Why I wanted to stop being the 'big fella'

A simple change of thinking led to dozens of kilograms of weight loss, writes 9news.com.au Producer Sean Thompson: 

All my adult life, I've been known to family and friends as "the big fella".

It's a term I happily accepted for many years, wearing it as a badge of honour when it came to being the biggest personality in the room.

From the time I first picked up a beer, I've taken pride in being the life of the party.

But combine that with starting full-time work and plenty of bad food choices, and the kilos start stacking up pretty quickly.

I could't tell you how much I weighed at my heaviest, but in my early 20s it would have been well over 140kg.

It never bothered me too much, and in a strange way I thought I wore it pretty well. I loved a beer and a feed, and enjoyed plenty of them after work hours.

But as I moved towards my late 20s, I started to realise that maybe being "the big fella" was no longer for me.

The simple act of moving around was getting more difficult, I constantly felt tired, and there was the sinking feeling that I was putting my body through cruel and unnecessary punishment.

So in 2016, I began going to the gym a couple of times a week in an attempt to lose weight. But nothing seemed to be working.

Then, this time last year, I decided to make a concerted effort to shed weight, and until now I've dropped more than 30kg.

From about 135kg in February last year, I've trimmed down to a much more respectable 103kg, which fluctuates a few kilos either way depending on the day.

Now some of you will say, "well, technically you're still overweight"; but this story isn't for you.

When people talk about their "weight loss journey", they go on this incredible spiel about how they worked so hard and gave up so much in their quest for better health.

It's those kind of messages that can make weight loss seem daunting, and put people off making a change.

What I want to say to people out there hoping to shed a few pounds as part of their New Year's resolutions is to keep going, because it's not as difficult as others make it out to be.

The key to my weight loss was simple: think about what you eat, and what you're going to do with that energy.

Think of yourself like a machine - you need fuel to drive the engine, but too much makes the tank spill over. The same goes for food.

Eat too much and don't work it off, and the kilos will start to pile on.

Changing the way I think about food has been enlightening, because it accounts for most of what I've been able to achieve.

I've focused on keeping complex carbohydrates like white bread to an absolute minimum, eaten vegetables with almost every meal, and controlled my portion size.

Combine that with four to five trips to the gym a week, focusing on weights and cardio, and I've turned my life around.

Now I still enjoy a beer, I just don't have as many as I used to. And my weekly cheat meal is just as important as the healthy eating I do every other day.

Along with wanting to ditch the "big fella" tag, I also wanted to give my wife Rachel and I the best shot at becoming parents.

Thankfully, all that hard work and getting my body into shape has resulted in a baby boy due July this year.

I'm certainly not a health expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But I'm proof that with some lifestyle changes and a new way of looking at food, any regular bloke like myself can make a change.