm which needs to be done over time and at the pace that you can accept it.

Rapid weight loss is not healthy, an unnatural, unbalanced nutrition, skipping meals, no exercise are the signs of a (temporary results) fad diet.

Ok let’s get back to the graph, so as you can see from January 2007 to April 2009 things were going pretty ok; a few ups and then downs at holidays and a few plateaus.

April 2009 saw my wife, Daniel (son) and I getting ready to move back to the UK. As my son has duel citizenship it was only my wife who needed a visa; the stress begins.

I work hard (extra hard) at keeping my life’s stress levels as low as possible during this fat loss journey because as I have noticed if I am super stressed the scales stop going down, some times go up.

During the lengthy and exhausting process of getting my wife’s visa this was not possible and my stress-o-meter was stuck in the red and as you can see on the graph a fatty hike began.

Not only were we all stressed out about this but we had to move from the house we were in (a job facility) to a hotel.  Yeah I love hotels too but hey having room service on tap is not a good thing when your trying to fat fight.

So slogging through nearly 3 months of visa prep and then the visa was approved and we ventured west to Scotland as my fat ventured north and out of orbit!

So from July to the end of September (2009) I was struggling with my fat melting mission, trying to find a job and juggle life in the process.

After a start stop exercise program and fulfilling my lust of plenty of Scottish menus that I couldn’t find in Indonesia I gave myself a big kick in the pants back into reality and out of the rut that I’d dug for myself.

So from the end of September to Christmas I started on a downward trajectory of lard, it was going slowly but as long as it was going!

Before Christmas I had met up with Alan Strachan from AlanStrachanPersonalTraining.com to look at my nutritional program which I was quite pleased with when he told me that it was really good, then on January 4th 2010 I had my first personal training with Alan, and then Jennifer took me on after that for the next 3 months. During this time I went from 282lbs t0 250lbs, but not only that I received valuable lessons from Jennifer and Alan about working out, which was very different from what I had been doing on my own.

Jennifer also introduced me to my new passion of running and Alan inspired me and I signed up and paid my deposit for a full time personal training diploma with Premier, one of the best in the UK.

I will be off to Premier in August 2010 for almost 3 months to do this diploma.

So now at 243lbs I now feel back on track, with a new level of fitness that before, ok these last 3 weeks have saw me plateau but I am going to keep pushing through and it will come down again.

The air was hot and sticky, the street lights buzzed and cars zipped passed.  I was already full of anticipation living in this foreign country, land, city.  Yep the beautiful city of Singapore.  I have only been here about 2 weeks now and part of the mission training is that we need to run 4 miles every morning (apart from our Monday, day off) at 5am.  Getting up at 5am doesn’t bother me, but I have never been a runner, I wonder how I’ll do?

I tip the scales at 238lbs, and I am 24 years old, and I am thinking will my legs hold? How will my heavy body hold out pounding away on the streets of Singapore, and with all this humidity sucking my energy away.

This was from my diary back in 2002 when I ventured off to Singapore, where I would join a missions team that would later head to Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia.  I did start running, and from what I remember it wasn’t easy at the start but I did get better.

At this time I didn’t have the knowledge about exercise and nutrition that I have now, so running the same 4 miles for 4 months gave me very little results in regards to weight loss.

Now, 8 years later and clocking in at a current 256lbs with a dodgy hip, I wanted to have those laser eye beams that superman has when my personal trainer said to me that we’ll start going for a run twice a week LOL

I have been running a week now and I have shaved 4 min & 49 seconds off my time, I am feeling that my endurance has gone up (still along way to go) and I have now got this itch that I can’t shake off, the itch to run!

Now If you ever see me running in the streets you probably wouldn’t think that I am enjoying my self (cross between a cow and a whoopie cushion) but on the inside I am loving the challenge that running is giving me. To push harder, to get further, to dig deeper!

So I am enjoying running…… I just thought that I’d share that with you guys

It has been a fast year with lost of ups and down, and I am not just talking about fat loss.  I have been given so much encouragement by a lot of you here in Blogland and for that I am ever grateful, thank you for taking the time to comment and encourage.

Let’s look at some stats;

Fat loss: 45lbs (from 302lbs to a current 257lbs)

BMI: down from 42.1 to 38.4

Workouts: I have had 141 workout sessions

Waist: down a whopping 15 inches

Hips: down by 5 inches

Biceps: up from 13 to 17 inches

Here is a graph of my ups and downs through the first year.

