Fit by 40 - My Substack Side Quest

160 days to lose 2 stone before I turn 40

In 160 days I turn 40. This morning I weighed 241 lb. That’s 17 stone 3 pounds. 110 kg if you’re metric. Or, in a language understood almost everywhere in the world... pretty damn fat. I am 56 lbs heavier than I’d ultimately like to be, and 85lbs heavier than a pesky BMI chart would advise, but let’s not start on those.

160 days isn’t enough to get where I need to be, but it is definitely enough to get a head start. The goal here is not perfection but rather consistency.

I won’t be filling your inboxes with my journey. This side quest is a public accountability tracker. One short daily note, documenting my weight for the next 160 days. Don’t worry if you subscribed for my usual stories. Those aren’t going anywhere. This challenge will live entirely in Notes while my weekly articles continue as normal.

So, can I be 2 stone lighter by the time I hit 40? In a perfect world, of course I can. In a world where I am addicted to junk food and sugar? A bit more difficult.

When it comes to trying to shed a few pounds I’ve tried it all. I’ve tried wishing the weight away. I’ve made wishes on birthday candles and shooting stars with little joy. I’ve prayed to God with no success. I’ve told people that I was eating well and exercising while secretly still eating junk food.

If anything that made it worse.

I changed from regular chocolate digestives to the chocolate digestive slims. They have much fewer calories per biscuit but when you eat 15 in one sitting it rather undermines the strategy.

I joined a gym and lost 15 pounds in the first month! I then lost 30 pounds in the second month when my ‘FIRST MONTH - HALF PRICE’ offer ran out. Maybe if I had have actually went to it things might have been different.

When I realised none of that was working I would promise myself I would start to exercise but it wasn’t long until the excuses started.

“I can’t afford gym membership” was the easiest. Then I saw clips of an indigenous tribe make a homemade gym from rocks and sticks so I had to come up with a new excuse.

“I don’t have the time” was the next one. Three kids, a full time job and building a new house leaves little time for anything other than eating and sleeping. Then I read about a woman who won a 268 mile mountain race while expressing breast milk for her 14 month old son.

Another excuse out the window.

It was time to take a good hard look at myself. What do these people have that I don’t have? They have no special powers. Granted, the breastfeeding running mom is as close to a superhero as we’re ever likely to see but she’s still a human.

And if they can do it there’s no reason I can’t.

In 2020 I went all in. I signed up for a triathlon and bagged a spot on the Great North run in Newcastle. Things were looking up. Training was going well, I was learning to swim, and I was running and cycling regularly. The weight was falling off and by the time St Patrick’s day came around I was lighter and fitter than I had been in years.

Then came our good friend Covid and everything went to shit.

I was no longer allowed to mingle with my exercise buddies which took a toll on the motivation and then events started to get cancelled. With no end game in sight, motivation plummeted and I got back into my old habits.

In the 6 years since, apart from a few one off events, I have done little to no meaningful exercise and it shows. I have gained over 40 lbs, I look and feel like shit, and as I creep ever closer to my 40’s, it feels exponentially more difficult to get on top of it.

So lets see if becoming accountable to a bunch of strangers on the internet works any better than wishing on a star. If you’ve got advice for beating the junk food habit, squeezing exercise into a busy life, or you’ve got a success story of your own, I’d love to hear it.

Otherwise...

I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Whatever number the scales show, you’re getting it.

Wish me luck!

P.S. If you have arrived here through my Fit by 40 side quest then I guess some self promotion is required. Here is a good starting point if you want to check out any of my usual Substack activity.