Let me share a story with you about a guy whose life took a transformative turn after meeting a girl. It's also a tale of how I shed 50kg of fat.


I was always incredibly active growing up, able to eat anything and stay lean. However, when I turned 20 and left home, I continued eating the same way but stopped exercising. I'm sure you've heard similar stories before. I could list some great excuses here—like a busy life, stress eating, or poor nutrition knowledge—but I don't like excuses. The truth is, I got fat. To be precise, I gained 60kg in just over two years. While I was lifting weights during that time, some of it might have been muscle, but that's still a significant amount of weight to gain. With the weight came the usual side effects: low energy, painful joints, a sore lower back, and difficulty touching my toes.


Then entered the girl who changed my life—my soon-to-be wife. She's generally the sweetest, most encouraging person you'll ever meet. However, she did something no one else had done: she called me fat. Yep, she just came out and said, "Steve, you're fat. You need to do something about it." Great words from someone I was planning to propose to in a couple of months!


But her words did something—they forced me to confront the problem and acknowledge that I had to fix things.


Long story short, I started eating a lot of good food, exercised more and more as the weight allowed me to, discovered a passion for fitness, and addressed the unhealthy areas in my life that made stress eating an attractive escape. I went from 147kg in the top left photo to 97kg in the bottom right.


And I learned some things:


Start today. Not tomorrow, not on Monday, not after your cousin's, auntie's, or best friend's birthday party.

Don't make excuses. If you're overweight and/or unhealthy, do something about it. Don't know what to do? Find someone who does.

Expect to change your life. You became overweight/unhealthy living the way you are. There's a much better quality of life to be found by being leaner and healthier.

No one can do it for you. Advice, encouragement, and training are all useful tools, but you have to make it happen yourself because the biggest battles will be in your own head.

Lastly, have a clear endgame in mind.


P.S. Yes, my wife is amazing and a great motivator, but she's also a reminder that I make a choice every day to be a better version of myself—for my wife, my children, family, and friends.


Update: 10 years on from my heaviest.

After losing 50kg in 2 years, I still battled with body image issues, always feeling like I was still to fat, and feeling like if I could just get lean enough then it would solve all my issues.

So I decided to a bodybuilding style weight cut, assuming that if I was that lean I would be happy finally. The problem was, I woke up the day after finishing, and I still hadn't fixed my old food habits, I started re gaining weight quickly, especially as I thought I was now finished with weight loss and maintenance at lean would be easy.


Enter COVID and the lockdowns, in order to exercise in our 3x5m garage, I took up powerlifting. This also really helped my mental health as strength training is mentally easier to make yourself go and do a session, lifting lots of weight feels amazing and with long rest breaks you don't have the added stress of being out of breath.


I gained quite a bit of muscle, along with an increase in bodyweight, from 97-129kg. While I was much stronger, but that was masking my lack of fitness, increased weight, and lower self esteem.


Then in 2021 my varicrose veins (a left over from being overweight), started causing clotting, resulting in Deep Vein Thrombosis. After talking with a specialist, it was clear the powerlifting was causing the increase of pressure on my veins that exasabated the problem. Also, despite my added muscle, the total  bodyweight was causing even more pressure, I needed to change my exercise habits, and lose weight, muscle and fat.


Fortunately, right as  I was figuring out what I was going to do, running was out of the question, and most weight based exercise caused more issues, I had a new client come along who wanted to lose weight to compete better in Jiu jitsu. I traded PT for jiu jitsu lessons with Diego, and quickly fell in love with grappling. The bonus was that jiu jitsu is done on a padded mat, and often lying on the ground, meaning there was no stress on my veins, it also burns a massive amount of energy, due to how full body and intense it is.


I also worked to change my food habits, rather than coming up with yet another food plan that only worked short term, I started to focus on changing habits ,based around how I grew up eating food. This led to long term sustainable food practices that led to slow steady weight loss again.


Once I had surgery on my veins, I needed to figure out how to incorporate active calf exercise, that wasnt high impact and repetive, and look for a lower intensity form of cardio. So I took up kickboxing and swimming. The secondary benefit is I now started to view my body for what it could do, rather than obsessing over what it looked like, or what the scales said.


Now I sit around 108kg, I have a variety of interesting exercise options that mean I stay active, while weight training once or twice a week, focusing on mobility and relative strength. My food is now based on having lower calorie dense carbs, while packing in as much taste and nutrients as possible, all changes that will allow this to keep working for another 10 years.


Understanding Sugar: The Sweet Science

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Health and Nutrition

April 10, 2024
Everything we do around health and nutrition is based on some very simple principles.

Health and Nutrition - Second Principle

April 10, 2024
The second principle we follow is: What you do to get healthy is what you need to do to stay healthy. This simply means that if you choose a paleo, keto, Mediterranean, vegan, intermittent fasting diet, you will have to stick to it long term in order to retain your progress. This is where most people screw up, they pick a restrictive diet, have some short term success, then return to their old way of eating and regain all that weight. Life is a lot longer and more complicated than a simple 12 week challenge. Even in a year, 12 weeks is only a quarter of the year, you have the next 40 weeks to undo all that hard work. This is why you see people do 12 week challenges every year without it ever seeming to stick. You need to come to terms with how you relate to food (see my last post), and how you best like to eat and exercise (more on that later). Look to establish simple habits and routines, rather than follow fixed rules. For example a common thing people do in order to lose weight is skip breakfast. If you however have spent most of your life eating breakfast, you will probably go back to that habit in the future, thereby adding calories back into your diet without realising. So sticking to a pattern of breakfast every day and changing its contents is much more sustainable. 

