Very thought provoking. Yes the NHS should be there for people who harm themselves due to a sedentary lifestyle, if it was any other form of self-harm there would be allsorts of help. Any way Your work has certainly help me with the motivation to get out on my bike.

Good on ya!n Keep it up sunshine.

Clive, i too am seemingly from a similar background both in respect of the rugby and the military and my size, though i'm a little lighter. I think what's key to weight loss and maintaining that loss is that it's a lifestyle choice and not a diet. I always laugh when people say they're on a diet. What happens when they reach their target weight? Do they then think, sod it, back to me old habits now, lost xstone, time to put it all back on and start again!

Like yourself i've got two kids under 4. It's bloody hard work and there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I think that lack of time and convenience food is the silent assassin for wieght gain. It's so easy to think, ' I haven't got time to cook a meal from scratch so i'll just have a takeway curry/pizza/whatever'. Yes, that is really easy but then you can rustle up a basic pasta dish in 20 mins or so, so is that convenience food really that convenient if you have to order it and wait for it or go out for it? No, i don't think it is, (but that's easy to say as i love cooking and am head chef in my house).

Sounds obvious but motivation is the key to most if not all things. My motivation is that i'm training for a brutal enduro that i'm riding for charity. I don't want to let my mate down, (who's son i'm riding for) and i don't want to embarass myself and let myself down. This is what is motivating my lifestyle change and my training. When i have a spare hour or two i get on the bike and go for a base ride or a sprint or just a thrash round a local loop. I do longer targetted rides when i can. It's a bit ad-hock and there are probably enduro riders thinking, 'Who's that tosser, is he for real, that's not a regime?' It's a regime that fits around family life. Kids always come first for me.

It's always difficult in winter as the weather is shite and it gets dark early but with a goal in sight it's so much easier. Put it this way, when i joined the military i was 15 stone. Within 2 months i lost 2 stone just from being thrashed. I lost a further half a stone. I left the military and took a different career path which means i now work anti social, long hours, am surrounded by people constantly cramming their faces with junk food and as a result of having kinder find myself permanently knackered but my goal is keeping me going.

It sounds like what happened to you clive happened to me. You came from a strict fitness regime where you have pti's kicking you up the arse if you're not keeping up. Once that net of 'support', ( i use the term losely!!) is removed it then becomes difficult to motivate yourself. It's easy when you're playing rugby because you don't want to look like a slow knacker loloping across the field and never getting to the break down, but when there's nothing to aim for you almost think, ' well bugger it, what's the point in all this exercise malarkey if i'm not doing it for any real reason?'

There are millions of us that could probably do to lose a few pounds but i find it hard to exercise just to lose weight, it's not enough of a goal becuase it is an infinate goal. By rights i should be 11 stone but i'm 5'7" and build like a challenger tank, i could be exercising to lose weight for ever!! By having rolling goals it makes it easier i think as you can have that infinate goal with lots of little goals along the way.

I may be talking bollocks but these are my thoughts. Good luck to you clive, i mean that as a fellow weight battler for the last 16 years.

Willybomber1,

Agree with everything you've put there mate, I'm lucky as me and she who must be obeyed are both pretty decent cooks and we both agreed when I started this thing back in June last year to restrict ourselves to one take out a week. You're dead right, it's easy to knock up a tasty healthy meal in no time. Last night was wifey's killer stew from the left over Sunday roast, cracking comfort food after a horribly cold pedal home.

If you're built like a Chally 2 then I must be built like the bloody NAAFI Wagon and trailer!

If you're intersted you can keep up with my daily progress here: http://massivemtber.blogspot.com

Good luck with the Enduro thing, mad bastard!

Cheers

Clive

Clive c, i tell you what is really bloody annoying about trying to lose weight and it being a real struggle, it's those mates that seem to be able to eat any old shite and not put on any weight. I see them sovelling crap in to their faces and think, 'i'll have a bit of that,'(sorry, used to think!) and then wonder why i've put on half a stone in a short space of time. If i look at a cake the weight starts to go on!!! When i joined my unit one of the lads recommended soup and wholegrain bread for lunch each day as it somehow speeds up the old metabolism and bizarrely it worked!!!!

In response to your parting comment, yes, i think i'm going a bit wibble, must be lack of chocolate!!!!(quick get me a double decker, no, no, resist, damn temptation)!

willybomber1

Digressing a bit, you know what grub I miss? Remember the tinned sausages from the 12 man ration packs? I loved 'em.

Pull up a sandbag and we'll tell some lies! LOL!

Cheers

Clive

Guys, I agree totally with most of what has been written above. i don't have a military background but I do have a demanding job and 2 little girls (5 and 2) that are the world to me.

After last Christmas I tipped the scales at 18 stone 2lbs and with a beach holiday booked for the first time since the oldest was 18 nonths old I thought it was time for shedding some of those pounds for fear of been harpooned whilst on the beach!

I had also lost a work colleague the year before with Cancer so I had decided to take part in Macmillan's 'Golf longest Day challenge' where we played 72 holes of golf continuously. I knew that with my fitness levels at that point I had no chance of getting around.

