Unlike Paul Jeffreys I am not in a position to give up my job and just focus on this. I work a rotational job for an oil company which means I spend 28 days working 12 hours a day on a compound in Central Africa, and then spend the following 28 days back in the UK on time off. A disjointed life but one that should lend itself to this quest. The challenge in both locations will be motivation.
I have just started my 28 days at work. Everyday begins at 5:30am and finishes at 6:30pm if everything goes according to plan. The first decision is when to exercise. Realistically mornings are out as getting up at 5:30 is painful enough without getting up even earlier to exercise. So the evening... Days at work are long but as long as I can get in the door, change clothes and get out without my arse sinking into the sofa, I should be OK.
Last night, no problem. In the door, changed, Ipod on and out again.
The compound is large, encompassing accommodation, offices and gas plants. Previous attempts at exercise have always involved going round and round the accommodation area; boredom always set in quickly and TV always beckoned.
A new route then: Through the accommodation blocks, past the offices, round the canteen and back again with a quick circuit of the housing to finish.
It was hot, very hot. I was just walking and not particularly quickly but the sweat was pouring off me. The music kept the pace consistent. There was a panicky moment going past the old canteen, where it is pitch dark; My imagination threw up images of snakes and dogs coming out of the darkness but the reality was kinder.
A couple of hills really took it out of me; I am catastrophically unfit. Panting for breath walking up a hill is not the sign of a healthy man. This is the right thing to do.
Getting back to my room with sweat pouring off me, it was all I could do to open a bottle of water and stretch as my muscles twitched and shook.
The shower was a sanctuary and the sofa merely a place to pause before going to bed. I had only walked 3km and was exhausted.
Exercise completed: 3 Kilometres (Walk)
I am a man who has spent a large portion of the past 20 years leaving an increasingly large indentation in the sofa while watching television. A few months ago I saw 'Fat Man Slim', a documentary about a New Zealand advertising executive called Paul Jeffreys who had gone on a twelve month quest to change his life. Aged 40 and weighing 168kg he made the decision to do something about it. He has inspired me to do the same thing. I am 36 years old, 6'2 and weigh 160kg.
Paul Jeffreys
168kg - 104kg
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