Welcome to my Fellow Blogger and The First Challenge is always the hardest.

Well if you have not read my fellow bloggers blog then get off this one and go and read it. It is inspiring and emotional and awesome all at once. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Kim yet but I tell you what when I do there will be a massive Bretty Hug coming her way.  Reading that gives you the will to go on when times are tough. Being a fellow parent of 4 I can see what she is going through and I see it every day with my wonderful wife. You ladies need a medal for what you do and how you handle yourselves.

So in a nutshell Kim it is a pleasure to be blogging with you and look forward to meeting you and your family when we are all skinny again!!!

So really how do we follow something like that. I have the answer I can write the same crap I write each day with a bit of Bretty  humour (funny to me but not many others) or I can get all emotional on your arses. So I thought about it an well as I am changing not only the size of myself I am also changing who I am I would tell you a little story.

My Story -

It all started just before Christmas when I decided along with my lovely wife that it would be good to have some time off work and turn off the mobile phone and just spend some time with the family. As a lot of you are aware I work on average about 15 hours a day trying to make the best living that I can for my family and to be honest I try to do as little as possible but in reality I work my nuts off. Also I think I have a bit of ADD and cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes without thinking about business, doing business or talk to someone who one day we may do business with. So to stop for me is very very difficult.

So we decide that I am going to take 10 days off work and not do anything at all that involves working. Day 1  - I go and get my head shaved balled as I do each year to start the new year fresh, then go and start my holiday at home. After about an hour  the hands start shaking that the mobile is not on and that I may miss something. BUT I got through that I got through it and actually sat down with my kids and played games and had fun for more than 5 minutes. Don’t get me wrong I love playing with my kids but 5 minute intervals are usually me done and what is next. I sat there for a long period of time and then went swimming in the pool with them and we were having a ball. Sim was so excited that I was finally relaxing she started to take lots of photos of us all in the pool and we were having a ball.

So after an awesome day with my wife and kids and feeling a little bit relaxed we put the kids to bed and then sat down and had a look at the photos on the computer form the day’s events.  I looked at them and did not see any of me. I did see a piccy of a morbidly obese bald man in a tight blue rash vest and thought HOLY CRAP!!! What happened to the young fit bloke who loved sport, playing and watching and loved to spend time with mates and enjoy life. Where did this massive bald bloke with a seriously large gut and looking shocking come from. This hit me pretty hard and after Sim went to bed I sat up and had a good think about how this has to change or I will not be around for long to have these great days with my kids. I will not be able to play footy with the boys, watch the girls play sport or even be around to support Sim.

Well bloody hell I am not sure if anyone has had this realisation but it hits hard. It hits like a bloody truck. I sat on the lounge, Bacardi in hand and started to cry. I let go completely it was nearly the initial floods in QLD coming out of my head. I finally got to thinking about everything that has been my life for the past 5 years. How we made lots of money and lost lots of money, how we made some shocking business decisions how we got screwed over by everyone who we gave the opportunity to. I then thought about Donnie (my old man) and I came to the realisation that I have never got over his death. So I did something for the first time in years I actually thought about the old man and what happened and I actually dealt with it. It has taken 6 years to work out what was eating me up inside. Why I had been such a bastard to not only my friends and family but especially my wonderful wife. So what did I do I actually pulled out the laptop and started to Blog. I wrote and wrote and got it all out.

Well bloody hell at the end of getting it all out I felt better. The tears dried up. I woke up Sim and said you need to read this. She read it and the comments back were amazing. “I have been telling you this for years!! Yes you have been a prick, I nearly left you and you have not even been here for the kids. But this is amazing that you have actually dealt with it. Prove to me you are back to the man I fell in love with” so there you have it I actually listened to my wife. I actually heard what she was saying For the first time in a very very long time I WAS BACK!!!!

So since then I have been a different man. I am still a fat bastard (working on that one) but I am the old Brett again. My wife thinks I am funny (not really but we laugh and laugh together for the first time in years) I am spending time with the kids and enjoying life again. This rocks.

