BodyBlitz Challenge Measurements Before Height: 174 cm Weight: 103 kg Chest: 116 cm Waist: 105 cm Calves: 43 cm Arms: 36.5 cm Thighs: 62 cm After Height: 174 cm Weight: 94 kg Chest: 106 cm Waist: 88 cm Calves: 39 cm Arms: 33 cm Thighs: 59 cm

At the end of 1999 I was awarded South Australian Martial Artist of the Year, with it even being covered in Blitz Magazine. Ten years later I stopped training, became a heavy smoker and was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic, drinking most nights of the week. Over the year I had put on close to 30 kg above my fight weight and a doctor told me if I didn’t sort it out now, I would be in big trouble very soon.

The first thing that was the biggest issue was the smoking. I had become a pack-a-day smoker after spending the last three years travelling around Europe. Coming back to Australia where smoking is a ‘filthy habit’, I had forgotten how bad it really is for me. My grandfather passed away from lung cancer and the price of smokes went up again. I looked at myself in the mirror one messy hangover day and went, “How did this happen?” First things first: I had give up smoking. I knew that my current lifestyle would not support this change so everything had to change!

So I gave up the smokes the same week I bought a mountain bike. Every time I felt like a smoke I went for a ride and reminded myself how unfit I had become. Then I started going for rides with my girlfriend in the You Yangs and other great MTB spots around Victoria. Then my girlfriend said to come with her to Bikram Yoga. At first I thought, “No, yoga is for girls!” But after my first class I was determined to become good at it, as it requires the same mental discipline as martial arts — the routine of perfecting the same series of the same moves every day over and over again. I went from sitting down at the back of the class for 90 mins to now being in the front row every class and no time for sitting down.

Next was fitness and getting stronger, but something was missing. I really wanted to get back into martial arts, but after being involved in it since I was six years old all the way through to my early 20s, I wanted something less formal than karate. So I joined a local boxing gym and started hitting the boxing most mornings before work. I didn’t want the structure and politics that comes with most martial arts; let me just hit a bag for an hour and I will be happy.

At this point I had started to lose a lot of weight already, and the giving up smoking thing was behind me – losing weight was the new big issue! I want to be back at fight weight!

So I started running and riding my bike to work most days. Then I started thinking about doing triathlons, not like Ironman, just sprint series races. I thought that would be a good idea; it would keep me on track if I knew I had a race event coming up. So I signed up for a few 5 km-run events. I now have the Melbourne marathon 10 km in October coming up and in November I have a 50 km MTB challenge. Then the sprint triathlon season starts. So now I am training for this. I am now swimming two-to-three nights a week, one of them with a professional swim coach to help me with my technique and push me.

So, 12 weeks on? Still not smoking. Have stopped drinking. I actually lost 5 kgs before signing onto this challenge. So I have lost 15 kgs in total now. Next week I am signing up for this again and doing another 12 weeks! Watch out summer, here I come — and the shirt’s off this time! IM