My Own Weight Loss Transformation
Here’s the story of my own weight loss transformation.
West of Ireland born and raised, eating cookies was how I spent most of my days.
No I’m not just going to rap my own version of the Fresh Prince to you, instead I’m going to tell you where I started and how I got to owning my own gym.
Growing up; I was always that pudgy kid that grandparents loved to tickle; not because I giggled like a baby, but it was more because I jiggled like a bowl of jelly.
However, as I got older into my teenage years, my relationship with food worsened to the point where I had no control over my eating. Literally, if I seen food it got put in my mouth.
The sad side of it was that it made me miserable as hell to be gaining weight. Unfortunately, there’s this vicious cycle when you’re plunging towards obesity:
– Eating makes your happy but leads to weight gain
– Being overweight makes you really unhappy
– So you turn to food to make you happy again
– Which goes and makes you gain more weight
On my 22nd birthday, I weighed in at 18 stone and fed up of feeling and looking like sh*t. I wanted to have a normal life and most of all to get “fit” and regain my health. Because if I didn’t, a long list of medical issues would come hurling my direction.
(the pic on the left is when I was 17 stone – I feared cameras so much I dodged them all once I was over 17st or I deleted any that I had)
I get asked frequently as to what motivated me to change….
And being totally honest – it was the hatred I had developed for myself and my body.
I was depressed over how I looked, social occasions gave me anxiety because I thought everyone would be looking at the “whale”. I feared taking up too much space on car journeys.
It was far from the best years of my life…
But thankfully I turned the corner and improved. I won’t lie, every now and again those gremlins come back and haunt me but I’ve spend years working on myself and every day gets easier.
Now unfortunately, even 6 years ago there wasn’t as much information available as there is today when it comes to dieting effectively. So my choice was to crash diet and starve myself.
I won’t lie, it worked magnificently, it turning myself into a scrawny asshole who still wasn’t fully lean was my goal.
I had done it all wrong, endless amounts of cardio, non stop circuit training and a very calorie restrictive diet with extremely poor nutritional value. Yet at the age of 24 I weighed 11st 7lbs.
I’ll never forget the day I stepped out of the shower ready to do my 5 minute flexing session in front of the mirror (all guys are familiar with this) when I got shocked by what I saw.
There was this real scrawny asshole looking back at me with tiny arms, skinny legs and no muscle whatsoever.
Although I had lost all the weight, it had some big repercussions. I was addicted to the number on the scales. If it didn’t go down, I’d punish myself with loads of cardio.
If it went up, I’d break and binge eat as I felt I’d ruined it all so there was no point.
I had developed a really poor relationship with food and the pressure I put on myself to lose weight every week was ridiculous. I was making myself unhealthy by trying so hard to be healthy.
It got to the point where I was terrified of the number on the scales….
It was time to go back to the drawing board.
This time, I wasn’t going to make any mistakes. Enter James Hanley (Revolution Fitness). I actually messaged James on boards.ie asking for advice. He hit me with some great info, so much so that I booked myself in for a PT session in his Dublin Gym (yes I frequently drove to Dublin for PT sessions because I was serious about it).
In the meantime, I had been intrigued to help other people who were stuck in the same boat as myself to change so I enrolled in a Personal Training course in Dublin while still working full time down here.
I quickly fell in love with strength training and everything it had to offer for me. Every day I craved to become a better person. I started reading every book I could get my hands on to educate myself.
I started smashing myself with Mobility work to improve my movement which in turn improved my daily life and my lifting.
I was starting to see the big picture.
May 2014 – StrongLife Gym opened in Boyle, Co. Roscommon. It was my baby, yet a basic 4 rack gym with dumbells, barbells and kettlebells.
People started getting results fast. They surpassed their previous 12 months lifting in just a few months.
It started getting busy so in January 2015 the new and improved Stronglfie Gym opened which we are in today.
We are helping more people than ever reach their strength and fitness goals thanks to our bigger and better gym and profile.
Being perfectly honest, dealing with the brilliant people that train here in Stronglife motivates me every single day and I would consider all of them as my friends by now.
I will never take this place for granted and I want to help as many people as I can.
Just quickly, what we specialise in:
– Strength training (we guarantee results)
– Nutritional coaching
– Personal training
– Mobility and flexibility (fancy way of saying we will get you moving better and avoid injuries)
Essentially, if you want to become a real badass in the gym or start making positive changes to your lifestyle and health, then we are your gym!
Throughout, I have continued to study. I done a Certification with Precision Nutrition, read endless amounts of books, blogs and listened to podcasts. I’ve had the pleasure of training under the tutoring of Ed Coan and had the pleasure of attending seminars by Ben Coomber, Phil Graham and Danny Lennon.
I’ve also started competing in Powerlifting and have done 2 competitions to date with a 3rd lined up.
Starting strength training was the best thing I could’ve done. It gives me more freedom with my diet, it’s a process of making myself better every week instead of tearing myself down through poor dieting and destroying myself on the treadmill.
And that’s why I coach my clients to lift weights, to work on moving them away from old habits of dieting and working on moving them to a more positive outlook towards their food, bodies and mind.
So in summary, your best bet for long term success is to make small changes daily and work towards a LONG TERM goal, bot just a fancy quick fix.
Pick up some heavy weights, do some workouts you enjoy but most of all, clean up your diet.
90% of people always LIE to themselves about their food. So my best advice is to stop believing the BS you’re selling yourself as to why you can’t reach your goals, step outside your comfort zone and give it an honest go! Give yourself AT LEAST 6 months to see a realistic change.
And if you’re still reading, I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to read my story.
I hope it has been of relevance to you and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch – colm@stronglifegym.ie
Once again, thank you.
Colm Duignan
