Before: 17.5st
After: 12st
I was chubby from about the age of 10, but as I was playing rugby and was relatively active my weight was more or less under control. Once I left school, I started work as a trainee accountant and I also moved out of my parents and in with some friends. The combination of a sedentary job, a lack of activity outside of work and generally poor eating habits (increasing portion sizes and too many takeaways) meant the weight gradually started to pile on, and this continued into my mid-20s.
Due to the gradual nature of the weight gain, I hadn’t really appreciated how big I was. Then one evening I was at a friend’s party and one of my mates made a less than complimentary remark about my weight. That’s when I realised how big I had become and that I needed to do something about it. I was 26 and weighed over 17 stone.
The first thing I did was cut out the fast food, as that was an easy win. I then educated myself about nutrition and in particular portion sizes, which helped me to have more sensible-sized meals. One of the hardest things was saying no to friends when they asked me to go out! After losing about three stone, I was confident enough to join the gym and I started out with walking on the treadmill with short bursts of running. Gradually I was able to increase the running time and reduce the walking time until I could run 5K without walking. At this point, a friend told me about parkrun and I decided to give it a go.
I managed my first race in 24mins 58secs back on Valentine’s Day 2015 and after that the running bug really took hold. I started to add road running to my schedule – trying to increase the distance I could go each time. Since then I’ve run three 10K races – improving my PB to 44mins 58secs – and two half-marathons, with a best of 1hr 37mins 46secs at the Worksop Half in October 2015. It’s been a long journey, but finally hitting my target weight of 12 stone, fitting into 32ins shorts and completing my first half-marathon are the moments that have made it all so worthwhile.
My diet has also improved tenfold: I now cook a lot more from scratch and swapped out some ingredients for healthier alternatives. I also make sure to eat a proper breakfast rather than snack on sugar-filled cereal bars throughout the morning.
I have so much more energy than I did back then. I could barely run 26 metres before and now I’m preparing to run 26 miles. My whole lifestyle has changed for the better. Running has introduced me to new friends, and trying out new routes has let me see my city from completely new angles.