Click to Enlarge

Do you know those negative experiences that you have when you are young and you tuck them away in the back of your mind hoping they will stay there?

Well I had one of those not-so-good-experiences when I was about 11-12.  I was having a pain in my left hip and then it got worse and eventually it affected the way that I walk and I got a rather bad limp.

I went for x-ray after x-ray and test after test, doctors were telling my parents that they could not find anything wrong and maybe I was just looking for attention, etc.

Then after a holiday in Ireland, we returned to Scotland and that first morning my mum received a phone call from the hospital and they asked here to bring me there immediately.

I was met at the hospital by a nurse and a wheelchair.

The doctor proceeded to inform my mother that I had what’s called a Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SCFE), in other words a dislocated hip. Which they said can be difficult to spot on an x-ray. But even at 11-12 I didn’t really buy that, I don’t know I am not a doctor, maybe it is difficult to see.

But I felt it, and I walked on it for 6 months.

Then I went through a time in the hospital with my leg in traction (basically they tie a weight to it) and then I was operated on to have two pins put into my leg to make it right.

6 months after the operation my hip started to get painful again I was taken back into hospital where I was told that one of the pins had broke and was moving into my muscle causing the pain.

So back into hospital for another operation to remove the pins.  Through the doctors evaluation he felt that my hip was strong enough to have both pins removed.

And I did, and they were and since then my hip has been fine…….. That is until now. (famous last words!)

I have been (and was trying to ignore) a little twinge of pain in my left hip, but yesterday the twinge of pain was upgraded to a sharp pain.

So instead of going to the gym (I didn’t make it to the gym on Monday) I hopped in a cab and went to see the doctor.  I waited from 6pm to 8:40pm and I was in and out in 10 minutes. He checked my ROM (range of motion) in my left hip and it was fine.

Tonight I have to go for an x-ray and then meet the doctor again. I am not too worried, I little curious maybe, but we’ll see what the x-ray brings.

So this week I am going to be pretty much inactive in regards to working out at the gym.  I spoke to the doctor and he asked me to stay out of the gym this week until we know what we are dealing with.

But after that we talked about (maybe more of a negotiation than a talk) that next week I could keep lifting but avoid any exercise that puts too much pressure on or causes my hips to move vigorously.

So as I am planing my new workout for December I will need to drop my cardio for now, and I am still going to lift, using the sitting weight lifting machines for my quads, gluts and hams.  I will keep going with free-weights for upper body but maybe incorporate more sitting.

Well that’s that! I will keep you informed how tonight goes.

Keep me in your prayers that this pain will go and that I have full healing in my left hip.

Daniel was born on Friday the 20^th of April 2007 weighing 3kgs and 57cm long. We stood in faith and prayed for a birth that would be smooth and we were blessed with a birth that lasted 2 minutes and 55 seconds.

I remember when Daniel arrived, my feelings overwhelming me and making me dizzy. Susan was exhausted and dropped off to sleep. As soon as Daniel got some air in his lungs for the first time he let out a cry to announce his arrival into this wonderful world.

I followed Daniel and the nurse into the baby rooms with a small black rubber band in my hand; the band when closed cannot be opened again unless cut. This was something Susan and I decided to do as stories of baby mix ups frequently creep into the news over here. When we moved Daniel’s unit into position and locked the wheels I had a little laugh to myself, looking around at all the other brown babies and then my eye’s gazed on my little reddish-blue son, there is no chance that he can be mixed up for another baby, I tossed the band into the trash.

I took a photo of my little son as he slept and prayed over him and the new chapter that Susan and I were stepping into as parents.

When we found out Susan was pregnant we were so excited. At the start Susan’s morning sickness was tough, if I hadn’t gone to work I would help rub her back and clean up after her. I was so glad when my mother -in- law came to stay with us too help out as she too is not squeamish when it comes to vomit I love my mother-in-law, she is cool and likes Guinness so a good glass raising buddy ::ha ha::

I think that I focused so much on my wife and making her as comfortable as possible while pregnant that I didn’t think too much about actually having a child, and then when Daniel came out I was kind of shocked and felt dizzy.

