Why did you join MAN v FAT in the first place?
I joined after hearing about it on the Peter Crouch Podcast. I wanted to lose weight and get back into football, and I thought that the way the idea worked was really interesting and creative. I missed playing football but was worried about my standard of football with my weight, and this bridged the gap between the two.
What have been the best and hardest bits of your efforts to get to BMI Boss status?
The last KG to get down to BMI Boss was so tough. I spent about a month being 0.2–0.5 away from actually hitting the BMI goal, and it was so difficult to remain consistent and committed during that time.
The best has been being with my team, learning as I go and then being able to pass that knowledge on to new members when they joined. What works, what doesn’t, tips, tricks and advice.
What are the biggest benefits you’re now feeling from being at a healthy weight?
I sleep better, I feel better, and I’m fitter, faster and healthier than I have been since I was in my 20s. I’m 42 now. My children are young (6-year-old twins), and they are growing up knowing how to be fit and healthy. They enjoy running and exercising with me, and see being fit and healthy as part of their everyday life, including how to eat a balanced diet, which I think is the most important thing that this could have ever given me.
How important has the MAN v FAT community been in getting you to this stage – and keeping you there?
Where the club has been able to help, where I have failed before on my own in weight loss attempts, is the community, both at a club and a team level.
It’s so easy to do the lazy thing and skip a day at the gym, or let the diet slip when there is no one else to be accountable to other than yourself. Having the team to be accountable to week in, week out was the real difference-maker for me in starting something and keeping consistent.
What’s keeping me there is the friendships that I’ve made, the will to not undo all the hard work that I’ve done, and the ability to help new people who come into the club with the knowledge that I’ve amassed over the time that I’ve been there.
