As the year winds to a close, our MAN v FAT community are getting set for their festive break and, for many of our guys, it has been a year of personal success on the programme.
Simon Holmes, who plays in our Swindon club, recently hit his 30% weight loss achievement and admits he’s feeling all the better for it!
We caught up with him to find out why MAN v FAT has worked so well for him.
Why did you take the leap to join MAN v FAT?
Around Christmas last year, I had started having to buy XXXL clothing and generally not feeling great about my body/health and ability to be mobile, and keep up with my own children at home or when teaching/running sports clubs at school.
I’d seen a friend of mine has joined MAN v FAT Gloucester and a few ads had popped up on social media so thought I’d see if it would help me out. I’d always played sport growing up and continued doing so until my early 30s but then life and injuries made it harder, so I hadn’t done much consistently for 5+ years.
What do you most enjoy about MAN v FAT Football?
What I have most enjoyed is meeting a great bunch of people on a similar journey, who made it instantly welcoming and in a relaxed atmosphere. It’s been great to see/hear other people’s experiences and gave me the motivation to think that I could succeed too.
The competitive nature of earning goals for losing weight appealed to my competitive streak and added to motivation to succeed knowing while I may not contribute many goals on pitch, I could help with the weight loss, tracking bonuses.
Has MAN v FAT helped make a positive change in your lifestyle? If yes, how?
Completely – I’m now at the lightest weight I’ve been since sixth form and am definitely the fittest I have been for as long as I can remember. MAN v FAT kick started that journey and I’ve since pushed myself to be more active as I’ve lost weight and become fitter.
The weight loss has made a big difference to my historic knee troubles that I’d suffered with as I built up slowly to being able to do more and was doing things far more consistently.
Meeting new people, playing regularly (including some additional midweek games and occasional 11 a-side matches) and being part of a team/group of people experiencing the same things has definitely had a positive impact on my mental health too.
Want to follow Simon’s lead?
You can join Simon at MAN v FAT Swindon by signing up at the club homepage!
