Fat Bob Slim's Story

I flew to South Korea in September of 2006 to teach English and to learn martial arts during my free time. I was 103 kilograms and like most westerners, lifted weights for upperbody size and strength, but was still carrying too much fat. One day while I was jogging in Korea, having dropped to 94 kilograms for the first time in a long time, I fell--and my world fell down with me. Nothing broken, just torn tendons in my left ankle, which was even worse.With 18 more months left in my teaching contract, I coundn't jog or run or even stand for long periods of time. Fat, tired and depressed, I just unhappily went to work, came home and watched TV and ate crap, lots of it. Disabled and depressed, I shot up to an unhealthy 110 kilograms, surpassing more than 30% body fat, which only made my ankle worse. A mentor, Antonio Graceffo, recommended Thailand for weight loss. Thailand? We all know who goes to Thailand. But his was a different Thailand. Not girls and beers Thailand but boxing gloves and tears Thailand. In September of 2008 I enrolled at a Muay Thai camp in Phuket to lose weight. I arrived at 107 kilograms. Beginning with a five day all water detox, I lost a kilogram a day. Then I trained Muay Thai twice a day--longer and longer every week. I also power walked at night, sometimes went swimming in the afternoon, cycled and ate healthy and delicious Thai food. In 10 weeks, I lost a total of 14 kilograms, finishing at 93 kilograms! Then, I returned to my teaching job and continued to practice Muay Thai at a local gym and ran almost daily, and lost an additional 12 kilograms, a total of 26 kilograms in 8 months! And now I'm back, down more than 30 kilograms, for some more FITNESS, maybe some FIGHTING and perhaps a little FUN.

We have all been there: nursing a hangover with fried food and a can of cola while falling in and out of sleep to annoying infocommericals about rapid weight loss. "Lose 10 pounds in 10 days.....Shed 30 pounds in 30 days....Transform your body with our 3 month program". And we have all thought the same thing. Impossible, or at the very least, highly improbable. Well, the purpose of this blog is to inform you that under the right conditions---say training in tropical Thailand, impossibility is possible and improbability is not as problematic as one may think.This is my story; a story of detoxing and training Muay Thai Boxing on the island of Phuket; a story of losing 30 pounds in a little under 3 months and a total of 30 kilograms. And along the way, we'll meet many more people with similar stories, who have had similar success.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Acting on Motivation: 4 Week Loss Competition


In my most recent post I wrote that the one factor which will determine whether you accomplish a goal---be it weight loss, learning an instrument or learning a language----is this: motivation. You have to be motivated. You have to really want it. Half assing it is Fat assing it. You can't just want it: you have to act on it.

And this month we at Phromthep Muay Thai we are acting on it. For our fitness students (in other words, not Harley and the other fighters), we are having our first 4 week weight loss competition. As of this morning we have 13 participants, ranging from 73-119 kilograms, striving to lose as much body fat as possible in about a month's time.

There is a variety of strategies: some are doing the green smoothies for their first week, one is doing a detox at Atsumi, but most of us are doing lots of cardio, dieting and of course, Muay Thai.

In addition to bragging rights and weight loss, there will be a prize.
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