I’m 5’8 and weight on a good day around 10 stone 6 and on a bad day 10 stone 8. If you looked at me you’d never think I was fat, I look in proportion to my height. One of the benefits of being tall is you can carry more weight and get away with it. I would describe my body as a runner’s body. I have no muscle definition around my arms or waist. I have no upper body strength and struggle to do more than five push-ups. I’d like to think my legs are strong as I’ve done lots of running over the years, and competed in half marathons and marathons since 2004.
I haven’t been doing much exercise for the past year, as I’ve been backpacking around South America and doing a ski season in Verbier. I finished my ski season at the end of April and luckily didn’t end up with a chalet girl ass. But I did come back, unfit and unhealthy after spending five months, eating rich food and drinking every night. I was not in good shape, my face was looking puffy, I had the dreaded bingo wings and a muffin top was making an appearance. Not the look I'm a fan of!
I wanted to change all that. I wanted to get strong, fit and healthy and have a fantastic body for the summer. A fantastic body to me means having muscle definition, minimal levels of fat and being tight all over and strong. I’d love to be able to lift my own body weight and do a pull up.
I started to read lots of articles and blogs about fitness and strength training. I kept seeing the same messages over and over again, cardio is bad and weights are what you need to do if you want to get strong, toned and build muscle. I've never lifted weights before and to be honest, I was intimidated by the cage and the weight racks and not knowing what I’m doing.
To give myself the best opportunity of achieving my goal, I decided to bite the bullet and get involved in weight training. I wanted to have a personal trainer to help me, so I could learn and understand what it is I’m doing and how best to do it. I have documented my progress through my blog.
Let the transformation begin!