Ben Malka - A Weightloss Story
Thank you for inviting me to guest write on your
blog Sam, it’s a pleasure.
Morning, afternoon, evening to everyone and thank
you for taking the time to read my post.
Health is a very important aspect of my life. I
wake up every morning at 5am to whack on my gear and hit the gym. My breakfast
is usually the same during the week because I stick to timings (it makes
everything more regimented). I have Dr Zaks protein toast with meridian peanut
butter and a tsp of honey split across both slices. I grab my meal from the
fridge and a mars bar and hit the road. I jump on the first train out of
Edgware station along with all the builders who are all guzzling their Red
Bulls to help them wake up. I am usually the first person to arrive at the gym,
which opens at 6:30, and at this time I enjoy my mars bar, which all fits into
my macros – so I can enjoy a sugar spike during my workout.
I split my training routine across 5 days and rest
on the weekend. It’s never the same. Every day will be a different muscle group,
(I sometimes train legs twice because it’s my favorite muscle group and my
genetics lean more towards my lower body), with treadmill HIIT on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
But it wasn’t all like this. When I was kid I was
always the large one around town. I blame this to excessive eating. It’s not
the fact I ate chocolate or crisps, it’s that I ate too much of it. I think
this is where people make the mistake that sugar is bad for you and it isn’t! I
still eat a mars 5 times a week and guess what, I have a six-pack! Anyway,
overeating led me to my biggest size of 20 stone and 1 pound. This is a hefty
number to see on the scale, however when you are this size you don’t actually
notice how big you really are.
I was subject to all the fat comments at school, which
made me go red and hope the laughter would stop! Sometimes it got quite bad and
I even had a teacher make a comment in front of a class of thirty kids about my
weight, which was quite depressing and killed my self-esteem further.
What really kicked me into my mindset to shift a
few pounds was working with my old boss at my Saturday job. He used to
continually give me the old spiel about how he used to be big… but never as big
as me (another blow to the old esteem). I would be asked to run around Hatton
Garden delivering rings to suppliers and as a result of this, I noticed my size
42 inch suit trousers becoming looser. I liked the change and decided to ring
up my cousin Joseph, who was already into his fitness and told him I was going
to join the David Lloyd Gym. He was the first and last gym partner who taught
me the basics of lifting weights. This is wear my love for the gym began to
grow into an obsession (a healthy one).
I proceeded to loose around 5 stone, but my diet
was still my downfall as I had little knowledge of how many calories I was
consuming. I used to constantly spend time researching and testing out new
theories, but last year (December 2013) is when I saw the light. After getting
an internship at a global media agency after being unemployed for nearly a
year, I discovered macros – the holy grail of controlling food intake. Using
Myfitness Pal, I would set a macros limit for protein, carbs and fats and stick
to this. I saw my body change rapidly and saw gains in all my lifting, as well
as my body fat slowly dropping. I also quit smoking in this time period, as the
snowball effect from motivation in my training began to spill over into my work
(I got made full time at the media agency on my birthday!).
What I want to express to you guys is that it is possible
to change your body, but you can’t look at other people and say “I want a body
like that” because you are not them! Instead go over to the nearest mirror and
look directly in it because this is who your competition is; yourself.
My story got published in the Daily Star for anyone
who would like to read it but thank you for having me on here. Everything I
write is my personal preference and everyone is different.
Ben Malka