Now to get over the final issue of the fat balled bloke in the pool. Well the hair  is growing back and now this competition has given me the extra incentive to lose the beef. I am rocking and rolling this week and have not strayed. I am following a calorie controlled change in my eating habits that will enable me to get to my Goal weight prior to 1/5/2011. I love the fact that I can now be honest with myself and everyone about myself.

To those who over the past 6 years I have either been a prick to, not kept in contact with, and in effect not just been Brett then I apologise. To those that have known about my issues and supported me through them then You know you Rock and I love you all. To my wonderful Wife Sim you are the best and thanks for hanging about I will make it worth it I promise (I  really am funny just ask me I will tell you).

So I have come to the realisation as Kim said in her blog is that the head needs to get sorted prior to the gut. Fix one and you will fix the other. My head is fixed so bye bye guts!!

So enough about the mushy stuff. Here is todays poem.

There was a bloke named Brett

He lost 27.5kg’s in 89 days

Smashed up the competition and won the cash

I rock!!!

BIG LUV

Brettmeister

Howdy

Hey Fat Bastards!

By way of introduction I'm Kim, a friend of Linda and Robbie's from when we were at uni in Bathurst. Linda and I lived together in our third year of uni, exploring the vagaries of being food lovers while trying diets such as the ridiculous Body Shape diet by Sandra Cabot. I may never look at curried egg the same way ever again.

I am married to Chef, aka AB, aka Andrew and he's on the eternal weight loss challenge as well.

We have four boys - Oscar, Felix, Jasper and Grover. Yeah yeah I know, they're all Muppet names, or Sesame Street. Some of them also herald from a 60s sitcom or a cartoon about a cat. What of it?

So - toward the end of last year I joined with a group of people I followed on Twitter and was a part of the Boombah Club - the goal was to lose 8kgs by Christmas, which was 10 weeks away. I got close - about 6.5kgs.

But the biggest victory of all was that I started running. I did the Couch to 5km (C25K) program - 9 weeks of getting you off your lardy arse and able to run 5kms. The way it was structured - an App I could put on my  iPhone, load a soundtrack of my own music too, 3 runs a week - worked for me as much as the fact it was time bound. I am not the happiest runner - go read this post on my normal blog (allconsuming) to see just what goes on in my head when I run - and being able to tell myself, just another x weeks was incredibly useful.

But post Christmas I lost my focus, lost that end point to work towards. I was still running but not with the regularity (school holidays with four boys is rather challenging for exercise while being a licence to drink) and could see my weight loss stopping and the gaining starting. I needed a new focus.

I'm speaking at a blogging conference in March but even that was not enough to focus me. Then Linda mentioned the group and I was all PERFECT! Nothing beats doing this with a group and doing it in a timeframe.

While I would love to lose 10kgs in the 14 weeks I have been at this game long enough to know that is setting myself up for the fall. What I know I can achieve though is to be running 10kms by then. I am now doing the 'Bridge to 10k' program - a 6 weeks stint of shifting you from 5km runs to 10km ones. So that is my focus.

My five top tips at this point:

1. a bad moment or day is just that. DO NOT GIVE UP. 
2. it has to be realistic. Can you eat like this for the rest of your life? Sure, during initial weightloss we can banish or significantly limit certain foods and alcohol but can you really look at life without those things? Make it sustainable. The first step is learning to eat the row of chocolate not the block. 
3. get moving. I hate to say it but it's the truth. I see a psychiatrist every month for chronic depression, anxiety and mood disorder issues and well, from his expert mouth - running is more effective in the long term treatment of depression than any other. Even if you're not depressed or a nutbag like myself a 30 minute run releases enough serotonin to maintain your mood for 24-48 hours. 
4. listen to your body. Are you really hungry? Do you want those hot chips or that sausage roll or that beer or do you really want someone to give you a hug, tell you that crap day was indeed crappy, or just listen to you? Yes yes I know that sounds like hippy shit but stop, listen to your body - is your heart racing, are you bored, are you really angry, are you really tired, are you really sad, are you really really happy? Then BE THOSE THINGS. Back away from the pantry and shut the fridge. Oh, and have a big drink of water. Often we mistake thirst for hunger. Because we're stupid like that. 
5. give it 20 minutes. Nearly every human emotion has a 20 minute lifespan. You really do want those chips or that beer or that champagne? Fine, but you have to wait 20 minutes. If you reach that 20 minutes and still want it, go for it. But I can bet you forget about it long before that. 

