I’ve never really been ‘overweight’ as such, but I’ve certainly bordered on it and have been unhappy with my body shape at
several times in my life. I wasn’t confident as a youth, and ‘bulking up a little’ from my skinny frame in my teens helped.

The main problem started when I was around 20 – I was starting to get a beer gut! A very distinct belly pouch. No fat anywhere
else – just a big lump that my friends used to notice and poked!

True, I liked my beer. But I didn’t really know much about health & fitness then, other than to eat healthily and to do a bit
of exercise.

My knowledge on the former was distinctly lacking any scientific or nutritional background. True, I knew to avoid things like
burgers, crisps, chips, ice cream etc. I also assumed that the meals my parents cooked – and later, the simple meals I started
cooking for myself in my Uni days – were healthy. Looking back, they weren’t bad – just the typical meat, two veg and potatoes
of a traditional English meal in 90s/early noughties – they weren’t ideal though. The amount of mashed (or worse, roast) spuds
I ate though, usually accompanied by lashings of gravy or a cream or cheese based sauce, wouldn’t have helped at all – as
would the sugary desserts that usually followed – cheesecake, meringues, instant whip etc. And although I did eat ‘an apple a
day’ back then, I probably wasn’t getting anywhere near enough fruit and veg – save the frozen peas/carrots/sweetcorn with
meals which probably had most the nutrients boiled out of them.

Still, we generally avoided ready meals, although for a few years when the microwave fad first exploded, would have a few
merely for convenience.

My exercise knowledge came from my Dad, who always maintained an excellent almost triangle like figure with large shoulders
and flat stomach. I figured that if I ate the same as him, and did the same exercises he did at home, such as the sit ups,
press ups, and curls with his weights, then I’d be the same. He drank plenty of his home made (and very tasty) beer and
certainly had no beer gut. What I’d not taken into account at this stage was the fact that his manual job as a printer was a
very physically demanding job. He’d basically have a 12 hour workout each working day – and he cycled the 5 miles there and
back whenever the weather allowed. My problem was that I never liked sports as a kid – wearing glasses from the age of 6 and
not being able to see a damn thing without them being the primary reason – and got hooked on computers at the age of 10, so
aside from the daily 15 mins of exercise I was copying from my Dad, I was basically sitting in front of a computer the rest of
the time!

At Uni, I probably ate healthier than most of my colleagues, but most of them were into mountain biking, rock climbing and
other activities. In the final year, I got hooked on having bacon baguettes – the bacon fried in butter! – with my house mate
Leighton as part of a routine, washing down with Rolling Rock lager – and that’s when I decidedly became close to being called
“fat”. My face shape changed – not massively, but I was starting to get a double chin. And I just didn’t feel good. I felt
heavy. I felt lazier. I sweated more. I didn’t like it. So I started going to a gym regularly and paying closer attention to
what I was eating, and started feeling better almost immediately.

By this stage my 2 years younger brother had got seriously into his fitness and sport, and was in excellent shape, after
having been somewhat chubby as a child due to his sweet tooth. His confidence was massive and his prowess with the women when
he started at University was legendary. I was still rather shy and had been a late starter in this respect – too much of a
computer geek! I started following more what he was doing and looking up to him and tried to get more into sports. When I
started my first job after Uni, I joined their 5 a side football team. It was a great workout and fun for a while, but because
I’d never really played football in my life, I was absolutely bloody useless, and pissed off a few of the lads. Some were
understanding and supportive – Big Pete was great – and Ed was terrible too (sorry Ed!) so I wasn’t alone – but the captain
and a few others were really competitive and continually shouted at me, and I stopped enjoying it and eventually quit.

At that stage though, I’d started Taekwondo lessons. This was a FANTASIC fitness workout, and huge confidence booster. In a 2
hour lesson, we’d do about 90 mins of ‘warm up’ (more like overheat & destroy) exercises and stretching. I was eating
reasonably well – although I’d started brewing my home brew beer which I enjoyed rather too often – and with all this exercise I managed to get in quite an acceptable shape. But the younger lads at Taekwondo – it was at Nottingham Uni and there were a few lads in
their first year, so about 4 years younger – all seemed to have pretty much 6 packs – I wanted a piece of that! I foolishly
believe at that time that I would be able to get girls easier if I had one – ah, the naivety of youth.

My brother then got even more into his health and became a fitness instructor and nutritionist. This was great for me and
transformed my understanding of healthy eating.

I regularly made ham or chicken sandwiches for work, and had always used margarine, believing it to ‘healthy’, compared to
butter (see my later post, Fat content – butter or marg?), but he advised against using either. With a few slices of cucumber, or
tomato, to moisten the sandwich, I realised I had no need for the marg. I stopped taking sugar in my tea – it took about a
year; reducing the amount gradually so I eventually didn’t notice the difference – which probably helped a lot due to the vast
volumes of tea I used to drink. I also started drinking more water, changed from full cream milk to semi skinned (I actually
went to fully skimmed at one stage but it tastes like water and you need a little fat anyway), cut down on beer and replaced
with red wine, and finally shook the notion that pizza was good for me because it had cheese and, erm, well, cheese is good
for you, right?!?

I won’t waffle on much more – I’ll do that in other posts and explain how I’ve achieved an ideal weight – but to summarise, I
learned that my original understanding of healthy eating and fitness routines weren’t quite up to scratch. By my mid 20s, I
was back on track!

These days it’s not so much about how I look or any lack of confidence, it’s more about keeping in shape from the health
perspective, feeling fit and healthy, and treating your body with respect. I’m not going to quote ‘my body is my temple’
because I can’t resist ‘poisoning’ it from time to time with the odd treat, especially alcohol! Red wine and Pina Coladas mean
too much to me 😀 Besides, what’s the point if you can’t enjoy yourself? You only live once – unless you’re a cat.

Or James Bond.

My outlook is to be as healthy as possible whilst enjoying myself – and I’m continually seeking to find that perfect balance.

And I think I’ve finally found that balance. But more about that in future posts 🙂