Weight loss and fitness.

This may surprise you, but I've actually been through quite a lot of weight loss.

Find some old photos of me from 2006/2007 if you can and I'm about 15kg overweight.  Then one day, I bought a bike.  I figured that it would be good to get some more exercise.  Being able to dual-use my transport time for exercise was pretty good, it was only half the battle.

I remember the day I looked over at the mirror in Hype in the mall and I just looked like shit.  Double chin, stomach poking out with the classic late-20s pot belly, man-boobs poking at my shirt.  I had to look away, disgusted.  I don't know why I hadn't seen myself as I actually looked in the years leading up to it, but I did that time.  Not too long after that, my car blew up, my girlfriend broke up with me, my band broke up, one of my friends died and my job turned to hell.  I felt like shit, in every way.

So I worked on it, and started riding to and from work.  I was doing more exercise, and getting a fitter, but I wasn't really losing weight.  I did a lot of experiments to see what did more for my performance (I decided to focus on that, rather than fat loss as I'd decided fitness was a more respectable goal).  Alcohol intake, sleep, food, exercise levels, all of them were variables, and eventually I discovered that I could continue to eat less and less with no effect on my performance.  I still had the energy required to do all my riding, swimming and gym work whilst continually cutting back food.

And dear god did the kilos shed.  I lost 11.5kg in 12 weeks.  I've had to go through this whole thing again now since January when I discovered I looked like shit from putting on an extra 6kg.  Thanks, woodford.

It's just so simple; eat less, exercise more.  Oh, and buy a bike.