I’ve spent much of my adult life bouncing between two versions of myself.
Overweight and needing to do something about it.
Or fit, active and training hard.
Image on the left with Mum I was 115 kg, image on the right was 2 weeks ago at 97 kg
What I’ve never really managed to become is lean, healthy and consistent.
I’ve lost weight before. I’ve trained hard. I’ve been athletic. I’ve gone through periods where exercise was a huge part of my life.
And then there’s the other side of me.
I love food.
Not just eating it, but everything that comes with it. Finding a great café on a road trip. A long lunch somewhere new. Good coffee. Travelling and discovering local food. Sitting around a table with people I care about.
If you’ve followed any of my adventures, the photos probably provide plenty of evidence.
And I don't want that part of my life to disappear.
What I do want to change is the balance.
The Wake-Up Call
By my mid-40s, high blood pressure had become part of my life and I started taking medication to control it.
Over the following years, the dosage increased.
That bothered me.
Not because there is anything wrong with taking medication when you need it, but because I started wondering where this road was taking me.
If my health was heading in the wrong direction in my 40s and early 50s, what would things look like at 60?
Or 70?
This year, at 53, I decided it was time to start changing the trajectory.
Not with another extreme diet.
Not with some ridiculous 12-week transformation.
And not by pretending I'm suddenly going to become someone who doesn't enjoy a great meal.
Instead, I've started making changes to the things I can actually control: what I eat, how I move, how I train and the habits that make up my everyday life.
And something encouraging has already happened.
Within four months, under medical guidance, the blood-pressure medication dosage I need has been cut in half.
My goal is to eventually get off it altogether if my health and my doctor allow it.
But that's only part of the story.
The Next Challenge
Now comes something I've never really managed to achieve.
I want to shift the excess body fat.
For once and for all.
Not because I'm chasing a particular look.
I'm doing it because carrying unnecessary weight becomes a different proposition as you get older.
I want to give myself the best possible chance of better health.
I want freedom of movement.
I want less pain.
I want to be strong enough to keep doing the things I love.
I want to ride motorcycles, hike, travel, train, explore, get on and off the ground easily and say yes to adventures without wondering whether my body can handle them.
Most importantly, I don't want getting older to automatically mean becoming less capable.
This Isn't a Transformation Story
At least, not yet.
I'm at the beginning.
There will probably be weeks when the scales don't move. There'll be meals that aren't perfect, training sessions I miss and days when sitting on the couch sounds considerably better than exercising.
That's real life.
I'm not interested in spending the next few decades weighing every lettuce leaf or feeling guilty because I ate dessert.
Food is one of life's great pleasures, and I'm still going to enjoy it.
The challenge is learning how to enjoy those things while building a healthier body around them.
That's the experiment.
You're Coming With Me
This next part is something I'm going to share through Plenty Left.
The training.
The food.
The things that work.
The things that don't.
The frustrations, wins and inevitable mistakes along the way.
I'm not approaching this as a fitness influencer or someone pretending to have everything figured out.
I'm simply a 53-year-old bloke who has realised there is potentially a lot of life still ahead of him—and I'd like to be physically capable of enjoying as much of it as possible.
Because that's really what Plenty Left means to me.
Getting older isn't the end of the adventure.
But if I want to make the most of what's ahead, I need to look after the body that's going to take me there.
So that's the next challenge.
Lose the excess fat. Get stronger. Move better. Eat well. Stay adventurous.
And build a body that's ready for whatever comes next.
There's plenty left.
