Motivational Case Studies
Simon Dickie
Related tags: Weight Loss
Date Added: Fri, 15 Apr 2011
September 2004
At the end of March 2004, Simon Dickie tipped the scales at 18 stones 8 pounds. A desktop job and years of junk food and erratic eating patterns had all combined to make him nearly five stone over his fighting weight.
With his wedding coming up in August, Simon was determined to lose weight and, as a former national standard rower, it was only natural for him to turn to the rowing machine for some help.
"My original aim was to get healthy and to lose weight for my wedding. I wasn't interested in crash diets or anything faddish. Instead I had what I hoped to be a realistic timeframe of four months to lose a minimum of three stone for my wedding and then try and get down to a weight I was happy at and could sustain.
"I knew that it was impossible for me to get to my target weight permanently just by dieting alone. I knew I had to combine exercise with a change in my eating."
Simon adopted a three prong attack. Firstly he exercised for a minimum of 75 minutes a day.
"Initially I started off by rowing for ten minutes at a time on the rowing machine and built my time up bit by bit. My focus was on rowing long steady-state pieces. I don't think in the entire time I've pulled a stroke below a 2:00 minute split! If I wasn't rowing, I go for a brisk walk, trying to walk at about 140 paces a minute. However I did it, I tried to make sure that, over the course of the day, I got at least 75 minutes exercise."
He also changed his eating habits, both in terms of what he ate and when he ate it.
"Rather than adopt strict calorie requirements or anything, I simply adopted a commonsense approach to food. I made sure that I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner and that my last meal would be at about six o'clock p.m. rather than, say, eating a big meal at 10 o'clock at night. In terms of diet I cut out the obviously bad stuff, like junk food, and substituted healthy options whenever possible. Instead of a sausage roll at mid-day, I'd have a banana instead."
As well as change his dietary habits, Simon's other significant step was to try and make his overall lifestyle healthier.
"I'd try and walk to as many places as possible. If I had to go up several floors, , I'd take the stairs rather than catch the lift. It was only really basic stuff but, if nothing else, it helped to focus my outlook and reinforce my attitude."
In total, between April and September, Simon went from 18 stone 8 pounds, to 14 stone 7, losing a total of 56 pounds in 26 weeks. He's happier and healthier than he's been for a long time, and the only downside is finding old clothes that fit!
"I've got far more energy than I think I've ever had and, now that I've got to a better level of fitness, I've been able to start rowing on-water again, something which I really enjoy."
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