First past the post...

Here goes...

So, after thinking about it for a while and supportive "go for it, people would love to hear your story" and less positive: "that will be overkill - Twitter, Facebook and RunKeeper are more than enough" feedback from friends and family, I've decided to finally give blogging a go!

I hope this blog will give those who'd like it, a deeper insight into my ongoing battle to banish my former self (the Mr Blobby character I used to be) and a close up view of my journey, as I hopefully continue to increase my fitness, and my happiness to levels I never thought I'd reach.

As I've never blogged before, I'm not going to ramble on too much in this first post, but for those who don't know, I used to struggle with my weight, a lot... At the end of 2010 I was very unhappy with my body size, and my fitness, I'd hardly ridden a bike in years, and had never run more than a mile, ever.

When I stepped on the scales at the start of January 2011, I saw numbers that really scared me : 15st 7lbs (217lbs / 98.4Kg), and I knew what they meant - I wasn't just overweight, I was morbidly obese, and was on a fast track to an early grave...

I decided enough was finally enough - I was sick of being Mr Blobby, of trying fad diets and failing to get even close to the level of fitness I'd always aspired to.

I started dieting and exercising, not following a set diet plan, but instead using a calorie-counting app on my phone (MyFitnessPal) to log every single calorie that I consumed, and making sure that I took in fewer calories than the daily target that the app set me.

I also started exercising - doing cross trainer (eliptical) sessions at the gym at first, then as the weather improved, getting back into bike riding (having been a keen cyclist as a teenager)... With MyFitnessPal every calorie I burned through exercise was added to my daily goal, so the more I exercised, the more I could eat!

Then in March, I downloaded another app : RunKeeper and really started getting into exercise in a big way - RunKeeper appeals to my geeky, stats-obsessed side and I've been religiously tracking all my exercise ever since.

Ok, I'm painfully aware that I've already rambled on for ages despite promising not too - I'm also aware that if this first post doesn't work, the more I've written, the more disappointed I will be! :)

A year on from my diet / fitness epiphany, I'm now about 5st / 70lbs / 32Kg lighter, and more importantly I'm far fitter and happier in myself than I've been at any time in my adult life.

I was going to add some before and after images, but can't seem to get that to work, so I'll sign off now and add them to a future post.

All the best for 2012,

Mike
No longer Mr Blobby

Ps. Seem to have managed to add a couple of pics - with my boys, November 2010 (Mr Blobby) and August 2011 (Not so Blobby)