Fitter. Happier. More Productive

Last night I caught the tail end of a programme on Channel 4 called My Baggy Body. I'll have to watch 4oD at some point to take in the full show, but in essence it is about people who have lost an awful lot of weight, but subsequently found themselves with excess skin. It is something that I know about only too well. Having ditched 10 stones since the beginning of 2007, I'm very well acquainted with this unwanted side effect of getting healthy.

The bloke on the programme last night was a guy called Gregg. As I only saw the last few minutes I don't know his full background but it was clear that he had undergone cosmetic surgery to alleviate himself of his saggy mid-drift. He seemed happier in himself, though was left with surgical scars around his waist.

It got me thinking about my physique, and whether I'm happy with my appearance post weightloss. I've got bits that aren't particularly flattering, particularly around my chest and tummy. I'm not somebody who goes to the gym to pose in front of mirrors for hours rather than work up a sweat, so vanity isn't really an issue, but I would certainly prefer to look a little different. Whether I'd ever consider surgery is very doubtful. I'm not depressed about my shape and to be honest the scarring would only serve as a reminder of what I was before.

My wife pointed out to me last night that when I've got a shirt on, nobody can tell what is going on underneath. And she is right. My excess skin is not an eyesore. I wear slim fit shirts in the office which shows an air of confidence. When I'm stood upright, I look pretty lean nowadays. Minus the shirt, when I lean over, my chest and stomach fall out of place and it looks like somebody has pinned Tesco carrier bags to my torso.

It is a small price to pay for long term health. Would I rather be 14st with a mildly embarrassing physique, or a 24st man with a 48 inch waist again? No contest really, so the baggyness remains. My modelling career doesn't look like taking off any time soon anyway!

I sympathise with anybody who feels uncomfortable with their body. I didn't undergo weightloss purely for health reasons - I hated how I looked and eventually did something about it. Losing weight will help you physically but it doesn't necessarily follow that you will learn to love your body as a result. For me, I'm in a much better place now than I was in years gone by. The meaning of the song doesn't really tie in, but some of the less bleak lyrics hold true. I am Fitter, Happier, More Productive. If that means carrying around some flappy parts, I can live with that.

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I would go out tonight but I haven't got a stitch to wear

Wow. I don't know about you but I certainly noticed the drop in temperature the last couple of days. I guess winter is upon us and we'll have to get used to more mornings of scraping ice off the windscreen. The cold snap rather took me by surprise and when I waved off my wife and little one Wednesday morning, I was hit by a moment of panic. It was chilly, what on earth did I have to wear?

The problem with reaching new territory in terms of weight is that I don't necessarily have clothes in the wardrobe that I need any more. At one stage I had jeans in every size from 34-48 inch, tops from M-XXL. A clearout last year got rid of my supersize gear but having only been this sort of weight for two weeks of my adult life, I'm rather short on suitable clothing for winter mornings.

I've been getting by with 36 inch trousers for work, held up by a belt I bought a few weeks back. Incidentally, I've had to move from the first hole on that belt to the fifth already, so I may have to invest in another one soon! M sized smart shirts have been the order of the day for wearing to the office, but yesterday morning that would not have done because it was blimming cold. I went through all of the knitwear I own, and narrowed down the the L sized garments, as I currently don't have anything in M. They were loose, baggy and not going to be very effective. I settled on the least bad, but it was a makeshift solution. If I plan to maintain or lose further weight, a bit of retail therapy will be justified.

As The Smiths once sang, 'I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear' - two young kids rather restricts the going out, but it would be nice to have some clothes to show off the new and improved figure. Think I'll be hitting the Christmas sales in a few weeks time.

The Big Squeeze

One of the things to look forward to when losing weight, is feeling your clothes get looser and knowing that you can drop a size. I sometimes hear people talking about wanting to get back into their ‘skinny jeans’ or an outfit they wore when they were younger. While my primary reasons for dieting this year are health and family related, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t part of me that was looking forward to fitting into some of the clothes I was wearing a few years back.

My Gap jeans are nothing particularly special to the naked eye, but to me they hold more value than just covering up my pasty legs and unattractive underwear. The importance lies in the waistsize. Size 36L. It isn’t particularly skinny, but fairly respectable all the same. More to the point, when I bought them some five years ago and proudly wore them, it meant I had managed to lose a whole foot off my waist.

At my largest I was wearing 48 inch trousers, which I had to order from a mail order company specialising in oversize clothing. I couldn’t buy them on a typical high street. The transformation I underwent to scale down from that size to being able to walk into Gap and buy jeans off the peg involved month after month of diet, exercise and commitment. Even though my journey in 2013 is less dramatic, that feeling off success still lingers.

Last December I was splitting larger trousers down the seam in a garage forecourt because I had filled out again. That incident has been a driving factor in my quest to downsize this year. It reminded me of what used to be a regular occurrence when I was huge, and the embarrassment that went with it. Never again if I can help it.

My sides were splitting with laughter. Not!

So those jeans are in my wardrobe, just waiting for me to fit into them. Hopefully it won’t be long now before I can dust them off and get reacquainted.