I’m 19 years old as I write this, I was 18 when I started my journey. I had gotten used to being the largest person amongst my friends, I had grown up as the largest. In fact, I don’t have any memories of being anything other than the largest kid in the room. There was a time (a very long time ago) that you could see my ribs if I raised my arms, but the only memories I have of that are the old photographs stored away somewhere in family photo album. On July 27th 2016 I made a decision to get my life together and own it. This decision was spurred on by the fact that when ordering new clothes online (something I despised doing) I discovered that I had gone up to a shirt size of XXXL. This was enough to shock me into thinking about what I was doing with the only body I have.

    That evening, I sat down by my desk, pulled out a pen and paper, and I wrote down a promise to myself. In this promise I swore to myself that I would do three things: lose weight, eat responsibly, and exercise every day that I am physically able. I signed and dated this promise and put this quote from Lao Tzu on the bottom to serve as a mantra for when times got tough, “When I let go of who I am, I become what I might be.” This quote helped me a lot during those early days, reminding me that if I let go of this idea that I’d had my entire life that I was the fat kid, then I stopped holding myself a prisoner to it and opened myself up to a world of possibilities. That same evening I went out for walk and got busy sweating. I keep that small piece of paper safe in my weight loss journal (something which I use often and it really helps with the mental side of weight loss), and I always have it as a reminder of the promise I made myself; a promise that I will keep forever.

    For the next five months I jogged for thirty minutes more or less every day, taking rest days here and there, and by the end of November 2016 I was down around 40lbs. I’d like to add here that I was too scared to step on the scales when I first started back in July, but I remembered that the last time I weighed myself I was around 306 lbs (139 kg for those using metric) so I wrote my starting weight as that. When I finally did weigh myself on the 17th of August 2016 I was down to 297 lbs (135 kg).

Anyway, it was here at the end of November that I started to run into some problems. All the jogging I had done was taking its tole on my joints and for about two weeks my ankles were screaming at me. At one point I couldn’t even walk without limping they hurt so much. But I tried to push through and continued jogging every day, until I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to do at this point. I switched up my routine to try to use my ankles as little as possible, but nothing got me sweating like the jogging did.

Thankfully however, I was watching a YouTuber that I like (Emma Blackery) talk about wrestling and she mentioned DDP Yoga. Now this wasn’t the first time I’d heard of DDP Yoga, as I’d watched all of YouTuber Boogie2988’s videos about DDP Yoga when he uploaded them a few years ago. So I thought to myself, “Why not give it a try!” I searched YouTube to see if I could find a free tutorial, and fortunately for me I did! That evening I was sweating and swearing (more than I ever did with jogging) along with Stevie Richards in his Beginner Beginner tutorial and oh boy I was hooked! I bought the DDPY Max Pack on December 3rd 2016 and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Within a week my ankles were feeling so much better and the weight was just dropping off me! I couldn’t believe how amazing this programme was and how amazing the support that DDP and his team gives you is. The fact that DDP responded to my tweets with motivation and support meant so much to me and really helped me stay on track.

    A month after starting DDP Yoga, I decided that it was time to jump straight in with phase 3 of the DDPY Eating Plan. I was skeptical of this at first as I didn’t realise how bad gluten and dairy can be for your body along with all the other processed junk that I’ve cut out of my life now. But trust me when I say that this eating plan works. The amount of weight I was losing per fortnight doubled (I was averaging around 4 lbs weight loss a fortnight before the eating plan, after the eating plan I was losing 8 -13 lbs a fortnight) and starting this eating plan put me months ahead of the schedule I’d set out for reaching my goal. And whilst this isn’t a part of the eating plan, I’d also highly recommend going vegan too! It’s really very healthy.

    And at last, the long awaited day arrived! On the 16th of April 2017 I stepped on the scales (actually I stepped on them three times just to make sure they were right!) and they read 175 lbs (79.4 kg)! I’d finally hit my goal of getting below 80 kg! Let me tell you, I’m so proud of myself for hitting this goal. I can look at that piece of paper with my promise on it and think to myself, “I did it past me! I did it.” As I write this on the 20th of April 2017, I weigh in at 174 lbs (79.1 kg), I’ve gone from buying a shirt in the size of XXXL to buying shirts that are size Small!

    In conclusion, my journey started with a promise and this is a journey that I will be on for the rest of my life and a promise I will keep forever, as now my goal is to maintain a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle. My journey didn’t start with DDP Yoga, but it was certainly improved by it. When I was jogging it took me around five months to lose 40 lbs, but when I switched over to DDP Yoga I lost 92 lbs in around four months, making my total weight loss to be 132 lbs (59.9 kg). I’m so much happier, much more active, and a lot more confident than I ever used to be! The new and improved me is wonderful and I am so very grateful for DDP Yoga and all that DDP and his team have done for me and countless others out there; encouraging and supporting me, and also bringing me into a community of like minded people with a common goal. I have recommended DDP Yoga to everyone I know, big and small, because I truly believe that this is the best fitness programme ever to exist, and I recommend it to anyone reading this too! I’d like to end with one quote that DDP has said in some of the workouts, and this quote is something I tell myself whenever I’m faced with a challenge in any aspect of life, “Whether you say you can, or you say you can’t, you’re right. YOU CAN DO THIS!”