About
On July 5th, whilst on holiday in Florida with my family, I discovered a lump whilst showering. I was scared shitless. I showed my fiancee, and between us we made a joint decision to put it to the back of our minds, enjoy St Pete Beach, and worry about it when we got back to England.
The Tuesday after returning to the UK, I went to the doctor’s (which in itself is a miracle - I hate going to the doctor’s). To my relief, he informed me that the lump was a cyst, and not to worry about it. However, this was the scare I needed.
Let me make something clear - I’ve never been thin. I’ve always been a “fatty”.
At school, I played rugby, athletics, and mountain biked, and despite all this I still piled on the pounds in my senior year, and by the time I started technical college I weighed 18 stone. At technical college, I built up a Cannondale mountain bike and began cycling to lose weight. It was bloody hard work to begin with, but after a few months I weighed 14 stone and was cycling anywhere between 10 and 30 miles a day.
4 years later, after graduating from University, I had piled on all the weight I had lost and weighed 18 stone again. Clearly not affected by this, over the next couple of years I continued to eat, drink and be merry, and by 2004 I weighed 21 stone. I was so fat, when I tried to go on one of the rides at the fair, I had to get off because the seat belt didn’t fit.
That year, I joined Weight Watchers, and got myself back down to 18 stone. The great thing about WW is the support network. Everyone wants to know how you did, and tell you what they did in return. In the end, that’s what killed it. Going to the sessions soon became more about socializing than actually losing weight, and eventually I decided to go it alone. The weight came back on, and then some.
When I first decided to do a blog, I weighed 21 stone, 4lbs. A month before this, I weighed just over 22 stone. Twenty two stone. I’m 5 foot 7 for God’s sake!
At the time of writing, I weight 20 stone 10lbs. This is purely from eating healthier food - cutting out the crap. But that’s not enough. I would get out of breath just walking up the stairs! Everyone close to me was and is worried about my health - being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a whole host of other stuff I don’t even want to think about.
So, here’s the thing. I’m going to beat this thing. I’m going to get thinner and healthier, before it kills me.
Tyneside Vagabonds
I was extremely apprehensive over joining a cycling club. I always envisaged them as a collection of hardcore roadies with bulging shaved legs, faces of weathered, time worn leather riding skinny steel Ribbles from 1975. Turns out I was wrong.
There’s a few cycling clubs in the Newcastle area, but the Vags run an “Easyride” on a Saturday. It’s aimed at new riders, those who aren’t fit enough for Sunday 60 milers, and a chance to enjoy the social side of cycling without having the legs and lungs of Carlos Sastre.
The Vags are friendly, welcoming, helpful and encouraging - everything I needed.
Visit the Vagabonds website at www.tynevags.org.uk