Hello folks! This is a scheduled post of course and it was planned to be published during a particular time which means a lot to me. Have you guessed why is this? Right know as you are reading this, I am undergoing the first surgery to remove excess skin. Is there a better time to publish this and take you back to the very beginning of this journey?
All this started as a mental therapy (which later turned into a weightloss journey) to cope with the situation I was in at that time. My mother has been sick for a long time before she ended her battle but things started to get much worse late in 2016 when we had to admit her into hospital (she never returned back home after that day). I have to admit that I wasn’t the best version of myself at that time as I was dealing with anxiety and I wasn’t actually on the winning side. I felt the whole world crashing down on me and had little hope left. I was ready to give up but the love for her kept me fighting my battle. She was already suffering more than enough! Why would I think of of doing something stupid which will only cause more pain? I kept asking myself. She was losing her own battle but she gave me millions of reasons to keep on fighting mine!
How could I let her down? What have I became? It wasn’t myself! I was a much stronger person than that! I decided to fight and find myself again so I decided to start some mental therapy by hitting the gym. I just wanted to have an hour for myself just listening to music and let go of my anger and sadness. I started to feel better day after day (wasn’t even thinking about losing weight at that time) and the more time I spent at the gym I wanted to stay longer so I ended up going there 4-5 times per week. For myself it wasn’t just the gym, it was my happy place. For that hour/hour and a half, I forgot about everything and I could just focus on myself.
From home to work, then to hospital and finally to the gym to refresh and prepare myself for another day. It wasn’t easy to find time given that I spent most of the day split between the office and hospital but I had to make time. This meant that on some days I had to exercise at 2-3am and get less sleep but how could I skip the only thing that was helping me to deal with the current situation? Day after day after day… it was time to deal with the one thing I was trying to escape from.
I was getting strong but not strong enough to deal with such loss. This was my turning point, I wanted to do this for her. I wanted to prove to her that she raised a strong son who was not willing to give up on anything and was ready to reach his targets without any fear. I used the pain and anger of losing my mother and turned it into energy. I was pushing harder without even knowing. I had more time to focus on my wellbeing and without knowing, the worst moment of my life ended up being the best direction I ever took. I was getting healthier, lost some weight and mentally I was feeling much better. The more I trained, the better I felt. It was then when I noticed that I lost some weight. When I looked at the own photos and compared them with the older ones, I could see the difference in myself for the first time.
It wasn’t just mental therapy anymore. That moment I realised that there was much more than I was seeing. I was feeling healthier, stronger and more confident with how I looked. Mentally I was in much better state and deep down I knew that finally I have found myself again. A year had passed since my first day at the gym. It was time to ask for professional help with my training and nutrition. I achieved so much on my own, imagine what results I could obtain with some professional help? So I asked for guidance (I will never regret that!) and started following a programme tailor-made for me by Kevin.
As expected I got better results under his guidance. All I did was following his suggestions and kept giving my 100%. I cannot say it was an easy task but with the correct approach it was possible. Instead of going on a diet the next day, I adopted for a new lifestyle which was healthier and took all the time I needed to adapt to it. There was no hurry! All I wanted was to be healthier each day. The more weight I lost, I became more concerned about my looks and even though I was a long way away from my targets, I realised that at some point I would have to undergo surgery to remove to excess skin. Well I ended up being closer to this day than I expected!
It was time to start some research about the surgery and plan for a consultation meeting with the surgeon. I couldn’t believe I came this far but it was happening. For some weeks I ended up spending hours looking at my old photos and wondered if that person in the photo was actually myself or someone else. So the first consultation meeting was booked and I was told that it would be best to lose some more weight before the surgery to avoid unnecessary risks. We had to set new targets and although it wasn’t the best time to lose more weight (Christmas period), I was determined to crush the target by end of December so that we could aim for the first surgery in February 2020.
Did I reach the target? Let’s say that I crushed it and managed to lose 2.5kg over and above the target! So here I am reaching another milestone in this journey. The secret is to never give up and to face your targets without any fear. I was asked if I had any fear of this surgery and some also told me to stay strong and that everything will be okay. The truth is that although it is normally that one might feel a bit of fear, for some reason this is not the case with me. How could I have fear of something I worked so hard for? I’m sure that I am currently with a big smile on my face throughout the surgery, a smile full of determination and satisfaction!
Determination was a key ingredient for the success so far but this is nothing if you don’t have the support of your loved ones! All this was possible thanks to my girlfriend, family, friends and all you reading my story. So I am going to close this with a big THANKS! Looking forward to be able to give you an update on my social profiles in the next couple of hours!
GYM Instructor 
MMA Instructor
The Journey 