Richard's Story
"We all got to start somewhere"
All through my teenage life I was known as the fat boy in school, people would just pick on me about my weight, how I looked, how I dressed and play snide tricks.
Now 18 months ago I decided to change all that!
It all started when I split up with my long time girlfriend at the time. I felt at rock bottom, my self esteem was at an all time low and my self-confidence was non-existent, I literally had to start again. Job, lifestyle routine, I even had to re-structure and find new friends, as I had lost contact with my old ones! It wasn't easy.
I tried going out to pubs and clubs more to socialize, network and meet new people but deep down I was too self conscious to talk to people because I was too worried about what they thought of me and how I looked.
Fortunately there was one person I did keep in contact with. My best friend Adam was looking for a partner to train with as he was preparing himself to go into the British army. At first I felt very intimidated because I knew he was much fitter then me, so I questioned him as to what benefits would he get from training with someone who was at a lower level of fitness than him. He replied "we all got to start somewhere". So with that I thought to myself why not? He was right - we do all have to start somewhere.
For the next 5 months we lived in Adam's garage, moving from lifting weights to skipping using a rope, then plucking up the courage to go road running. As the weeks went on I felt I could train for longer and my confidence was getting better.
Five months had past and Adam was starting his new life in the army! This got me panicking "how am I going to train without him?" I realized I couldn't rely on him forever. So with that I turned to Ocean, my local gym.
My previous experiences with gyms had not been good - as a teenager I had been to other gyms that left me feeling intimidated and uncomfortable. I didn't feel like that with Ocean. I noticed one thing in particular, when Kirsty was first showing me around the club. The people using the facilities at the time! There were so many different ages, shapes and sizes, there were even people bigger then me working out, even running on the treadmill which I so dreaded.
At that moment, it hit home. I realised that all this paranoia of people watching me and judging me was all a bunch of nonsense so with that I made my mind up to join.
At first I found sticking to my program and getting into a routine was a struggle, so I started going to exercise classes to mix and match. Marie's boxfit was great, it really showed me how exercise can be fun and enjoyable.
I didn't really realise the difference it was making for a good few months, not even when I had my first fitness review just after one month and Marie told me I had already lost over 4% in body fat. But it hit home when I went into one of my regular large size clothes shops in Brighton and the retailer told me that he couldn't help me any more because I was not big enough to fit into any of their clothes!
So 18 months have past, how am I doing?
Well in total I have lost just over 11 stone! Loosing 19 inches around my waist line I work in a cocktail bar being friendly and performing to customers, something which I thought I would never be able to do. In September I enrolled back at college to study health and fitness as I now have a strong passion to help others achieve what I achieved. I rejoined Worthing rugby club and made it into their development side this season and already we have won our league and been in a cup final.
Richard