My 3 Year Transformation

My extensive transformation was just a dream back in September 2012. As we all know, people often fail to achieve their dreams; I was determined to not let it remain a dream for long. I knew what lifestyle I wanted, I just had to figure out how to make the transition.

I was your generic teenager growing up, that lazy kid that would take forever to do anything asked of him. Each and every day would be pretty much the same as the last, filled with huge amounts of; food, computer games, sitting around, not paying much attention and last of all very low activity. However, I was never the teenager that you would find in and out of fast food restaurants for convenience, I just didn’t have a clue on how to eat for a purpose and instead I ate because of two main reasons; I was bored or I really wanted that taste of copious amounts of fats and carbohydrates. You could argue that your childhood is for not really bothering to pay much interest to your eating and activity patterns and to just enjoy your life before you get lumbered with responsibility and various career paths, of which take your life over. Looking back on my childhood, not just because of me being a 17 Stone (240lb) teenager, I can honestly say that I would have loved to know what I know how back then, I’m sure my teenage years would have been easier on my mental states and of course physically on my body.

I now live my life a much healthier man, someone I hope that others can look up and gather inspiration from, I now feel I have huge amounts of energy, passion and enthusiasm for anything that goes on in my life. I’m able to perform at the best of my ability no matter what the task on hand is, no sluggish thoughts and actions unlike my teenage years. Thanks to my willingness to change I have created a huge opportunity for myself in life, I’ve gathered confidence on my journey to enable myself to progress in my adult years and to motivate my family and close friends to reach for their dreams and to set and achieve huge goals for themselves just like I did.

So what was my typical day back then?

The day would start at around 7:00am where I would have no choice but to use an alarm to prize my eye lids open and roll out of bed after 6 cycles of snoozing the thing in the hope that the morning would go on without me. Once I finally managed to get out of the warmth I would scramble to find my school uniform, I was already running late thanks to my laziness, that I through in one of the draws last night, grab my bag and head downstairs. As I sluggishly slid my way into the kitchen dining room, I would drop my bag on the floor and head straight to the bread cupboard and grab myself 2, 3 or sometimes 4 slices of bread and drop them into the toaster, which thankfully could accept up to 4 slices. So at this point you’re thinking that’s not such a bad breakfast for an adolescent heading off to school, right? Well you may be right, except I wouldn’t be content at just that for my breakfast and off to the cereal cupboard I went. I would grab the box of Crunchy Nut (a corn flake cereal coated in stupid amounts of honey and peanuts, oh and 3 different types of sugar too). With a pint of fruit juice, a huge bowl, spoon and sugar in my arsenal I sat down to get my way through this calorie dense breakfast. By the time I had managed to finish my monster breakfast it was 7:30am, time to head out the door for school. I through my bowl and glass into the sink, grabbed my bag, grabbed a chocolate bar, pack of sweets or bag of crisps (in case I got hungry on the way to school) and headed out the door and into the passenger seat of the car.

School started at 8:00am, we all headed to class and got to work by 8:20am. But for me I could only concentrate for an hour before I my mind was set firmly back on food. The 10:00am break time couldn’t come round any slower for my craving mindset. The bell rang, I grabbed my backpack and routed for my snacks and headed off outside to satisfy my mental needs of some more carbohydrates and fats; crisps, sandwich and sometimes a chocolate bar would be my choice for this meal. With little to zero activity for 20 minutes the bell rang once more to signal the start of the next lesson being 5 minutes away, and off we strolled to our next two hours of sitting down.

1:00pm - lunch time came around and welcomed me by filling the school corridors with the smell of chips, baked potatoes, sausages and noodles all amalgamated to entice my taste buds and send my thoughts into over drive mode. Our year was called, it was time to satisfy my ever craving needs, off down the corridor to the food hall I headed to join the queue where we were lined next to the pretty poor choice of foods, 9 times out of 10 I would head off to the dedicated noodle bar that we had on offer, grabbed myself a bowl of sausage or chicken noodles covered in a fat filled tomato sauce, all topped with a handful of cheese.

3:30pm – My only bit of activity came, it was time to walk for a mile back home. I through my earphones in and started walking, what felt like a huge hike for a 108KG teenager. You have probably already guessed that I was ready for my next sitting of food, yet again. Soon as I got home I was greeted by my mother and a freshly prepared nutrient rich meal. A wholesome, handmade meal crafted by herself specifically for me, every day without fail! Before I could get my uniform off I had grabbed the filled plate, I took her cooking for granted it has to be said (Sorry mum!), I scooted off to my room and slumped into my computer chair where I would find myself stuck for the evening now. There would only be one thing that could get me out of this chair now, more food. I ate my way through the dinner I had been given while gaming until my heart was content.

Before I headed off to bed at anywhere around 2am, 3am or sometimes even 4am I would find myself sneaking downstairs, opening the cupboard or fridge as quietly as possible without waking the parents and sneaking some sort of naughty snack off to bed. The TV was turned on and I would satisfy my mind with the hidden food I had managed to get. And of course the very low active days filled with pretty bad food sources was all washed down with either sugary drinks or soda pops, no water insight!

I think It’s pretty safe to say I loved my food, and I still do if I’m honest, but the correct food and timings now!