Not my best angle

I was always fairly active, cycling, hiking, swimming, weight lifting, playing squash etc., but my diet up to very recently was atrocious.  I’d eat a sausage roll for breakfast, taco fries mid week during the day, big doughy chicken rolls with garlic sauce, pretty much anything to feed the cravings.  During the day I’d eat that sort of crap and then I’d have a big dinner when I got home and I’d munch away on crap during the evening, washing it down with fizzy drinks.  When I look back at my 4000+ calorie a day diet it makes me feel ill thinking about it, and however fat I got, it would have been a hell of a lot worse has I not being doing some sort of fitness work.  I guess food is an addiction like any other and the more sugary things you eat the more you crave and the cycle continues ever worsening. I think I was at my worst at close to 18 stone (115kg) in the pic above.

When I had abs.

The thing is, as a kid I was pretty fit, especially in my teenage years, I was a pretty good swimmer in school being a silver medal winner at the school gala breast stroke finals in 6th standard.  In secondary school I really got into the cycling and did very well for Waterford Cycling Club winning a rake of trophies at a time when there could be upwards of 100 cyclicsts in any given race.  I had a few bike accidents then so I started doing Tae kwondo with Keith Barry (yes the mad fishing magician from Waterford, who married my sister subsequently).  I got up through the grades quickly to black tip (one grade before black belt) and won a senior national championship in this sport in 1994. To support the tae kwondo I did quite a bit of weight training at the time and got in very good shape at a time I didn’t really even know what a carb was. In the pic above I was about 12 stone (76kg).

The downwards spiral happened in college, I started smoking, drinking having fun and by the time I was 25 I had pretty much stopped all sports, got my 9-5 desk job and settled in as a married man and begun my family life.  I packed on the pounds steadily over a 10 year period.  The odd diet, the odd bit of training here and there, but nothing to the level I was at as a youngster and my diet was certainly a lot worse.  I did give up the smoking successfully after our first child was born which gave me some chance I guess. However, I thought my life as a fit person was simply over, I was getting pains in my feet, chest, feeling horrible a lot, not so clear thinking, and I was on a fairly grim path.

My wife Nicola and I at Machu Pichu

About 2-3 years ago my wife came up with the idea of doing the Inca trail challenge and I immediately agreed as it is a place I had always wanted to visit.  So we took on a once in a lifetime challenge, in aid of the Red Cross, to visit Peru and take on the Inca trail and visit Machu Picchu.  I bought a set of hiking boots and began hiking up the comeraghs in Waterford.  I was pretty crap at first but after a few months I really began seeing improvements and got to a point where I could climb up to about 2000ft in 30 mins without stopping. I lost a good bit of weight and gained a lot of fitness but it was seriously tough. I completed the high altitude trek and felt good about myself again.

I started thinking about other forms of training, getting the bike back out, working on muscles, getting flexible and gave myself the challenge of cycling to coumshingaun (40 mile round trip), doing the hike up to the lake and swimming the lake (800m) and not too long after the challenge in Peru I achieved that personal goal with a good friend of mine Kieran O’Sullivan.  After that day I felt anything was possible.

Toys for big boys at Tactical Fitness SC

Kieran suggested that I go to Tactical Fitness SC in Tramore to do the caveman training circuits and I said I’d give it ago.  That’s when I met Gan the man, The Ganster, Gansai, Gandalf otherwise known as Ian Power.  He took one look at me after that first caveman class and said to himself “I won’t see him back here again!” (he told me this today).  I started doing the Saturday morning Strenght and conditioning class and was sore for days after each session but I kept at it, eventually adding in a second day and then a third day.  The body started responding and I started taking supplements such as protein, and vitamin d3 and omegas and started looking at my diet.  I spent a year at this and it transformed me to a large degree, the pains in my feet and chest went away and I began feeling strong, but I still didn’t make the real breakthrough until November of last year.

In November, Gan asked me to give the Kettlebell Sports Training a try so I entered the Connacht kettlebell championship competition, more for the fun of it than anything else, and did some serious training over 6 weeks for a competition in Galway.  I entered the 95+ KG category lifting 2x16kg bells and competed and won against 2 other competitors.  I weighed in at just shy of 100kg on the day (still no lightweight).

Immediately after Christmas Gan encouraged me (I had no choice in the matter) to pick up the 24kg bells with the aim of completing a 10 min competition in Tramore in February, the AIKLF National Championships. In January I could only lift the bells for 2 mins before calving so it was a big ask.  I also had to get the weight down to under 95kg for the competition and managed to do it just before the competition and weighed in at 93.5kg for the weigh in.  I completed 43 reps and had to drop the bells at 8 mins but it proved a lot to me.  My performance got me a place on the Irish team for the upcoming European Kettlebell Lifting championships being held in Wexford so I have been training hard since Tramore to get the reps and time up. Only last Saturday I managed to complete the 10 mins getting in 61 reps, which is a massive personal achievement and hopefully I can improve upon that performance in the championships.

I managed to get through Tayto Park without eating a single carb!

I’ve changed my diet too now and have gone completely Paleo (meat, nuts, berries, veggies, and no carbs) for the past 2 weeks and counting and the weight is now down to about 14.5 stone (92kg) and continuing to drop, I hope to hit my target of 14st (89kg) by the championships, which should leave very little body fat left.  It’s been a long and tough journey to this point but unbelievably rewarding.

