I’ve known Tony since I toured his family around the Village Gym back in January 2006 just before it opened (when I was a “young whipper snapper”………read on……!!! ).
He’s been coming to my personal training studio Your Next Level Fitness for a while now
I’ve seen him at his near-heaviest, and now his lightest for nearly 20 years.
Here’s Tony’s Story:
I’d like to share a few words with all you good people on my weight loss journey so far in the hope that some of you may read it and think to yourselves “if he can do it then I’m sure I can too!!!!”
Tony Says “You can do it too!”
I’ve always been quite tall 6 foot 7ish and well built, in my younger days I could always carry it well, then as I went into my 20’s and started to become less and less active I piled the weight on. By the time I’d hit my 30’s I was around the 25 stone mark, people would always say to me “yeah but you don’t look it you carry it well” – but that was no consolation when everything was such an effort for me even dragging myself of the couch to play with the kids was something I would dread, I knew deep down I was missing out on so much in life but I had resigned myself to been overweight and lazy as this was the easy option!!!
A couple of things happened to me in my 30s that made me think maybe I should pull my finger out and sort myself out, the first was a rugby final at Old Trafford when I got stuck in the turnstiles now this was something that happened to other people and I would have found highly amusing but not any more……. I was the fat kid too big to go through them not funny at all!!!
Not long after that a new gym opened called the village so I joined up and got stuck into training it was there I met a personal trainer called John Cammish he was a young whipper snapper back then but the knowledge he had on weight loss and getting healthy was endless and after few weeks under his wing I’d lost quite a lot of weight and started to feel good about myself for the first time in years………………..but after a while old habits had crept back in as the saying goes ‘old habits die hard’ and this was the case for me, all the hard work was quickly undone and I became bigger and lazier then ever!!!
By the time my mid 30s arrived a second incident happened which made me seriously think about my lifestyle I had gone to a concert at the O2 arena in London with my wife to see Bon Jovi when we found our seats I quickly realised my fat arse wouldn’t fit between the arm rests!!! So I had to slam myself as hard as I could into the seat and spent the next four hours of the concert stuck in the chair too embarrassed to try and move now that incident stayed on my mind for a long time but I still found myself taking the easy option yet again!!!
In the meantime I’d passed my driving test and was spending plenty of my time at the drive throughs of KFC, Burger King and McDonalds!!! I was now 39 and heading to my 40s….. was I gonna be fat and lazy in my 40s like the previous decades? Then one day last July I’d managed to drag myself for a walk round little switz with the kids when I bent down too quick and my back went I was in agony for weeks!!!
Then something clicked in my mind this wasn’t the life I wanted any more, I wanted to lose weight and see how fit I could get, I was referred by my physio to a lifestyle advisor and I remember the feeling when he told me I weighed 29 stone and 5 pounds!!!
I could have cried.
But instead I decided to use the horrible feeling of weighing nearly 30 stone along with been stuck in the turnstile and my seat at the concert as motivation to lose weight…. and so I took the gentle steps of eating less and doing more, I was determined not to be a slave to the scales so my first goal was to fit into my rugby shirt it was a xmas present and a size 5XL but still didn’t fit me!!! After just four weeks of eating sensibly and going for walks 3 or 4 times a week the shirt fit like a glove the feeling it gave me was unreal, and on top of it all I’d lost over a stone (well done big man).
Determined not to go back to my old ways I joined a gym and for the first time in years found myself enjoying exercise (that was something I never thought I’d hear myself say) I carried on losing weight even over Xmas and felt great by the time January had come I’d lost roughly four stone!! I then started to look for new challenges and that led me back to my first trainer Mr Cammish and his bootcamps…… he wasn’t as young any more but he was still holding onto his good looks (that’s a tenner you owe me) the thought of training in a group was something that put me off at first although I’d lost four stone i was still weighing in at 25 stone and was worried I’d be left behind or I would embarrass myself, but I bit the bullet and went along and it turned out to be a great decision everyone was so friendly and supportive the training itself was harder then anything I’d ever done before but the sense of achievement when the hour is over is massive!!!!
Who’d of thought training outside in the thick snow would be enjoyable??
It was then John suggested to me about setting myself a goal of reaching the 21 stones for my 40th birthday……. lots more hard hard work followed and when June the 7th arrived I was weighing in at 21stone 12 pounds!! Yeaaa !!!
I’d gone from wearing shirts 5xl to just an XL 8 inches off my waist and I was now the lightest I’d been since my 20s.
All this in just a few months it certainly hasn’t been easy but the benefits from the hard work I’ve put in make every day worth it…….John’s now set me a new goal of been under 20 stone before his big day with Jenna so lots more hard work to come…….one thing I do know is I’m never getting stuck in the turnstiles at Old Trafford again or that chair at the O2 arena!!!!!
I’ve been weighed today and was 21 stone 5 pounds that’s 8 stone gone it brings a tear to my glass eye!!!!
If I can do it anyone one can, thanks for reading.
Tony x
Anyone who knows Tony and has seen him this past 6 months can see how well he has done, the change is just incredible. Well done Tone 🙂
*** UPDATE! Tony has continued after setting that massive goal! Check out some more of his story by CLICKING HERE! ***