My story
A lot of you have been with me since the start of my journey to lose 10 stone. But for those of you who don't know my story here is some background to this journey.
It all began when I applied to be on the TV show Operation Transformation on RTE in 2010. I didn't make it as one of the leaders on the show but was given a role where I appeared a few times on the show. They were tracking my progress with the health team I was assigned with the HSE. I also had a diary cam to log how I was getting on. It was the perfect start for me. It got me to realise I had a big problem and had to tackle it. I found out on the audition day I was weighing in at 27.4 stone (382lbs – 174kg) which was a massive shock and wake up call! Videos from my parts on the show can be seen in the video section of this website.
It is now 8 years later and unfortunately I am not where I had hoped I would be. I have had plenty of ups and downs over the past eight years of being on this journey. I find it difficult to keep the weight loss going when I reach a certain point. The weight then starts to creep back on.
I have been running a Facebook page www.facebook.com/markminus10 since the start of 2016. It was very successful for me as I weighed in every Friday. I stopped posting on it in August 2017. I returned a year later and had gained a lot of what I had previously lost. Life changed for me during that year away due to work commitments and other personal reasons. But I came back in July 2018 and faced up to the weight I had gained. Every journey has ups and downs. I am determined to put the disappointment of the weight gain behind me. I am now back posting every Friday on my Facebook page and here in the Blog section. The aim has always been to lose 10 stone (140lbs) and I have renewed focus to achieving that.
So moving forward I want to make 2018 and 2019 the years I achieve my ultimate goal of losing 10 stone. Life is so much better now. I haven't smoked in over 5 years. I had been smoking 2 packs a day! That alone has made me feel like a new man. Add that to eating healthy food and exercising makes me know I never want to go back to how I used to live.
As of 31st August 2018
In March of this year I broke two ribs. This lead to me having to stop all exercise for a couple of months. Six months later and I am only starting to get back to full on training. I really enjoy pushing myself with the weights in the gym. Since I haven't been able to train with any significant amount of weight my strength has taken a big step back. But I will really push hard to get back to where I was before the injury. I find after a good tough training session I am in a super mood for the day. I try and train before work. I also find I am much less likely to make bad food choices as I would undo the good work I did first thing in the morning.
I have a friend Richie Woods who has been helping me from the start of this journey. Richie is an old school mate. I played rugby up to a high level with him when we were younger. Richie is still in incredible shape and is very knowledgeable in the area of fitness and nutrition. Together we make a good team. Richie pushes me in the gym and any time we are playing tennis or squash. Richie will also contribute to this website as he has a different aspect to the weight loss journey than I do and I feel it’s important to have different ideas from different people. There are no quick fixes when it comes to weight loss. But talking about it and finding what works for you is so important.
So I hope you enjoy my website and please feel free to get in contact or comment on anything I post. I am very happy to give advice on things that I have learnt and have helped me. I am also very open to hearing what has worked for you or anything you think may be beneficial to me or people on similar journeys.
Thank you all so much for your support.
Mark
