Steve's Journey

Hi Internet,

It has truly been a long time since I have written anything for this blog, and I have missed it, so here goes..

I'm sure many of you will have noticed that I have started to post gym pictures onto my instagram - yes I have become that guy. Back in September I got married to the girl of my dreams. On our wedding day, she genuinely looked like a fairytale princess, I couldn't believe how lucky I had (and still have) been to get her. Me on the other hand, I was probably in the worst shape I have ever been. I wasn't exercising, my diet was crap and I weighed in around 14.5st. The suit that I wore on the day hides it quite well, but my self confidence in my body and my actual bodily physique was at an all time low. With this, and the fact I was basically marrying Princess Belle (Beauty and the Beast), I decided it was probably time I sorted myself out and didn't continue to slack into married life.

Me and Belle on the day of her graduation last June. Full belly overhang, and a dumpy face to go with it. Easily my most hated photo on my proudest day. 

For anyone who knew me from 1st year of university or before, you will know how much weight was never an issue for me. I was always extremely skinny. I never watched my diet, nor did I ever worry about what I ate, I simply had a very active life style and a great metabolism to go with it. With starting at university my activity levels dropped greatly, and I no longer had my Mum to cook me 3 nice meals a day and look after me. I started to eat junk food all the time because it was easy, and to make matters worse I developed the joyful habit that is stress eating. Whenever university or life was getting on top of me or Belle, we would hide away together eating our body weight in treats while binge watching an entire TV show in a week (more likely than not it was The O.C. we would be watching on repeat).

Steve circa summer 2011, weighing around 11.5st with a seriously questionable hairstyle

At the end of September last year I began my journey away from this rut in which I found myself. Two of my good friends (Tariq and Dan) took me under their wings and showed me the ropes around the gym (a place that I had for years hated and had a genuine phobia of). For around the next 6 months (until the end of March this year) I began to gym regularly. I was going at least 4-5 times per week. My confidence and knowledge in the gym grew daily and I did start to build muscle with some success. However, my progress was nowhere near what I thought it should be given the time and commitment I was putting in. What I wasn’t fully appreciating was how much I was still ignoring my diet. I ate junk food constantly, didn't hit anywhere near my required protein levels, and cardio was a thing of mystery to myself. Yes I had made slight improvements in what I ate, but given what I now know, they were miniscule.

Photo's taken on the night I decided to sort out my diet at the end of March

Come the end of March, when these first pictures were taken, you can easily see that I still had high a body fat % - and of course in case you couldn't guess, my body confidence was still pretty damn low. I decided it was time to act on this. It was time to get my diet on track and start to look into what these ‘macros’ were that I kept reading about. I did my research and looked up some help online, and within a few days I sorted myself out with a diet plan perfect for my bodily needs, and put regular cardio into my routine at the gym. I decided to sign up to an online PT that i found through Instagram, a guy called Ryan Spiteri, who specialises in weight loss while retaining and building muscles. I signed up to his 8 week plan which was sent over to me within a couple of days and i have nothing but praise for the success that it has brought to me thus far. 

Photo taken around 2 weeks ago after a legs session

Apologies for the underwear selfie (me 1.5 weeks ago)

Most recent photo taken today (30/05/17) after 2 full weeks of no upper body training (due to a shoulder injury I got during a lacrosse tournament). This break from weights is helping to get me leaner, as all i can hit is cardio.... constantly, but I am hoping/dying to be back on the weights next week. 

Legs. Legs. Legs. Just, 'cause.

This brings us to the present day, roughly seven weeks on from this shift in my diet, and I couldn't be happier with the results that I am starting to see. The first couple of weeks were easily the hardest, and I came close to packing it all in on multiple occasions. However, I powered through and helped myself by making tweaks to my food plan to suit my preferences while keeping my food within my macros. I have now been going steady for about 4 weeks, sticking to my daily macros for at least 6/7 days a week, only having an occasional cheat meal here or there when out with friends and visiting family.

So far all I can say is, my results have been great. I am currently sitting at 13st8lbs and my body fat% has dropped from around 26% to 18%. My strength is improving daily and I am consistently upping my cardio routines. I feel more energetic and I am noticeably more productive in all aspects of my life (ask Belle how good I am at the housework recently haha). To make it simple, I have never felt better in my life. This hard work and commitment I have been putting in for almost 8 months now is finally starting to show, and I couldn't be happier about it. Getting in shape is something that I have wanted to do for an extremely long time now, but I always lacked the knowledge and confidence to do so. Now that I have this, I only wish I could go back a few years and start all this earlier so that I could see where I would be at now.

I just want to clarify now that this post is in no way a ‘before and after’ post. This is simply a progression post, to help myself to stay motivated and hopefully help to inspire others who are feeling like I was to make the right steps towards making themselves feel better – and hopefully not making the same mistakes that I made when I started at the gym.

Well that is all from me for now. I am going to try my best to write some more regular post’s on this page, they will most likely be in some way related to this post or some sort of fitness, so if you enjoyed this post then be sure to keep an eye out.

Muchos love, Steve

Ignore the rest.. this is the truth.