I want to boast about what happened when we got home from the hospital with Daniel, ok at that time we had 4 females (mother-in-law, a cousin, a maid and then my wife) in the house and then Daniel and I were the only males. And can you guess who knew how to change a baby’s nappy? Who knew how to bath a baby? Keep a baby from getting nappy rash? ….. the females, yeah right (ok show off time) it was me! So I showed them all how it was done and then when they could do it I let them get on with it ::ha ha ha::

I am (glad to say) a hands-on father, I do it all. This little boy is my legacy; when I leave this world there will be a part of me that will live on in my son. Since starting Discipline or Regret I have not only been disciplining myself with my weight loss but transferring a lot into other areas in my life and I have been inspiring family and friends too. I want to keep on going because I know that as my son is growing he will be looking and learning more from what I do than what I say. They (whoever they are) say that children learn 80% from your actions but only 20% of what you say. They (them again) have convinced me to believe this.

Ok back to Daniel, and I want to share with you all something that Susan and I have been talking about after reviewing the first year of his little life. Having a child brings you wisdom. Yep that’s it. Daniel has brought Susan and I a lot of wisdom and this is having a really powerful effect in our marriage and spiritual life.

So collecting all my thoughts together about what the last year has done in our life is (and this will be good for new parents);

Fathers be fathers; get involved with your child’s poo filled nappy, feed then and get puked on, talk to them and/or read to them with expression, goof around with them, hold them and let them feel your skin and that close contact, bath them and rock them to sleep.

Husbands be husbands; in the early days do lots for your wife; she has gone through a lot of changes both physically and emotionally. The only physical and emotional challenge us men really go through during the pregnancy is that we don’t get IT as often. :: hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink:: ok there was a dry spell of getting laid, get over it, spring will be here soon! What I did when Daniel was born that really helped Susan re-energize is I took the night feeds for the first 3 weeks.

You are thinking that this is all pointing at the males, and you are right so be a REAL male! Your wife has done a lot already. And this time with your child will bond them to you and give them a strong relationship with you that will (I believe) only get stronger.

Ok I took this from Rob’s blog, it seems to be doing the rounds through the blog community. You’ll also find out things that you never knew about me.

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink – it was a small bar in the West of Ireland, there was about 7 people ::grins::
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain – Mount. Bromo here in East Java, Indonesia
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone – oh yes!
8. Said “I love you” and meant it – I do this every morning
9. Hugged a tree – blush!
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea – Borneo
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise – Pontianak, West Kalimantan
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game – some big American football game while in Huston, Texas
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables – does it count if my dad grew the tomatoes and I ate them?
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars –
20. Changed a baby’s diaper – ha ha I have been doing this for the last 11 and a half months, it’s an ongoing project!
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne (don’t tell anyone!)
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster – many
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer – internal and external (If you don’t want to lose anything!!)
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country – this was not voluntarily
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland – lived in Ireland for about 10 years
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them – when plastered of course!
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero.
58. Sung karaoke – I live in Indonesia, who hasn’t here?
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class – I went to Judo for about 3 weeks.
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days – I fasted for 8 days before deciding to become more than friends with Susan (who is now my wife).
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark – yes while in Singapore, it was better than him eating me!
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89. Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house – Susan and I own a little house at the foot of a mountain in Borneo island.
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently – Indonesian, uda lancar!
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children – currently raising my son Daniel. He will be 1 year old on the 20^th of this month.
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country – In Indonesia
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived – when I was 4 years old I was electrocuted with 840 volts (I was wearing rubber sandals).
105. Written articles for a major publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Ridden a bike
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol — a rifle and pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery – dislocated hip
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read – Roald Dahl rules! (The Twits and The Enormous Crocodile)
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating – frog & a goat
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair – car boot sale.
146. Dyed your hair – red, green & yellow (come on, I was about 8 or 9 at the time!)
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

In our lives we are afraid of many things, and we each have our way of dealing with them. But I have a theory about fear. You see fear is really a lie.

Let me show you the evidence that I found through my extensive investigation.

It first started when I was in school; I was not the brightest student. I was usually a member of the ‘slow group’ and was not as far on as the others. In that group were the usual suspects – “I can’t do it miss”, It’s too difficult for me”, or “Can we do something a little easier?” One day I woke up and decided that I was not going to talk like this any more; the majority is not always the best side to take. If I was going to be in the slowest group then I was going to be the fastest in that group and I CAN so whatever they give me. Now it wasn’t an instant solution and the effects of it went unnoticed by me for quite some time.

French class – “He’s too slow with his other work, learning French would only confuse him even more!” – is what they would say; so they took me out of French class and gave me extra math and English.