God I'm so opinionated aren't I.

Onward!

Day 1 - Here we go

The first day of a weight loss campaign is always the hardest. With the

guts making funny noises to the pain in the back of the head from lack of

sugar it is all part of the fun of the change of life choices. Well that

is what it is, It is a change of life choice with the outcome being less

fat guts, less man cans and less chins. This is a good thing as less is

more so they say.

It makes you wonder if the last day before the campaign was a good idea –

Bacon and egg roll for Breaky, followed by Maccas for lunch and then

Damper and soup for dinner Then there was the birthday cake for Donnie and 

A long Neck with a few cokes and other lollies during the day. So probably

not my finest food moments or days for that fact but hey you have to

prepare yourself for a weigh in!!!

Well the weigh in has happened and as of 8:00pm AEDT I tipped the scales

at a disgusting 116.5kg’s. Yep that is the heaviest I have ever been. I

have set a goal weight of 89KG’s over the next 14 weeks so in total that

will be 27.5kgs. The end goal is about 85kg’s so will be over 30kg’s in

total.

I think that this will give me a total loss of 23.6% of my body weight.

Will this be enough to win and take home the prize. I look forward to the

weekend in Hawks Nest to get into the skinny clothes and have a great

laugh and maybe some lentils with friends.

The funny thing on the first day of a weight loss campaign (See how I do

not call it a diet as you always break diets) is all of the websites and

little applications you use to track and see how you are progressing. I

think this will all stop within the 48 hours and we will just get on with

chasing the two big prizes on offer in this campaign

1. Winning money of Upcrofts and Summers and friends

2. Changing your life for the better so that time with the kids is increased

My Mate Peachy

Today is a very happy day from the point of weight loss as we have started

and it is always hard to actually start this change in my life. But also a

very sad day in the fact a good mate of mine passed away last night. He

was an absolute champion bloke who was there for anyone anytime. I have

not spoken to him in about 6 months as he moved back to SA from London but

if I ever need a pick me up or just a laugh he was there on hand. He

worked for me for years as well and there was never a harder worker, nicer

bloke or absolute champion of a man to walk this planet. It makes you ask

the question why do we lose the good guys when there are so many wankers

still walking around upsetting people. Ryan Peach was tragically killed at

the age of 32 after being in a motorcycle accident in South Africa on

Sunday 30/1/2011 RIP mate you will be remembered by all of us blokes. I

will have a Delicious for you tonight mate.

There will be no poem today out of respect for Peachy.

Until tomorrow

Big Luv

The Brettmeister (AKA Mr Svelt)

The Start of something Big

Once upon a time there was a group of people that had known each other for a very long time. During this time there was a lot of laughs, tears, love and great times. But then one day it came the realisation of a number of them that they had let the good times roll a little bit to much.

For a bunch of people that grew up by the beach and played sport every week we certainly have let ourselves go. So the fat bastards all got together and decided to lose a heap of beef. Not only lose the beef for a better life but to actually win cash. Yep cold hard cash.

So all I can say is bring it on bitches.

Todays poem is about my mate Fat Bob!!
(Please note that it is a remake of an old Tooheys County Special Advert)

His Name was Robbie Upcroft
But everyone called him Bob
He was a legend in the weighing shed
Some say he could never be outdone
But there is a young bloke form up in QLD
had joined the shed this day
Rumoured he had a big gut
and he had a lot to say

They started fairly even
But Bob soon forged ahead
He was shedding like a demon
But young Bretty had him pegged

As the hours flew
The weight less grew
The wives were really grinning
as long as the fat bastards lost the weight
they didn't care who was winning

The score was dead set even with 1 day left to fear
When bob layed down his scales and said
Mate let me buy you a beer

The fat controller was spewing
The shed let out a cheer
"Who is going to do this last damn weigh in"
"You are they said were having a beer!!"

Good luck big man you will need it!!!

Big Luv

Brettmeister