Fat Birds - The Results

At the beginning of the year I shared details of the private competition that we, as a family were taking part in. The challenge, devised by my father was to see which couple out of me and my wife, my sister, her husband and both of my parents could lose the most amount of weight over the course of three months. On Sunday evening the final results were in!

In third place we had my sister and her husband who automatically finished last on account that neither of them turned up to for the final weigh-in. My sister might have used her car being repaired as mitigating circumstances, but truth be told, neither of them really entered into the spirit of the competition in the first place!

In runner up spot, my parents finished, with a fairly non-spectacular weight-loss. I won’t indulge any figures here, but suffice to say, I thought that it would have been higher considering it is their own finances that are funding the eventual prize winners, which went to... Stephanie and I.

To be honest, both Stephanie and I had by far the largest amount of weight to lose and we did, Jessica and James not so much, which is probably why they didn’t enter as wholeheartedly as we did! Stephanie and I over a course of three months lost a combined figure of 44lbs, or 20 kilo’s depending upon your favoured unit of measurement. In actual fact, we both lost the same amount of weight, but I was crowned overall winner considering the percent of body weight I managed to lose.

Without the lure of the carrot that my father dangled in front of us, I’m not sure that either of us would have done as well as we have - but the key thing now is to maintain and improve on what we’ve done so far - as we’ve both still got a long way to go until either of can be happy.

The biggest thing that I’ve got out of the whole competition is the weekly exercise routine. Every weekend this year I’ve been out pounding the streets of Gravesend on a running mission, ably assisted by friends of mine who have come along in support or looking for someone to run with.

I ran for the very first time last summer during our weekly training for the Great River Race. I ran alongside my friend Stuart down to the River Thames which equates to a total distance of around a mile and a half. I barely managed to get half way without stopping, spitting my dummy out, crying that I couldn’t do it anymore and wanting to lie down on the kerbside and die. On Sunday afternoon, to get to our final weigh-in, I ran the 6.2 miles from my house to my parents - in under an hour! What a difference three months can make!

When I text my fellow running friends thanking them for their support and letting them know of my huge success, each one of them in turn replied back with the same question. “Will you be keeping it up?” My answer? “Of course!”

During my Sunday evening run, I felt again that I’d bitten off more than I could chew, it was too hot, I was running too far, my body ached and I was too unfit to make it. And yet, I did - and in such a positive time as well. When I realised that I’d made it and in the time I did, I was hit by a rather manic sense of euphoria which was slightly surprising and definitely something that could become addictive. It isn’t necessarily the running I enjoy, it is the sense of achievement and knowing that ultimately I’m doing something good for my body after years spent breaking it.

So a huge thank you to my parents for dangling a carrot in front of us, but more importantly, thank you for being the catalyst into a gateway to something better.

Now where are those holiday brochures?

Banner image from Dreamstime.com