Welcome to my weight-loss journey. My goal is to shed the pounds, build up my stamina, and get back into playing football regularly.

It has been a while since I last played football, and to be honest, it has been even longer since I felt like I could put in a performance I could be proud of.

High School Challenges

The problem started back in high school. Just to give you some context, I am currently 26, turning 27 in October.

So let’s go back to the beginning. When you start high school, your ego kicks in, and you feel like you can’t hang around with people younger than you and play the childish games that you were used to. For example, games like cops and robbers, or 44. Couple this with purchasing an Xbox 360 and adopting a poor diet, and you can see why this was the beginning of my downfall.

The Early Days

In year 7, I was still playing football regularly for both my school and local team, but I wasn’t going out as much as I used to. This somehow got me through the first year of high school, but as I moved into year 8 and the following years, things started spiralling out of control.

My high school was one that subjected you to the dreaded bleep test and their version of cross country. I remember scoring just under 10 for my first-ever bleep test and performing well in the cross country too.

The Downfall

The next years were not as good. My bleep test score would decrease by at least 1 or 2 levels every year, and by the time year 11 came around, I was practically giving up after 3 or 4 levels. The results for cross country were quite similar.

How did this reflect in my footballing performance … I went from being a regular in the starting xi, to becoming a benchwarmer and impact sub, and eventually, I was barely getting 5 or 10 minutes of playtime. To make matters worse, I became the go-to lino. This was also the case with my local teams!

I felt like a massive fraud when my school team had to go up and collect medals for winning the County Cup in our end-of-year leavers assembly, considering my limited game time and minimal contribution to the team.

Struggling with Regret

Reflecting on the years, not taking care of my weight and living an unhealthy lifestyle is one of, if not my biggest regret. It caused me to miss out on so many years of playing local football. It’s painful to hear my friends talk about their weekend games, knowing that I could have done something about it but didn’t.

A New Lease of Life

Recently, I’ve become much more comfortable going to the gym. In the last couple of months, I’ve accumulated a total of 35 days at the gym!

While there has been a slight setback, I am now more focused than ever on achieving my goal. Hopefully, this serves as inspiration or motivation for others—I’m not sure?

So here it is, everyone. No more procrastinating. Bookmark this in your calendars. Now is the time for Gareth Wray to kick obesity up the backside, get into shape, and return to playing football regularly once again!