The Secret to My Success

After 4 weeks of Personal Training with Scott Devenney PT and Christine Docherty , weekly classes of Zumba, Metafit and Kettlercise with Southside Metafit and Kettlebells, some active travel, more sleep and healthier food choices, I am starting to see results.

The scales say I have lost 11lbs but this is only half the story.

What encourages me even more is seeing that my arms and legs are in fact bigger (arms are an inch bigger) and my body fat has dropped by over 6% according to my body fat scales. More telling and more pleasing is that, according to my girfriend, I am developing nice hard bumps across my entire body. My jeans and tops are fitting me (again) and I’ve lost inches off my chest, waist and hips. I have more energy and and more determination to continue.  I feel less self conscious, more confident and happy again.

When I was piling on the pounds and not running, not training and overeating, I feared that I was going to be yet another example of huge weight loss followed by huge weight gain.

I had lost my enthusiasm, my spark and my awesomeness (don’t worry, that’s back). I saw no way of climbing out of my spiralling descent back into inactivity and felt like a fraud as I wrote blogs for Spogo and National Fitness Day.

If you are wondering what the secret to my recent success has been, to me getting more active again and putting away the cake, it was the same things that trigger and motivate most successful behavioural changes.

I identified goals (Oz in Dec and Paris Marathon in April) that I wanted to be fit for. I joined several weight loss group (Man V Fat, a FaceBook group and Weigh in at Work) to give me accountability and a little competition.

However, more importantly I was encouraged, supported and joined in my efforts, by my girlfriend, Teresa.

On nights when I’d have happily sat on the couch, she urged me to get up and join her at her local classes, where I might of been one of only two men, but where I was made to feel welcome.

We cannot underestimate the importance of a nurturing environment and supportive social interaction.

Teresa and I train together and we have fun together. We use My Fitness Pal together, we run together at Great Run Local and we compare results together (Teresa’s competitiveness is frightening). Together, we are an awesome team.

Teresa is too modest, but she is experiencing similar results and if anything is looking even better than I am (although she always has, obviously).

The changes we have made aren’t ground breaking.  We’ve cut down on snacking, are reducing our portion sizes and are trying to make better choices, more often. We are doing activities we enjoy (more about them later) and trying to be more active, throughout the day.

There are no magic pills, juices or shakes. No shortcuts and no quick fixes.

It’s unlikely that I’ll have a six pack in 9 weeks (regardless of what certain men’s magazines promise) but I will feel more comfortable in shorts and in the water.

The prospect of “Taps Aff” won’t also fill me with dread.