About Me

My Story?
I went from being a fitness freak teenager, to a fat drunken idiot at university. I was stuck in what now feels like a haze of denial that everything was fine and I was in great ilk for the 3 years I spent there. I couldn't realise that I was the problem, I was the downfall, and others that were providing me with all the support and care in the world, I was just ignoring. I was a total waste of space.

This is on my 21st birthday- face looks pretty puffy

Breaking point

After experiencing a tough break up from a relationship, it came to the realisation that I was a mess, and needed to change. This hit me like a brick wall. ..... I now weighed over 85kg!! So I looked at ways of changing,  looking primarily at the laziest or 'easiest' way out. I tried low-carb diets, high protein diets, intermittent fasting and fasting. I did lose weight, but didn't gain the ability or knowledge to hold it off. After this flurry of short-fix attempts I decided to turn vegetarian and saw some changes, in terms of my bodily appearance, but it was a temporary thing, and I soon returned to habits of drinking too much and over indulging in junk, with the excuse that because I was now 'vegetarian' it was 'healthier' for me. Looking back at these 'attempts' at improving my health, they really were just ways of trying to feed my ego, whilst being able to keep my bad habits.

'Vegan-Gate'- July 26th 2014

This was the day i went vegan coming back from a long week of binging n Krakow with my mates, I was still out of shape and feeling very unhealthy after a real binge out.

About a year ago I found inspiration online from other people who have turned vegan and lost a load of weight, in the form of blogs and Youtube. So I went for it, cutting out the cheese, eggs and dairy out of my diet. I went through that really annoying initial stage that everyone does where they think they know everything about something and don't stop talking about it. The reality was, at first I wasn't even applying it properly, I was more a preacher than a doer. I began to dip my toe into the ocean that is veganism, trialing through the week, however still clinging on to old drinking habits at the weekend. Unfortunately, my reluctance to accept/ remember my weekend indulges prevented any real change in my bodily appearance, mental clarity or athletic performance. However, I did have a growing feeling that I was along the right path

The High-Carb way

I have always loved eating, and still do. I gave up on the FAD diet crap and looked for something where I could really smash in the food and stay healthy, finding videos on youtube from Durianrider,Vegan Gains and Freelee showed me ways of people who looked lean and healthy but also ate vast amounts of high carbohydrate food. I changed my whole way of eating again sticking to wholefoods such as fruit, rice, potatoes and wholegrains. Slowly I started seeing improvements in my health, fitness weight and energy levels. I was beginning to feel great again

Fast forward to present day

I am as healthy and as fit as I have been for a long time. I now weigh over 13kg less (nearly 2 stone) at between 72-73kg (depending on the day). I still have a bit more to go but I have achieved so many things over what has been nearly a year since turning vegan. I recently competed in a local 10 kilometre running race at got a personal best time of 39:00, and placed 92nd out of over 1500 competitors. Check out my placing here

Inspired by my transformation in food habit, I now study a part-time masters degree in 'Exercise and Nutrition Science' whilst holding a full time teaching job and a very busy training schedule. I am training to compete in a 135 mile running race around the Isle of Anglesey in 2016 and will be competing in several cool events in the build up to this. So really in my head, I have only just started the journey! I put down my successes to my high carbohydrate, high calorie diet to fuel my positive contributions to my own life, and now I want to help out as many people as possible!

Why Listen to me
One of my greatest strengths and also weakness is that I have great belief in other people. I find it easy to trust others, which is great for making friends and my full time job in teaching. But not so great in terms of falling for gimmicks and believing everything that sounds right. I pretty much have tried every FAD diet out there, and have made every mistake going in terms of health. I understand why people turn to calorie restriction/ fasting/ low carb/ pre-workout drink way of life. But eventually you become tired of this way of living and realise the truths in gaining health. I want you to learn from my mistakes, so that you don't have to wait as long as I did to start moving in the right direction!