Weight Loss Articles

Last year I came to a milestone in my life. I was 36 years of age and had become a couch potato for the previous 15 years of my life.

I was successful in my career with a loving wife and 2 marvellous kids. However, I knew that I wasn't fulfilled - something in my life was missing. Life was mainly work, work, work and by the time I got home I had little time or energy left to spend with my children. I felt constantly stressed and my life was out of balance.

One day I was sitting in the pub (not very healthy!) discussing this with a friend who felt he was in a similar predicament. We talked about going to the gym but we had been down this path before and ended up paying out for 3 months membership but only going 2 or 3 times. We both found the gym to be off-putting with the big macho types strutting their stuff in our faces whilst we struggled with the smallest of weights or feeling out of puff on the lowest exercise bike setting sitting next to an elderly lady who was cycling with ease.

Then my friend came up with an idea - we both had mountain bikes that were lying unused in the garage and they had only seen the light of day once or twice. We are fortunate enough to live close to a large area of forest and heathland and decided to embark upon a regular morning bike ride over the 'chase'.

The plans were made and agreed and soon the first day dawned. The alarm sounded at 6.30am and as I turned over to turn if off I couldn't help thinking that this was all a mistake. Wouldn't I rather be lying in a nice warm bed than going outside at this unearthly hour to pull a muscle?

I rang my friend to wake him up and I could tell by his reaction that the same thoughts were running through his mind. We both kept these thoughts to ourselves silently hoping that the other one would be the first to back down. Neither of us did thankfully and 45 minutes later he picked me up in the Range Rover complete with bicycle trailer in tow. I strapped my bike in place and jumped in beside him. We looked across at each other and both gave a knowing smile. Neither of us had expected to get this far but there was no going back now.

That first time gave us a real sense of achievement. We didn't go very far or very fast. We were out of breath very quickly and we were still recovering about 2 hours later. But,the important thing was we had made a start, we had done something just for ourselves and it made us feel on top of the world. We drove back home that day with huge satisfied smiles on our faces.

That was 6 months ago. We now go regularly 3 times per week and apart from the exercise and feel good factor we start the morning with the beauty of nature and often seen deer, rabbits and wild birds. By the time we are ready to go to work we feel ready for anything and our stress levels are way down. In fact we both feel able to take on anything that life throws at us.

Our lives have changed because we decided to take action and get a balance in life . Although we have lost weight and increased our energy levels this wasn't our main achievement. Our main achievement is that we both both feel fantastic and feel a lot happier.

Why don't you change your life today?

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