How I lost 120 lbs in 4 months and got my life back.

Back in 2009 I was about 350 lbs / 156 kg. I was MASSIVE.

I had been this way since I left university in 1999. Yes, I'm 6ft 6in and people said I could 'carry it well' - come on, I didn't. I couldn't. I was ill, my health was in danger. I needed help.

How did I change? It was incredible really. Someone very close to me, one of my closest friends wrote me the most beautiful pair of letters which snapped me out of my trance and allowed me to accept that I had a problem. I did what I should have done 10 years prior to that - I asked for help.

The letters were fictitious diary entries that I would write on my 50th birthday. One was written assuming I continued to live as I was doing, in denial. The other assuming that I had made a change in my life. The note from my friend was entitled, "A sad story and a happy story". I won't share what she wrote for me here, but it opened my eyes immediately and I owe her my life. I will be forever indebted to her. My eyes were streaming with tears. I read the letters on December 30th 2008.

On Feb 2nd 2009 I was at my first session with the Lighter Life UK program, sat in a room with 12 other guys - also hugely overweight.

By the way - should anyone want to read the letters that my friend wrote to me, if you're stuck like I was in a body that felt alien to you, stuck in a situation that keeps you up at night, keeps you away and hiding from your friends and loved ones - please email me or get in touch here and I will be more than happy to send them to you. 

The program consisted of eating 4 x 120 calorie food packs and drinking 4-5 liters of water per day. No cheating, no real food, just meal replacement drinks and chew bars. Every month I would go to the doctor for a check on my blood pressure, heart rate and lung capacity. In 16 weeks I went from what you see above to what you see below... from 350 lbs / 158 kg to 225 / 103 kg.

I kept to myself for the most part during the 16 weeks of being on the programme. I was 'in the zone'. The only person I saw day to day, besides my work colleagues, was the friend who wrote the letters. She got sooooooo sick of me talking about all the different things I was going to do and change about my life (and the first thing I was going to EAT when I was finished)... how she's still able to talk to me I don't know! Haha. Anyway... she stuck with me and I stayed committed to the programme. I did it.

Did I have a 6 pack after I finished? No. Not by a long shot. But I was healthy, I was happy, I was reborn.

How am I doing now? Nearly 2 years on? Well if you read my previous blogpost you will know that I've rather foolishly put back on around 50 lbs / 20 kg of the 120 / 55 kg just recently over the past 4 or 5 months. I'm almost as big as I was in the Week 6 photo above. Bugger.

It's not going to creep back on any further though. I'm back on a healthy routine eating properly, not letting the stress of work and other anxieties get to me... I've got 8 months until my wedding to the lovely Miss Musical and I'm not going to let her down nor myself. I'm going to be the slim, super happy, super confident, full of passion for life Tall Englishman I was when she met me... 

Miss Musical - just you wait for our wedding night! Meow! :)

If you're reading this and you need help, email me. I'd love to talk with you. Anything I can do to help or talk with you about - you've got it. It's important to me to pay it forward, so as my friend helped me, I'd like to help you. If you want to talk, hit me back!