I decided to wait until February before starting a running feature about weight loss, and the effects being overweight can have from a male perspective.
January is a hard time to be overweight. Between the downpour of Facebook statuses promising a change in lifestyle and articles promoting healthy living by trying the latest fad diet, it can be quite depressing when you’re struggling to fit into those tight jeans you bought back in September.
A lot is written about female body image and the pressure on women to look a certain way, but men are often overlooked and can be embarrassed to bring up the fact their conscious about their shape, size or looks.
For the duration of this weekly feature, I will be following a diet regime. I have been through this before, I know my main issues. I have a tendency to eat because I`m bored. When I’m not in work or college, I tend to over-indulge myself in classic forms of relaxation like sleeping and Netflix.
I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. Usually deviating between 12 to 15 stone. I`m currently weighing in 14 stone 12 pounds, the heaviest I’ve been in two years. It`s fairly depressing. To be honest, it`s hard for me to think of a time when I was completely comfortable with how much I weighed.
Growing up, it`s easy to make excuses for your weight. It’s easy to use bullying or even slagging off from your mates as an excuse to go make another sandwich, but at 21 I feel I`ve gone past the stage where feeling a certain way and not acting on it is acceptable. It`s easy to post on Facebook about how comfortable you are in your own skin, but its hard to believe it when you turn off your phone or laptop and you look at yourself in the mirror.
So far I`ve cut back on my portions. I eat three times a day and try stay off carbs for two of those meals. Alcohol is down to once a week at most, and as I write this it`s a Friday night, and there`s nothing I want more than to get drunk and try forget about why I`m doing this.
My aims are fairly simple, I just want to lose weight. Six packs are great if you want to sweat it out in a gym four or five times a week, but that’s not for me. Throughout this series, I hope to find a way to lose weight that suits my lifestyle.
Ross Dooner
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