It was Saturday 26th April 2025 when I did my first ever Parkrun at Rosliston Forestry Centre. I was the heaviest I had ever been (over 100kg, which is impressive when you consider that I am 5ft 6in), and I felt utterly wretched at the time, both physically and mentally. Being that size was preventing me from doing the things I love (running, cycling, swimming, long walks etc), and when I looked in the mirror, I felt a visceral disdain towards myself for letting myself get so big. It took me just over an hour to complete the course.

Today is Saturday 16th May 2026, and I did my 18th Parkrun this morning in a time of 30m 53s. I am, quite frankly, ecstatic. 

It feels wrong to say that I have been on a journey over the last 12 months or so, because at this point I see my whole life as one big, long journey towards the ultimate yet elusive goal of self-fulfilment. However, it does feel as though the last year has perhaps been more consequential than previous ones, and although I am well aware that this could just be recency bias, especially since this is the third I have been through a significant weight loss transformation, I do feel like something fundamental and irreversible has changed this time. 

I think the first key difference is that this time I had help, in the form of Mounjaro. I think there is some reluctance and perhaps even shame around admitting that you’re using weight-loss drugs, but I don’t really understand why. If someone offers you a miracle solution to help you get back in shape, why would you refuse it? 

There is a wider piece around this that I won’t go into too much detail on, but I think it is worth saying that, for the vast majority of people, it is not their fault that they are obese. We live in a society where it is far cheaper and easier to buy ultra-processed foods, which have been proven to have almost no nutritional value and cause significant weight gain, than it is to buy fresh fruit & veg, dairy products, good quality meats etc. We also live in a society where time has become so commoditised, and people are forced to work so hard just to survive, that many people simply don’t have the time to cook a proper meal even if they could afford to. It then becomes a self-fulfilling doom loop – you eat shit food to save money and time, which makes you fat, which means you lose confidence and don’t want to exercise or to go to the gym, and so on and so forth. It’s not hard to see how Mounjaro becomes the only option for most people – Late Capitalism has created a society in which multi-national corporations make billions of pounds by making us all fat, and then makes billions of pounds selling us drugs to make us thin again. 

I’ll perhaps go into more detail on that in another piece, but to cut a long story short, most people are obese and unfit not because they are lazy, but because society makes it almost impossible for them to be fit and healthy.  

In my case, I think it was more to do with mental health issues. I was in such a bad headspace that it felt like I could not stop myself from eating, which did become a self-fulfilling doom loop. There is no point in trying to deny that it was Mounjaro that helped me escape that loop and get back to my best. I started it in May 2025, when I peaked at 106kg, and came off it when I got down to 81kg in December 2025. Yes, I lost 25kg in 6 months – mesmerising! I am back up to 87kg now, but I’m not concerned, as my body fat percentage continues to fall, and that is all I really care about – weight is just an arbitrary number. Gains, baby, GAINS!

Anyway, here is the twist. I know many people on Mounjaro that have made absolutely no effort to change their lifestyle. They still eat shit, just less of it, and they still refuse to exercise. The harsh, brutal truth is that Mounjaro is no silver bullet, and you can’t be on it forever – if you don’t make the fundamental changes to move towards a healthy lifestyle whilst you have the window of opportunity to do so whilst you’re on the drug, you will simply put the weight straight back on as soon as you come off it. 

So that is what I have done. I go to the gym at least three times a week, but it is usually four or five. Even if I can’t make it to the gym, I do at least some form of physical activity every day, even if it is just walking the dog or running a few kilometres around the block. I eat less processed crap and more whole foods, and I try to cook meals as the rule, not the exception, meaning I eat out a lot less (which is also helpful for my bank balance!). I get up at 6am every morning, even on weekends, because a regular sleep pattern works wonders in a multitude of areas; I have more energy, I recover quicker, I feel more alert and get more done etc. I have also developed a habit of making decisions based on how it will make me feel tomorrow, rather than how it will make me feel right now, and I think this has genuinely been the most important change – yes, a bottle of wine and a kebab would feel incredible right now, but I won’t be thinking that tomorrow morning, will I? Making decisions that will serve me in the long run is difficult, but fuck me, it is so rewarding – the feeling of smugness is worth it alone. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still have off days. I might go on a night out and get absolutely bladdered, I might occasionally treat myself to a kebab, I might sometimes have a lie in until 10am, and so on and so forth. The point is that these are now the exceptions, not the rule. I find what has also worked really well for me is that I don’t let myself miss twice in a row – it is fine to sleep in as long as I set my alarm again the next day, it’s fine to have a takeaway as a treat as long as I eat healthily the following day, and so on. Consistency is the key. 

The bottom line is that I have introduced all of these things because that is the only way it becomes sustainable in the long term. It is fine to go to the gym every day if you want to lose 5kg for your summer holiday, but once you’ve met that goal, then what? It is mission accomplished, and you slip straight back into your old routines. You have to change your identity, not just your routine – I do all of these things because it makes me feel good, physically and mentally, and because it’s the right thing to do, not just because I want to lose weight or look better. You have to make it wider, and make it about becoming the person you really want to be. 

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” -Carl Jung

I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it feels to look at myself in the mirror and actually feel pretty happy with what I see. Running through the forest at Rosliston this morning, sweating like an absolute pig, I felt a sense of pure happiness that I feel so often nowadays that it seems preposterous that just twelve months ago I felt borderline suicidal. The work isn’t done, and I don’t think the work will ever be done, but I think this is the first time in my life that I have ever been genuinely happy with both who I am and how I look, and I am so proud of myself for that – it has, quite literally, taken blood, sweat and tears, but my god, it is worth it.