How I Got There

Right, so here we go. After a routine check up with the doctor, I was told to stand on the scales, something which every massive person avoids like salad. To my surprise, it showed that I was only four stone and change.

With a lovely smug look on my face I turned to the doctor to say "something's wrong with the old scales there, love." Her face wasn't one of confusion, but more disbelief. The scales had done a full circle and that four and a bit stone was my weight on top of the 20 stone maximum to which the scales had been calibrated.

After blood tests a plenty, I received news that my liver was depositing fat at an alarming rate and I was well on the way to Type 2 Diabetes. That wiped the smug look off my face. I had convinced myself that I was big, but not too big. Ignorance was bliss.

I preferred to think I was only a little bit obese!

So what got me to this point? One word; addiction. I got hooked on everything I possibly could. Coca-Cola, chips, biscuits, chicken fillet rolls (with extra taco sauce). At one point I was knocking back 6 litres of Coke a day. Delicious. It was killing me. Simple as that. The idea that I could have liver failure in 18 months scared me straight.

Pints on top of this made it a horrible cycle. I'd eat crap during the day, drink at nighttime with the lads and then have that hungover binge the next day. You know the one? Those nights when you have the guts of ten beers and grab a big dirty kebab on the way home?

Oh, it's delicious at the time! But what happens when you make up from a big party with everyone around? Time for movies, chicken rolls, chocolate and the banter. There's that sense of camaraderie associated with hangovers. You're all in it together. Never leave a dry-heaving man behind; get a breakfast roll into him and he'll power on through.

So a combination of binge drinking, that sense of togetherness with the guys couple with that beautifully demoralising sense of self-loathing created the 24 stone behemoth that didn't care whether he lived or died. Well I'm happy to say he no longer exists and to everyone out there who prefers to live in denial and not care anymore, I say to you; there is hope.

Take things one day at a time and remember; every passing moment is a chance to turn it all around.