Brad Brown

My name is Brad and I’m addicted to food. There I said it. Does food addiction have a name? It must have a name. I can’t be the only person who suffers from this addiction.

That’s number one of the seven things I plan on getting a handle on in 2012. Call it what you want to call it but the truth of the matter is food has ruled my life for way too long and it has to change. If you have been following my journey you’ll know that has been an issue I’ve been battling with for a long time my whole life. It is time to draw a line in the sand and get better. The problem is unlike drug addiction or alcoholism as there is no rehab (that I know of) for food addiction.  I’m going to have to play this by ear as I go along.

Yikes!!!

One thing I have learnt by getting down from 165kgs to 110kgs in the last two and a bit years is that diets don’t work. Sorry to burst your bubble. If you are looking for a quick fix you’ve come to the wrong place. It didn’t take me a few weeks to put the weight on so I can’t expect it to fall off in a few weeks (unless I amputated a limb or two). It’s a process, a change in lifestyle and that is what beating this addiction is about for me.

It’s time to call a spade a spade. I managed to get down to 110kgs for Ironman 2011 by literally training my backside off. 2 sessions a day, 6 days a week. Swim. Bike. Run. Swim. Bike. Run. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. When you are training that hard you can almost eat what you want and you’ll lose weight but the problem is as soon as you slow down or stop you will just put weight back on. You I need to address the food issue. Ironman was on 10 April 2011, Comrades was on 29 May 2011. I was still running quite a bit in that 6 week period. I ran an ultra marathon (48km) and a standard marathon (42km) in that time. I wasn’t swimming and cycling though and I managed to put on 10kgs. My Comrades 2011 starting weight was 120kgs. I took a bit of a break from training after Comrades but not an out and out hiatus. I was still putting in the odd session. By August 2011 I was back up to 128kgs just because I was eating like I was training for ironman but without the training.

I put on 18kgs from April to August. In case you were wondering, that’s not good. That is why I need to take control and firstly admit I have an addiction and secondly to get it under control.

Here is the deal. One of the reasons I want to do the Seven Things is because I need to be accountable. As I go through the other six you’ll see what the plan is and how they all fit together. This is what the plan is for number one of the seven:

I need to get down to 90kgs for a few reasons. According to my BMI my ideal weight range is between 80 and 98kgs. I have a funny feeling 80kgs might be a bit low but 90kgs sounds good and I’ll never know until I get there. Secondly I have never, in my entire life, felt thin. I want to feel what that feels like. For as long as I can remember I have had a bad body image. Thirdly I want to know athletically what I’m capable of racing at 90kgs. More on that one later though.

This is how I’m going to get down to 90kgs in 2012. Accountability is the key. I am going to keep a food journal for the duration of 2012. Every morsel of food or drink that goes into my mouth will be written down. Every morsel. OCD much? Absolutely. You don’t get to weigh 165kgs without being obsessive. By keeping a food journal it will help me see where I am going wrong (and right) on this journey.

I am also declaring now that for 2012 I will not buy ANY fast food. No McDonalds. No KFC. No Debonairs. No junk. Period. This is going to be really hard to do. Especially pizza. Especially pizza after Ironman and Comrades. I might need to reconsider this on the 22nd April and the 3rd of June but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

The next thing I need to do am going to do in 2012 is to radically change my eating lifestyle. By that I mean I need to re-educate myself with regards to healthy food choices, food preparation and in my case the correct portion sizes. I know Low GI is the way to go. I am dedicating myself to learning as much as I can in 2012 about the Low GI way of eating. I will learn at least one new Low GI recipe a week for the duration of 2012 and share them on here.

Part of the accountability will also include a once a week weigh in and measure (which I’ll post the results on here). Nothing quite like putting it out there that I’m on a mission to turn things around.

If you missed where the Seven Things idea came from you can read the origins of it here. I would love you to join me on this journey. I don’t know what your Seven Things are but if you don’t aim for anything that is exactly what you’ll get. Feel free to add your thoughts and your Seven Things in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you. 2012 is the year to turn things around.

I got sent this list from Carol Willis, who has also lost a ton of weight and thought I would share it with you. I made a few changes, took a few things out and added my five cents worth where I could. It has been a crazy journey for me but one that has been extremely rewarding. Since July 2009 I’ve lost 50 kilograms. Here are 25 steps to losing that much weight:

1. The first and most important thing you need to get going is a reason to lose weight. You need a light bulb or “aha” moment – this can’t be engineered sadly, but if you are honest with yourself you’ll recognise it when it arrives. For me it was meeting someone who had overcome some great challenges and that inspired me to get moving.

2. Do the math – you need to know your numbers: weight, BMI, BMR, waist-to-height ratio, hip-to-waist ratio and a variety of measurements. Take as many as you can. There are some measurements I didn’t take but wish I had. My ring finger has become a lot smaller. Odd, I know, but my wedding band was fairly tight for me before I started my journey. I cant wear it now, it’s so big for me now it slides on and off without touching my finger! You need to know what all these measurements mean and how they affect your health; this is a great place to start.

3. Forget the math – the next and probably most important step, is to not obsess about those numbers. Know them, be aware of them, but don’t be ruled by them. Sometimes this is easier said than done but it is important not to get caught up in the numbers. Read more…

I spent a bit of time in Cresta shopping centre this weekend. I love people watching and I spent a bit of time watching the folks doing their month end shopping on Sunday. Something struck me that I haven’t really noticed before. I can’t get over how many overweight people there are around (excuse the pun). I’m not sure if it is a sudden phenomenon or if it is just that I’m only noticing it now.
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A lot of people have been asking for before and after photos form my weight loss efforts for the last year.  To be dead honest I’ve been quite hesitant to post these photo’s because I still want to lose another 3o kilograms. So, below are the before photo’s and a halfway to my goal photo. The first two were taken last June, around the time when I decided to run Comrades. I was 165kg’s and I’m sure you can understand why sports physician was not to keen on me giving Comrades a bash. The last photo was taken last on Thursday the 10^th of June in Soweto for the Fifa 2010 Kick Off Concert. It was taken exactly a year, to the day, after the picture at the Confederations Cup warm up game.
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I have been a bit slack over the last two weeks as far as updating the progress of my training and also on the status of injury I have picked up. At least my training hasn’t been as slack as my updates! After seeing Dr Jon Patricios at the Morningside Sports Clinic the diagnosis was made that I have Read more…