I’m very passionate about wellbeing, not just my own, but the wellbeing of others. I would love to increase the impact I have on improving quality of life for myself and others in some way, shape or form. So, starting off small, I’ve decided to set myself a goal of weighing 75kg and getting to 10% body fat by 31st Jan 2016. Outside of the aesthetics and feel good factors my focus is on habituating a much healthier lifestyle, both physically and mentally. Ultimately, like most of you I want to maximise my longevity and quality of life, but up until recently, haven’t given too much thought or dedication to how I can do that.

By ‘health’ I allude, not only to nutrition and exercise, but also sleep, hydration, and mental wellbeing, all of which contribute to the way we feel, which subsequently affects the decisions we make and actions we take.

Outside of achieving a personal goal I am striving to achieve a few other things:

1.    Raise awareness of some of the key factors contributing to society becoming increasingly overweight and obese in the UK.

2.    Raise money for HENRY (Health, Exercise, and Nutrition for the Really Young), a charity focused on providing babies and children with a healthy start in life. The focus is on helping the whole family to make positive changes to their lifestyle, thus building healthier communities.

3.    Produce a report detailing the intricacies of what I did to help me achieve my goal, including the research, and motivational / self-development content that I used. I hope that this can be used as a blueprint of sorts to be utilised by others. In this report I’ll include some of the astounding facts and figures surrounding the health of our nation.

 To help me achieve my goal I am doing the following:

•    Tracking all nutrition intake daily – both calories and macro / micro   nutrients

•    Tracking my workouts and progress

•    Journaling my sleep each night

•    Journaling hydration daily

•    Journaling energy levels daily

•    Journaling any other thoughts and feelings in relation to my goal each day

•    Continuous research around mental and physical wellbeing in lots of different areas

•    Setting weekly goals as milestones throughout my journey

•    Having weekly coaching sessions to keep me focused on my goal – this is key and often overlooked in goal setting

The following provides a very small insight into one problem UK society is facing:

•    In 2013 67.1 per cent (approx. 14 million) of men aged 15-64 and 57.2 per cent (approx. 12 million) of women aged 15-64 in the UK were overweight including obese. Overweight and obesity in adults is expected to reach 70% by 2034.

•    Being overweight or Obese increases individuals’ risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, a stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, obesity hyperventilation syndrome, reproductive problems, and gallstones.

•    Obesity alone costs the NHS £5.1bn per year.

•    The indirect costs of obesity are £27bn per year – these are those costs arising from the impact of obesity on the wider economy, such as loss of productivity.

Currently I weigh 80.5kg, and my body fat percentage is 14.1%. This gives me 3 months to achieve my goal. I’m sure that I could achieve the weight loss in a much shorter amount of time through some fad diet, but to reiterate, I am looking to habituate a healthy lifestyle so what I’m doing needs to be sustainable and healthy.

Between now and 31st Jan 2016, I will not be drinking any alcohol. If I do, I commit myself to double the donation amount on 31st Jan 2016.

If you could please sponsor me by donating to HENRY I’d be most appreciative. This charity could help in providing the next generation a much improved quality of life…