I have the same problem with food and beer, firstly I love it! but I only have to look at anything that tastes nice and weight starts to go on, but it was the motivation that was the key to helping me lose the weight. I enrolled on the Tesco diet plan and both my wife and I started out on what was basically a complete life style change and one certainly for the better. We both knew that the chips, and pizza's etc. that we were eating every night had just become boring and was obviously not doing us any good - in fact it was killing us. As mentioned above you cannot look at this as a diet, it is quite literally a way of life that once you start on we certainly have not looked back. We now have fresh home cooked food every night and in terms of time it really is no difference than waiting for 30mins to have some chips cook. In the Feb of last year we took a weeks break to Centre Parcs and that is where I once again fell in love with biking. I had not rode a bike in years and was not really looking forward to trying to not only remember how to ride but also dragging my 2 girls around behind me in a buggy! But once there it was like a duck to water and memories of miles and miles I rode when I was younger flooded back. When I got home I decided to invest in a cheap bike to see if my interest will remain and it certainly did. I am now looking forward to another years biking, but I have now found myself looking at websites like this to get advice and trails etc.to start mountain biking seriously. Any tips for places around Worcester would be a help!

Best of luck to everyone who is trying to shed a few pounds, but don't think of it as a short term thing, think of it for life - and hopefully a longer fitter life too.

syrall

Well done on your progress so far! If you check my daily blog out http://massivemtber.blogspot.com you'll see I pedal in Worcestershire, there are loads of places! I'd recommend getting an OS map of your immediate area, looking for the bridal ways, highlighting them and pretty soon a few routes will become clear to you.

The big step has been taken, that's deciding to do something about it. keep going!

Cheers

Clive

Errr, that'd be "bridle ways" then...Sorry...

Clive Good posting and unlike you and some of the other respondents I have never been in the military and I don't drink beer.But what I do have is a sweet tooth.Biscuits Cholate anything sweet and to make matters worse I am nearly 60 so the old metabolism has slowed down.I try and get out and cycle I also run and I swim but losing weight is a nightmare.Still like someone else said your posting has inspired me so next time I want a bit of chocolate I remember what you said.

God luck and keep us all posted on your progress.

Easy mate, stop eating carbs.

Clive c, bacon burgers, now i loved them fried in a mess tin over the hex, god they were good!!! Oh and lest not forget the massive sachet of drinking chocolate in with the porridge and shit loads of sugar, guarunteed to make your teeth fall out and send you hyper. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, must stop these evil thoughts!!!!!

These things have a habit of creeping up on you in 'mid life'. I think there are quite a few people who start piling on the weight and generally failing to look after themselves in their 30s and 40s. Work, kids and a body that generally needs more looking after all contribute.

The key thing is awareness. You have to have a 'wake up' moment. And then you need the knowledge (what to do and not to do) along with a real commitment.

In my case, it was looking at a photo of me on a family holiday in 2007. I was 15 stone and almost prepared to deny that the person in the picture was really me.

When I 'woke up' I got the bike out to put in some road miles and then started MTB-ing. I also had a reality check on the amount of alcohol I was drinking (not necessarily a lot, but pretty much every day) and the amount I was eating. Two and a half year later I was down to 12 stone, feeling healthy, better able to handle stress at work and I even started doing MTB marathons. The 'secret' of my success has been to take my time and to remain committed to the training programme. The hardest thing remains controlling my appetite (try eating more soup..) so I need to do lots of exercise.

Sometimes my weight goes up a bit (Xmas ...!) and I know that I could have lost more weight if I tried harder. But I am quite happy with things now and it is a sustainable lifestyle. I'll probably lose a bit more this summer as I get into doing more (and longer) events and races. I'm pretty sure that I won't be going back to looking like the 'unrecognisable' 15 stone man in the picture from 2007.

In hindsight, I wish that more people had commented on my weight gain and been a bit more 'honest' with me. Or maybe I just wasn't listening ...

Good luck Clive. Stick with it, it is worth it.

Clive,

Ditto the rugby and army background. I left the army after 24 years service, fit, fab and forty years old.

Fast forward five years later and I was fat, flabby and f***** having put on nearly 3 stone. For the last 6 months I have had the perfect opportunity to finally get back to my army 'fighting' weight. I got a new job last autumn and decided to buy a new bike on the cycle to work scheme and since then have been commuting to work on my daily 30 mile round trip.

It is fair to say I am loving my new job (college lecturer) and loving cycling to work every day (apart from inpatient car drivers). Other than the recent really bad weather when it was unsafe to ride i have enjoyed going out even in the wettest weather and always arrive at work ready to go in a positive frame of mind.

I have now lost a stone in weight despite having had a good christmas and not really watching what I eat. My aim is to lose another stone by april and see where i go from there. As a former regular kayaker I will be working on my upper body by getting back in my boat in the summer as well!

My advice would be to cycle to work if at all possible as that way you are not only getting fit and saving time, you are saving money and the environment as well as just feeling much better about life in general.

I now plan my life and work around cycling and am hoping to start a club in my college, so for me it is about a change in lifestyle and setting small achievebale steps along the way to hitting my goal. To get back into fighting shape!

Keep at it Clive, you have done it once and you can do it again.

Gremlin22

30 mile round trip! Fair play to you.

Thanks for the encouragement too.

Cheers

Clive

Clive

I think that many people end up getting to that point and suddenly having a reality check. The only way to handle it, in my opinion is to get yourself some leverage. Amazingly, we humans will do more for external reasons such as peer pressure, our kids etc, than we will for ourselves. I too have drifted in and out of biking and eating sensibly and found myself over 40, too heavy and very unfit. My leverage was to commit (to anyone who would listen) to doing a fitness challenge. In my case a mountain bike duathlon in March. I will train and eat properly and find the time where before I thought I had none because I won't let those people down. (Odd that I wouldn't want to let others down where in the past I have tolerated letting myself down.)

Anyway, keep it up buddy. I will follow your blog with interest and maybe send you some encouragement along the way. Cheers dude. Nick.