In conclusion, the main point of his post is really to give huge credit to Gan Power from Tactical Fitness in Tramore and my training ‘butty’ Kieran O’Sullivan for their encouragement and support.  Thanks to the Kettlebell Club in Tramore, Waterford I’m back competing at a very high level in a new sport that I enjoy and I’m continuing to improve at on a weekly basis.    I couldn’t recommend the club and sport more highly and if anyone out there is consider changing their lifestyle please just get up and give it a go today. Don’t waste anymore time thinking about it.

It’s never too late…

Ps Nicola, thank you for being so supportive and patient with me over the past few years.

Me up at Coumshingaun Lake

This is a change from my usual posts here, but I just wanted to share what it means to me to be from and live in Waterford.

I have had several opportunities to leave Waterford for greener pastures on the work scene, but I would rather work for a fraction of the salary I could get in Dublin, London or further afield to stay and raise my family here.

So why do I choose to live here?  Is it because I am from Waterford?  I’m sure that’s part of it, but the main reasons are as follows:

• The Area: I love the area, I’m a few miles from Tramore beach where I can have a coffee looking out at the waves in the T-Bay surf club, or to Dooleys for a Cod and Chip and then a drive up to the Guillemenes to check out the view over the bay.  I’m 15 mins from the mountains and Coumshingaun, the most beautiful corrie lake you are likely to see in a lifetime. There’s forest walks, rivers, mountains, lakes, fantastic copper coastline and so much more to do and see in the area.
• Towns and Cities: I’m close to the City and not far from Dungarvan, which both have everything I need from shopping point of view or if I need to go to the flicks or whatever.  And within driving distance to fantastic towns such as Dunmore East, Ardmore, Lismore, Stradbally to name just a few, each unique and beautiful.
• Food: There are some absolutely fantastic places to eat, both cheap and cheerful and for that special occasion.  For all tastes.  The farmers market on the quay, the bar food at Geoffs, Surf and Turf at the Spinnaker in Dunmore East.  If you like Thai, there’s Sabai on the Mall, for Indian, there’s Cafe Goa, for French, la Bohemme and l’Atmosphere, for Italian there’s a number of choices in the city.  You can also get traditional Irish food and Carvery in many of the hotels and the Holy Cross on the Cork road.  Then of course, there’s the Blaa and Rasher, both invented in Waterford, a hearty Deise breakfast   If you like fast food, there’s plenty to choose from e.g. Gino’s the best pizza you’ll get anywhere (get the special and their hazelnut ice cream is to die for), then there’s chippers where you can get a Waterford Scallop (just don’t eat too many or you’ll turn into a fat puddin).
• Great Place for Families:  I have two children and it’s a great place for them to grow up.  It’s safe, they people are friendly and have good morals, and there’s loads of community groups and clubs such as Scouts, Stage Schools, Sports Gyms and so on. The schools are well run and trouble free. There’s also loads of places to bring kids on picnics and to explore like ‘The Mossy Woods’, Ballyscanlon, Newtown Cove, and there’s loads of brilliant playgrounds around like Fenor in particular, Kilmeaden, Ballybeg etc. and there are fantastic skate parks in Tramore and The People’s Park.
• Sport & Activities: Waterford has a great sporting tradition with Soccer and GAA and we love our teams.  We haven’t had huge success lately but we battle on for the county colours.  Other than that people love keeping fit here, there’s great running clubs, cycling clubs, surfing, kettlebells, taekwondo, MMA, Tag Rugby, Boxing and so on.  Something to cater for all tastes.
• History & Culture:  We are a very proud culture, we love our history, our language our art.  There are 3 museums in the city in the Viking Triangle which has 1000 years of history in 1000 steps. Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland and will celebrate it’s 1100th Birthday in 2014.  We have had some very famous children too such as Luke Wadding, who set up St. Patrick’s day as a festival, Thomas Francis Meagher, who came up with the tricolour flag, Edmund Rice (from Kilkenny) set up Mount Sion School here and started the Christian Brothers.  The Theatre Royal is the main theatre in the city, and there’s Garter lane, which cater’s for a wide range of art.
• Language: We have our own slang here, I’ve written the book on it ‘The Deise Dictionary of Waterford Slang’ and we have bizarre names for things e.g A snail is a shellakybooky, a catapult is a gallybander… If you’re the tough sort and are looking for a drink in a bar order a Large Bottle off the Shelf.  That’s how real men drink Guinness!
• Bars: Some good ones have been lost due to the recession, but we still have loads of great pubs including old pubs like Downses and T&Hs, then there’s the trendy Geoffs Bar and the Kazbar which leads you into the Nightclub area.
• Festivals: We have festivals all year round such as The 1848 Tricolour Celebration, Spraoi, Harvest Festival, Winterval and many others. There’s the Dungarvan Food Festival and the Lismore Book Festival also to name but a few.
• Community: Waterford has a fantastic supportive business community, we all take an interest in each other and recognise the fact that supporting your own means supporing yourself as the money stays within the local economy.  There’s a great community on facebook and it’s very supportive and welcoming. Without this community I would not be able to make a living here and for that I’m really appreciative.

In conclusion, Waterford is a great place to work, live and play, and the ideal place to raise a family.  If you’re from Waterford you already know all of this, if you’re not, why not come visit us. If you are looking for stuff to do give me a shout and I’ll be delighted to help you out.