A New Life at 30.

My journey started in 2017 when I got sick and went to see the doctor. I had a common cold but the doctor wanted to do some routine blood tests and health checks while I was there. The blood tests came back with alarming results. I was diagnosed with hypertension, pre-diabetes, hyperuricemia, and high cholesterol. I was a 22 year old university student with mental health issues and an addictive personality, trying to self medicate with excessive amounts of fast food and various substances. I had created so many bad habits that, at the time, it seemed impossible to change, hence not making any changes until the beginning of 2018. 

One morning, at the start of 2018, I stared at the handful of medication I had to take just to keep my body functioning when I made the decision to change everything. I made the decision at that moment that I cannot continue living like this, I cannot continue relying on medication just to keep myself alive. The first step was moving. I needed to start moving my body and this came in the form of gym training. I had had a gym membership for years and just formed one of those statistics of people who charitably supported the gym without actually using it. 

On the 12th of February 2018 I went to the gym for the first time. It was one of the toughest experiences of my life. I was by far, the biggest person in the gym. I looked so out of place amongst all these fit and healthy people, to the point where it felt like I was the centre of attention, a kind of circus act that just walked into the gym. I’ll never forget walking on the treadmill for a warm-up. I walked at 6 km/h for 10 minutes and remember feeling like it was a marathon. Within those 10 minutes, my shirt was soaked in sweat and I was already feeling exhausted which made me even more self-conscious.

Luckily I had a gym partner in my dad who kept me coming to the gym every day for the next few months despite my low confidence and lack of fitness. I trained consistently during that year and made changes to my diet where I limited fast food and started packing lunches for work. This set the foundation for the next 6 years of self discovery and improvement.

During this time, the weight seemed to drop off rapidly, I dropped 10’s of kilograms within months implementing these simple changes. At the start of 2019 I was feeling far more confident and fit so I decided to join the local rugby club. Here I shed even more weight to the point where I finally broke the 100 kg mark. A mark, I thought, I would never reach. Over the next 2 years, there were many outside influences like covid and movement restrictions that impacted my progress. I kind of yo-yoed up and down in weight and physical development, not making much progress but maintaining my promise to never go back to what I was before.

At the start of 2021 I had made some life changing decisions which all led me back on to the path of self development and growth. I was back in the gym consistently and had set a clear goal for myself. I wanted to shed my remaining fat and rid myself of my love handles. I was given a strict eating and training plan which became my routine for the next few years. This is where I started the famous chicken and broccoli meal prep.

At the start of 2021 I had 21% body fat and by June of that same year, I had dropped to 9.6% body fat. I was training every day at a pace that had people at the gym staring. I was again high on confidence and feeling fit, the only issue was that I had a lot of excess skin and the love handles just weren’t going away. Despite my low body fat percentage, I continued with the same diet and training regime. A major milestone for me was another check up at the doctor. I had to do some blood tests again to get my prescription for all the medication I had been prescribed when I was overweight. This time however, the results were far more positive. The doctor explained that, through my change in lifestyle, I had rid myself of the pre-diabetes, hyperuricemia, and high cholesterol. The hypertension however was still there. The doctor explained that the hypertension would most likely never go away due to the fact that it is hereditary and that I was diagnosed at such a young age.

The second half of 2021 was eventful and productive. During this time I got a job in Sweden, I was planning my immigration as well as trying to get into the best possible shape before I left SA in December. My training had gone from strength to strength but my eating habits became toxic. I would eat such a low calorie diet during the week that I would binge uncontrollably on weekends. I had created an extremely negative relationship with food. I would eat perfectly according to my meal plan during the week and then binge eat on the weekend trying to consume as much food as possible on weekends. My weekend binge was always high protein based but certain high calorie foods made their way into my eating habit as time passed. I started eating a lot of candy, potato crisps, cookies and chocolate. I would weigh between 92 and 94 kg on Thursdays and then weigh in at 98 – 100 kg on Monday evening. 

On the 3rd of December 2021 I moved to Sweden. I had finally achieved my dream of moving to a new country with the opportunity to travel the world. Over the next two years I visited 19 different countries. I fulfilled many ‘bucket list’ items like visiting Ireland and seeing every major city. I went to watch the Springboks play against France in Marseille and against Ireland in Dublin. I visited Amsterdam and saw Van Pletzen live. I travelled through Europe on a summer vacation for a whole month. I went to Paris to watch the Rugby World Cup Final between SA and NZ. I am forever grateful for the opportunity that living in Sweden has provided me.

During these two years, I trained consistently, always making sure that I was in good shape before each of my trips. Unfortunately, the negative relationship with food followed me to Sweden and was ever present during this time. I was eating perfectly when working but on weekends and holidays I was back to bingeing on both food and alcohol, the cycle was endless and felt unbreakable. I was always chasing the perfect body but I was ultimately my own worst enemy. Each time I started a new week or got back from a trip, I was starting at zero. I had let go to such an extent that I would lose all progress and on some longer trips, I would even regress. 

Towards the end of 2022 I was enlightened to some new but strange wellness practices as well as a different way of thinking. The first thing was cold showers and cold exposure. I started taking cold showers every morning and ice dips once a week. I was also exposed to fasting, first completing a 24 hour fast and then a 72 hour fast. I then tried intermittent fasting which has become an integral part of my eating regime. 

This all led to me doing more research and questioning everything that I was doing and had done. The more I researched the more I understood what was happening to my body as a result of my training, positive and negative eating habits as well as these new wellness practices. Despite all my learnings and life changing experiences it was only towards the end of 2023 that I finally decided to work on myself holistically. This came after a major milestone in my life, again a visit to the doctor. This time, I had to renew my prescription for my hypertension medication but I needed to do blood tests as my South African diagnosis was not recognised in Sweden. I met with the Swedish doctor to review my results but to my surprise he told me that I no longer had any symptoms of hypertension. I told him my story and after some discussion he came to the conclusion that, through my series of lifestyle changes, I had escaped the grasp of hypertension. He sent me for a second round of testing to make sure that it was no fluke and the second round of tests actually came back better than the first. I cannot explain in words the excitement and relief I felt in that moment. It meant that I no longer needed any medication. That’s when I realised that I needed to change, I needed to fix my relationship with food, I needed to overcome my psychological and emotional baggage and I needed to do this before I turned 30. I owed this to myself.

This is when I started Project 30. Project 30 was my personal development project, an opportunity for me to leave all my negative baggage behind and start my life after 30 with a healthy body, mind and spirit. Part of my desire for self improvement was to start a business to help other people achieve their fitness and aesthetic goals.

2024 started with a sprint. I cut out all processed foods, added sugars and alcohol. Over the next 5 months, I had meals planned from Monday to Sunday to cut out any guessing on weekends. Huge emphasis was placed on fixing my negative relationship with food. I trained 7 days a week, consistently training harder each week. I bought books, started reading and researching anything that interested me. My main focus was fitness, nutrition and motivation as I wanted to learn as much as possible before starting my business. I made massive strides in my fitness, nutrition and business aspirations, achieving new heights in all these aspects. I’ve had to make many sacrifices but the personal growth has reaped so many rewards.

Over the past 7 years I have grown exponentially and transcended my previous self. I find myself a far more fulfilled person, not just concerned by the way that I look but how I think, interact and live. I finally feel that I have found my purpose, my lighthouse, which is to help others find Infinite Fulfilment. I realised that perfection doesn’t exist but we can continuously improve. My focus each day is to be better than I was yesterday.