From FAT at 40 to FIT at 50 – Part 1

When it comes to fads, you name it, I’ve tried it.

Literally nothing has quite filled the hole in this soul, but let me tell you, that trying to get fit comes pretty close.

Yep, it seems I’ve become an ex-drinking, ex-weed smoking, almost vegetarian exercise nutjob – #sorrynotsorry

But before you read on, understand that I was so utterly convinced that my fitness drive was a fad, I wasn’t even tempted to post about it on my blog. But as it turns out, I’ve now got quite a few things to say on the matter having done multiple events including a my first 75K run, a Half-Ironman called Outlaw, multiple triathlons, my first 5KM swim plus hundreds of miles of runs, bike rides and walks.

On balance it’s been a good laugh, and I’ve met lots of great people, so decided to write Part 1 – here goes…

Part 1 – Getting fit – Why bother?

Why would you exercise when there is a bottle of wine and comfy sofa calling your name?

I have plenty of mates in the pub asking me to join them, lots of fancy dinners, long work meetings and even if I didn’t get a beer in the day there was always my trusty dog Loonie to walk round the park. (dog walk = smoke big reefer)

So why would you exercise, and how on earth would I fit it in?

At that time exercise for me boiled down to a run for the car when I’d left it at the pub, or the occasionally ParkRun to prove I wasn’t hungover.

Whilst I have no regrets, my life until quite recently was mainly about earning money, kudos with my mates and trying to keep work, married life and parenting on track, and at the same time trying to create as many drinking and smoking opportunities as possible. All told, I was pretty good at all those things.

But exercising? No time for that. Dieting yes, but exercise? NOPE!

And as we all know, fitness is for losers right?

Where do you start? – ( join a running club is a good idea – https://bfr.org.uk/ )

Hilariously, I actually used to think I was pretty fit.

However, I was challenged to prove this theory with my friend and now Fitness expert Justyn who asked me to take the Cooper Test. As with many areas of my life I took the Cooper test as a challenge, and went too hard, too soon and had to walk before finishing… Pretty embarrassing.

Surprise, surprise the 36/8 waist, dark eyes, panic inducing stress levels and a 14.5 stone weight had taken it’s toll, and I wasn’t as fit as I thought.

This really did surprise me, and made me a bit sad.

I used to be fit.

In my head I WAS fit.

Compared to my peers I wasn’t really that much bigger, nor did I drink that much more, or smoke to excess and because I was able to drop a stone when the shirt didn’t fit, dance all night in a club and (if I wanted too) do a marathon – I was fine. But I wasn’t fine.

Not only wasn’t I fit, I wasn’t even close to being fit, or healthy – and I was actually pretty broken.

Something had to change – but that something was called ‘everything’, and it started by getting some professional help.

The fitness journey had started!

PART 2 – Taking the first step – #OneStepAtATime

Just some of the last 18 months progress below

Thanks to the professionals:

My strength and conditioning coach – Justyn

Roman my IronMan Coach – (yes I have an IronMan coach…)

The BFR – Bracknell Forrest runners – we run in the forest in Bracknell! (and track).