When my wife threatened to leave me if I didn't get rid of my big belly!
I Couldn’t Believe It!
When my wife threatened to leave me if I didn’t get rid of my big belly, I was surprised by the range of emotions that I felt in that moment - I was defensive, embarrassed, kinda angry and really aggravated all rolled into one!
But I looked at her and instinctively knew that although she had said it half joking, she was serious – not about leaving me, but about me taking her seriously; and as a health coach and researcher, it wasn't just about aesthetics from her point of view, it was about my wellbeing, my longevity!
This wasn’t the time to bury my head in the sand, crack a big belly joke and continue in my denial. Her words really got me thinking. As a child I was always skinny, and I didn’t like it! All too often some smart-ass would have a skinny joke that I’d be the butt of. No surprise then that I’d always wanted to gain weight, and I felt the same way throughout my teens.
I was very physical from my teens into my twenties, I pushed weights, boxed and yep I had a six pack; but no matter what I did, I never gained weight! I was still too damned skinny and I hated it!
Gaining Weight – The Dream
Roll the clocks forward, I hit my thirties and I’m blessed beyond measure to marry the woman of dreams. I was happy, passionate, comfortable and content in a way that to be honest, I had only dreamed was possible! My whole pace of life changed, and in less than a year I had gained over 21 lbs.
All of a sudden I’m putting on weight and it’s so liberating. Finally, I was able to have muscular mass the way I wanted to, and it was like my coming of age! The scales became my best friend, the more I gained weight, the happier I was with myself!
Gaining Weight – The Nightmare
It’s like I couldn’t even see my belly was sticking out a mile in front of me and that my face was looking like an over-inflated balloon! I’m told biologically the average man’s metabolism slows down at around 35, and we start to put on weight, but unlike with women this weight has a tendency to show up predominantly around the midsection; I was 33, so close enough!
Over the years I’d continued eating the things I’d always loved to eat, and having a sweet tooth, that was everything from cakes to chocolate to sweets! The difference now was that my gut was paying the price! At one point my man-gut was actually bigger than my wife’s, and she was 6 months pregnant!!!
On one holiday one of her niece’s actually looked at my belly and asked me concerned ‘Uncle are you sick?’
There were other comments over the years but I’d laugh it off as if it didn’t bother me, excusing the belly as a sign of ‘good living’ and of my happy contentedness with married life. And after over a decade of walking around with this extra pouch in front of me, unconsciously I think I had resigned myself to the fact that it was just something I’d have to live with.
But as my wife’s words resonated within me I said to myself – it’s all good saying that I need to get rid of the big belly, but if it were that easy I’d have done it already! I’d virtually cut out eating sweets about five years before but apart from that I was doing what I had always done, the difference being I had changed, my body had changed, my day to day activities had changed, and things just weren’t working the same anymore. And to make matters worse, some of the products I was taking to support my weight training were actually swelling my belly even more!
I spoke to some of the trainers I knew and most suggested running, trouble is I actually hate – not dislike a little – but out and out HATE running! So let’s face it I wasn’t about to add running to my daily regime, I needed another way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no slouch, I still do weight training 4-5 days a week, I don’t like leg day but I still get it done. My chest, back and arms were in great shape, but the belly was the one part of my body that I couldn’t get in check!
Losing The Belly
So began my quest to learn the physiology of the body, grab your FIVE TIPS FOR FAT LOSS to read more of what I learned. I was glad to learn I was already on the right track with a couple of things like getting enough sleep and building muscle. Making some extra tweaks made all the difference
Increasing my leg workouts to boost my testosterone levels made a massive impact that I could never have anticipated!
Increased my water intake!
Simple I know, but when I really thought about it I’d regularly go for weeks without drinking even a single glass of pure water!I started a new habit, I bought myself a few nice glass bottles to encourage me and drank only water throughout the day and set out to drink 2 litres per day. It was pretty hard at first, especially needing to pee every minute! It actually got me wondering ‘where do those fizzy drinks and boxed fruit juices go when you drink them’, it’s like they go in but don’t come back out because I barely needed to pee before!
Anyway within a week or so I wasn’t even craving fizzy drinks or juice during the day, and I still looked forward to having a fresh juice in the evening.Dramatically increasing the amount of water I drink everyday amazingly gave noticeable strength improvements too!
I also dramatically reduced starchy carbohydrates and increased my intake of healthy fats with foods like avocados and coconut oil. My wife noticed the shift in my midriff even before I did, and then I noticed how often she’d have her hand resting on my stomach as we sat or would hug me from behind around my waist.
And last but not least, the secret power tool was introducing intermittent fasting. Now this one scared the hell out of me, mainly because I'd watched my wife shift tons of weight doing this. and I didn't want to shift weight I just wanted to shift the belly. I'm not gonna lie, I had visions of me passing out or collapsing if I missed a meal. But the reality was, not only did I have a big belly sticking out in front of me, when I had my Health MOT scan it showed up amongst other things that I had a fatty liver. So I had to do something!
(You can find out about and book a Health MOT Scan here to find out about stressors, imbalances or deficiencies that may be affecting your health.)
So I’ve gone from 83kg (185lbs) to about 70kg (154lbs) and have a physique that I was pretty sure was out of my reach at 46! I look better, I look younger and feel fitter - and I look in the mirror and say with a smile ‘not bad son’!
I’m wearing my close fitting t-shirts again that had been relegated to the bottom of an obscure drawer, plus I’ve got the added bonus of seeing that extra sparkle in my beautiful wife’s eyes when she looks at her man!
Am I pleased with my changes? Yes indeed!
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