I’m a city office worker in my 30s. I have generally been quite a fat bloke through to my mid 20s. From my teenage years going into my mid 20s, exercise seemed pointless, I didn’t play any sports, and I don’t think I loved anything more than junk food! I had mild self-esteem issues and was not particularly confident (largely due to my weight issue), but I never actually did anything about it. On numerous occasions, I joined the gym and practically threw away money, as I continued with my bad eating habits. Then when I turned 25, I decided I needed to get a grip and joined the gym (for about the 5th time). This time I managed to stick to it and by the time I turned 26, I managed to get my weight down to about 75kg (from a peak of 95 in my early 20s!), mainly through eating slightly better and regular cardiovascular exercise. Since then I even ran the London marathon, got married and we now have a young daughter.

Midway through last year, my weight tipped above 80kg again and I generally felt very unhealthy. My gym routine was unstructured and very irregular. I didn’t pay particular attention to my eating habits and generally my attitude to eating a bad meal was, ‘it’s ok, I just ran 4k on the treadmill’ not really accounting for the Nutella on toast that often followed for breakfast. I came across RNT Fitness through Shiv and Sachin on social media and only really signed up as I was interested in the process having read about the transformations some of the members went through. I never had the intention of getting ‘shredded’ and guess curiosity was the main catalyst for joining.

Since then, I’ve not looked back. The ongoing process and client-trainer relationship has been key. The RNT team has had to put up with my nonsense and TONS of questions, but their input has been paramount to me sticking with the plan and actually seeing results. Regularly touching base has been really important and allowed me to improve my habits on an ongoing basis. On top of that, the RNT facebook group has been really insightful and supportive too.

I had goals to lose my moobs and my belly and to become stronger. Since I joined, I’ve had to deal with a double hernia op (which meant I couldn’t train for 3 months), enjoyed Christmas socials and been on a couple of holidays. There is no point doing any regime if you can’t enjoy life alongside it, but thankfully, the end goal has allowed me to retain focus.

Fast forward to April 2019 and I feel better than I have ever done. I’ve learnt an incredible amount about weight training and nutrition, come across numerous inspirational people, and to top it off I have gone through a physical transformation I didn’t honestly think was possible! I managed to shift 19kg from 80kg down to 61kg and 24cm off my belly to 70cm. I am currently going through The Consolidation Phase (which is as tricky as people have warned me about!).

My main two takeaways from my time with RNT are motivation and accountability….keep those two in check and anything is possible. Don’t get me wrong – I still LOVE unhealthy food and will indulge in unhealthy food now and again, but I also now have a genuine interest in healthy nutrition and weight training…so hopefully I can eventually make good progress as I look to build some muscle.

To anyone that may be reading this, if you are thinking about joining, don’t think twice. It is absolutely worth it, especially if you have tried various other things and not seen (lasting) results. I won’t lie, it has been tough at times for someone that loves food, but if I can do it, anyone can!