Aim for mediocrity not perfection.

By test • April 10, 2024
Aim for mediocrity not perfection. This principle might seem counterintuitive at first glance, don't we all want to aim for perfection? But if you aim for what is the minimum rather than the maximum to still get results you create something much more sustainable for your long term health. For example, while training 5 times per week might be good, if the minimum needed to get stronger is just once every 7-10 days, you will be far less likely to fail, building 1 training into your routine. You can always add another session into your schedule at a later date, But if you start with 5 sessions then have to drop a couple due to being unsustainable you will feel like you are failing, despite still doing really well. A second part of this is to look for the next best option, not the perfect option. While a healthy home cooked lunch might be the best option you can have, if you forget to take lunch one morning, what is your next best choice, rather than completely messing up your food for the day. This means the best option available might be a steak pie from a bakery, because you know how many calories are in it, and it will stop you from using McDonald's as an all you can eat buffet. Now I am not saying you should be eating takeout regularly, but we all sleep in occasionally, or forget to buy groceries, so having a second best option for the times where you forget to plan is a great way to ensure you continue to have long term results. One last way this principle should be implemented in your life is the 90% rule when it comes to nutrition plans. I actively encourage people to take 1-2 meals per week off their nutrition plan. This doesn't mean an all you can eat binge at Pizza Hut, just eat something you like, that isn't in your plan. Because if you eat 3 meals per day, 21 per week, the 905 rule means you can have those 1-2 off and still make good progress. No one got fat from just one meal.

What is healthy?

By test • April 10, 2024
What Even Is Healthy? When we talk about being healthy, what does that actually mean? For some, it’s about having energy, avoiding sickness, or feeling good. For others, it’s about fitting into a certain clothing size or seeing a specific number on the scale. While all these factors matter, one of the most reliable ways to measure health is body fat percentage. 1. Why Focus on Body Fat Percentage? Body fat percentage is a more accurate and meaningful indicator of health than just tracking weight. Your weight can change from day to day based on how much water you drink, what you eat, or how active you’ve been. Body fat levels, on the other hand, change more slowly, giving a clearer picture of your health over time. Healthy body fat ranges can vary, but as a general guide: Men: 15–20% body fat is healthy. Women: 20–28% body fat is healthy. These ranges might surprise people. They’re higher than what many expect but lower than what some feel comfortable with. However, these levels provide a balance—enough fat to support your body’s needs while reducing risks associated with excess fat, like heart disease or diabetes. 2. What About Other Metrics? While body fat percentage is important, it’s just one part of the bigger picture. Health includes other elements, such as: Mental Health: Your ability to handle stress, stay positive, and enjoy life. Physical Fitness: This includes strength, endurance, flexibility, and mobility. Energy Levels: Consistently feeling energized is a key sign of good health. Body fat percentage stands out because it directly reflects your body composition and long-term health risks, but it’s not the only thing that matters. 3. Ways to Measure Body Fat Percentage Tracking body fat doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are three common methods: Tape Measure Calculator: Use an online calculator with basic measurements like your waist, neck, and hips (for women) to get an estimate of your body fat percentage. Fat Calipers: These tools pinch your skin to measure fat thickness. They’re more accurate but require practice to use correctly. Body Scans: Clinics or gyms offer scans that assess body fat. Some use basic bioelectrical impedance (less accurate), while others, like DEXA scans, measure fat distribution more precisely. It’s worth checking the type of scan before booking. 4. Why Body Fat Is Better Than Weight Tracking body fat gives a clearer and more consistent picture of your health compared to weight. Your weight can vary for many reasons—water retention, muscle gain, or even the time of day you weigh yourself. Body fat, however, shifts gradually, making it easier to track real progress. 4.1 The History of BMI and Its Flaws In the 1830s, a Belgian mathematician named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet created what we now call the Body Mass Index (BMI). Quetelet wasn’t a doctor—he was a statistician who wanted to study trends in large groups of people. His formula for comparing weight and height wasn’t meant to measure individual health. BMI gained popularity in the 1970s when American physiologist Ancel Keys promoted it as a quick way to classify obesity. But BMI has some big flaws. It doesn’t account for differences in muscle mass, bone density, or where fat is stored. For example, someone with a lot of muscle might be labeled “overweight” or “obese” by BMI, even though they’re healthy. BMI also doesn’t work as well for women or people of different ethnic backgrounds, since it was based on data from European men. While BMI is still widely used because it’s simple, it’s not very accurate for individuals. Body fat percentage is a much better choice for assessing health. 5. Healthy Changes Over Time Improving your body fat percentage takes time and consistent effort. The key is to make small, manageable changes. Extreme diets or quick fixes may give short-term results, but they’re hard to stick with and often lead to burnout. Health is a long-term commitment, so focus on sustainable habits instead. 6. Redefining Healthy It’s also important to redefine what “healthy” means for you. Being healthy doesn’t mean aiming for perfection. It’s about feeling good, staying active, and making choices that support your long-term well-being. Tracking body fat percentage can be a great tool, but it’s only one part of the picture. By taking a balanced approach and focusing on slow, steady progress, you can create a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle that works for you.
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