About Me

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog chronicling my weight loss journey. I'm Matt, a man in his 40s who co-parents a son and lives alone. I've consistently faced challenges with my weight and recently hit a low point. Approximately eight months ago, I began this journey weighing a substantial 224KG (35 stone and 3 pounds).

In late 2023, I was diagnosed with a heart condition that would significantly change my life. After numerous consultations with specialists to decide on the necessary steps to prevent further serious deterioration, I discovered that I would need to lose about half my body weight—yes, a 20-stone reduction. It took me some time to process this news and understand how it would transform my life, leading me to realise that, despite my age, I still have the opportunity to make a positive change. The doctors warned me that I must address my weight immediately, or the situation could become irreversible and lead to more severe consequences.

I decided to start this blog to share my journey toward becoming a healthier version of myself and inspire others to make changes. I have never done anything like this before but wanted to hold myself accountable and show others that if I can struggle through this, so can they. Having struggled with being massively overweight for most of my life and trying every known diet, I want to demonstrate and discuss how I'm working to reach my goal.

Personal & Professional Background

I can remember being overweight from a young age but this has just spiralled out of control into my later years. Having battled with being called names in all of my school years, judgements of my weight in various jobs, and putting a strain on relationships.

I have spent many years in management roles across various high-demand and energetic sectors. This has often led to challenges with my diet and lifestyle, as I frequently need to be on the move or seek convenience. I would always look for ways to make my day easier and would almost never cook when i got home in the evenings, so relied on local takeaways.

Throughout my career in different jobs, I have consistently felt judged due to my weight and appearance, feeling that I don't conform to the norm or that my "face fits".

Like a lot of people there are reasons why I think I reached the weight I did and this was down to various changing points throughout my life and an obnoxious view on my health and lifestyle.

I don't want to come across as a sob story, and I understand that many people face adversity in their lives, but I feel some of these experiences have triggered weight gain and a mindset of giving up.

The main reasons that stand out to me for reaching this point include living on my own and working in fast-food restaurants after leaving school and college. As I grew into my 20s, I would go out drinking, and eat whatever I wanted without considering the impact on my body and this would be most weeks (sometimes twice a week). Moving into my 30's, I had various relationships that also had ripple effects, leading me to feel comfortable and live on a life of takeaways and convenience foods.

Moving into my late 30's, I got married and entered a relationship that changed me in various ways, but one of the main impacts was that it had made me self-conscious about my body,appearance and feel inadequate. I was very fortunate to have my son, who now provides me with a primary motivation to change my lifestyle. After several years, we decided to call it quits on our marriage and move forward with a divorce this ended up being one of the many triggers that contributed to my ongoing battle with weight.

I believe that overall the combination of my lack of motivation to make positive changes for myself and the constant negativity throughout my life about my size contributed to reaching this pivotal point in my life.

Earlier Years

My Mission

Currently, I'm several months into my weight loss journey, weighing in at 189kg (29 stone 12lbs). I've had a bit of a head start before embarking on this path. Having lost just over 5 stone so far, I still feel far from reaching the daunting task ahead of me that doctors advised, which seems like an unrealistic and distant goal.

Having faced lifelong weight-related challenges, I'm now taking on the difficult task of breaking this pattern. I'm documenting my progress in hopes of achieving my goal of becoming healthy.

As someone who frequently chose kebabs and burgers over healthy options, I aim to help others see that it's possible to change your habits before things become too serious.

Coffee break, anyone?......