So here it begins, my fitness journey.

It’s a journey that I started many times before. I would make some progress, and then inevitably all of the good work that I had managed to accomplish would slide back over time. And resigned to my fate (as it were), I would console myself by saying that “at least I wasn’t the fattest person I knew.” What a strange way to feel good about my body, by use other’s external validation.

Now I should say that I haven’t done a bad job considering everything. No one remembers back in 2000 when I was 150kg (330 lbs) and hiding it kinda well due to my tall frame. Then I decided to make some drastic changes in my life, and managed to get down to 100 kg (220 lbs). I looked and felt great! I had made changes to my life. It was really in my mind all about will power and wanting to feel good inside and outside.

Then somewhere I lost my way. Eventually 100kg gave way to 110kg (“still look okay, so no worries” was my thinking). Then 110kg gave way to 120kg (“tall frame will hide it” was my thinking). Then 120kg gave way to 130kg (“I’m not the fattest person I know, and I am still in reasonable shape. I hiked Mount Kilimanjaro and made it the summit! How bad can I really be?” I thought). And then 130kg gave way to 135kg. And then something funny happened…

This Christmas (2015) I was sitting in my sister’s house on the sofa. The kids (several of them) were sitting on one end of the sofa, and my aunt was sitting on the other end. And when I went to sit down next to her, I weighed so much compared to her that she shifted towards me in the center. We spent the next 5 minutes trying to figure how we both could sit on the couch comfortably at the same time. We figured it out, but in my mind, there was a very simple answer: lose weight.

See, the signs had been there for a few months already. I managed to rip two pairs of jeans, and none of the other 5 pairs I have in my closet fit anymore. There was an increasing amount of shirts hanging in my wardrobe which no longer fit comfortably. Furthermore, the “unobtainable” shelf – those outfits which I am dying to wearing again one day – is already at capacity. I looked in my wardrobe when I came back from Christmas celebrations and thought “something has to give.”

So faced with all of this evidence that I could either keep expanding, or do something about it, I decided that I need to do something about it. I have to decide what “it” means really, and in future posts, you’ll get to understand that “it means to me.” I invite you to follow along my fitness journey. It’s really for me, but if others can take benefit from this, then I am happy to share my story.