Career Councilor – basically someone who asks you to tick some questions then puts it into a computer (emphasis on the computer doing most of the thinking and the councilor just doing the putting part) then taking out the results from the computer and then telling me that I should become a doctor – causing half the teaching staff present to faint. Then off to another career councilor for a second opinion (requested by my principal) to find out that I should stay away from anything ‘academic’ and find a job lifting boxes or licking stamps (much to the approval to the half that fainted).

Science Class – before this day I liked science and I liked the science teacher too, this was about to take a 180. On a study of the human body and how it’s built up the science teacher Mr. H (I’m not that cruel) made a comment that fat can be turned into muscle (without telling us how) then another smart ass (who I also wont name) said, “So Andrew could turn all that fat into muscle?”,

My lovely science teacher replied “Fat chance of that happening!”

That is when I stopped liking science and the science teacher too.

Now the evidence! Fear of not being able to change looms over us all and experiences have been burned into our psychosis that we should try and will fail if we do try. This I have found out is not the truth, and further more this fear is not as big as it seams. Let me explain;

Since leaving school I spend a short ‘unchallenged’ stint working in a supermarket packing shelves. Ok I will say this quick so try to catch up; I went to an interview for an IT position and DIDN’T EXACTLY TELL THE TRUTH, so to speak. I got the job knowing very little about computers and it became a game of sink or swim. And I swam, and swam and kept swimming through 3 top IT companies (including the big one that starts with an M and is usually hyphened MS). Then I got bored with looking at the screen all day and wanted to get into teaching as I am a real people person. I have now been teaching elementary English for the last five years.

Can we have applause for slow groups and career councilors please? Thank you!

The next mysterious event that has lead me to believe that fear of failing is flawed was in 2002 when I made my journey across the world to Indonesia. Lovely country, but they don’t speak English even when they do speak English. (Joking, some of my Indonesian friends speak English very well)

I couldn’t speak a word of Indonesian at all! Ok to keep this post from turning into a novel (prize wining) I’ll cut the story short. After 6 months I could communicate rather effectively with Indonesian. Now in 2008 I can speak fluent Indonesian.

Can you see the pattern? Can we have a round of applause for French Teachers please? Thank you!

Now the darn science teacher’s going to get one too! This is currently under progress. And when I am finished I am going to stick it were the sun doesn’t shine, on my BLOG, where else doesn’t the sun shine?!

So I have concluded that if you take a step up and hug your fears of failing then you too will find them flawed and it will disintegrate before your very eyes. So my friend you need to push forward passed your fears of failing and YOU WILL SUCCEED!

Growing up larger than life and any cars in the vicinity has many drawbacks; I think the only benefit of being fat is that you would last 4 seconds longer than anyone else if you fell into the North Atlantic Sea. Being that I never ventured that far north I felt completely useless.

I think the only thing that I can be angry at and blame others or the system is the lack of proper education that I (we) received about how our bodies worked. P.E. for example consisted of running back and forth in a slippy, squeaky gym hall then trying to get my backside up a rope that would probably come undone from it’s fittings if I had ever reached the top.

I mean there was no education about eating food groups, sugar turns to fat, good & bad carbs, protein, muscle burns calories to maintain its self, oatmeal is good for you, etc …… my fat generation were just put in shorts and made turn red for the amusement of others. Oh I’m turning into a right bee with an itch.

I just hope that the coming generation are being educated properly and that not all P.E. lessons are in the gym but in the class as well being told simple ways to live a healthy life. Surly that wont brake the education budget at most schools.

My School years were mostly spent on my own. Fat kids are excluded like lepers, picked last for soccer and first for rugby to be the team bulldozer. I don’t feel that I am still hurting from my school years though; my wife has played a big part in my healing from that. She looks past all my blubber and sees me. ::awwhhh:: ….. I’m excepted and loved, that can heal the most wounded hearts.

My school hell is a distant haze that feels like I read about it somewhere. I was spat on, bullied for money, beat up, pinned down while food was forced into my mouth, made the clown while having to strip down for swimming class, bearing my man boobs ::sniff, sniff::

I don’t feel bitter about this and I have forgotten all about this after I met Susan and got married. Writing this blog is the first time in ages that I have even thought about it.

Time is a great healer, so is being excepted.

Now for the first time in my life I am battling my weight for me….. not to fit in…. not to be liked or accepted, not to be the majority, but because I want to….. I am doing this for me.

And I will win and I hope that I can educate and inspire others.

Come on, Get up and get educated and get a life that you can live without regret!!