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Stephen Lost a Life-Changing and Inspiring 65kg!

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G’day, my name is Stephen. I am 26, my hometown is Hampton Park, Victoria and so far I have lost 65KG on The Man Shake.

For as long as I can remember, I was always the ‘big’ kid who just loved to eat. Sport was my passion with being brought up on AFL (Go the Essendon Bombers) and an avid cricket fan, I would train and play sports all the time but my eating habits would always let me down. I always had home-cooked meals after school but I was big on snacks and sugary drinks. It got to the point where I was just eating for the point of eating, I wasn’t even hungry….I just made an excuse to eat.

My grandparents spoiled me rotten and I would just eat/drink to my heart’s content. When I was 16 I went and lived in Italy for a year with a host family and became accustomed to the Italian lifestyle, unfortunately, that included foods like pizza and pasta. I was in a whole new world and I would just eat as much as I could and put on a great deal of weight but all blame comes on me and my self-control.

Last year I lost my grandfather to cancer and that hit hard, I didn’t care about anything I just ate to fill the hole in my heart and I didn’t care about the consequences of gorging on food. A day in my life would start with waking up around 10 am, lazing around, skipping breakfast then around noon would order something off Uber Eats, then say Chinese before work and Maccas/HSP on the way home. On top of that, I was cracking cans of Vanilla Coke like they were Tic-Tacs and my weight just ballooned out of control.

I was getting changed one day and I put on my shirt and to my horror, I could see my stomach hanging out and it was such a feeling of shame that I had of myself and just memories of being bullied in high school, constantly being told you’ve put on weight at family gatherings and just overall not feeling comfortable with myself. I was just like….”Wow, I have really gotten big.”

I was over at my girlfriend Tanya’s house and her brother came and told me he had lost 20KG on this thing called The Man Shake. I had never heard of it and I was intrigued. He then gave me one of the TMS Guides which I read over and researched online. That is where I read such amazing stories about blokes who had lost weight and I read a great deal about them and Tanya let me know that there was also The Lady Shake and it just seemed right.

I went to my partner Tanya and told her that I seriously wanted to do something about my weight, and together we made an agreement to lose weight together and support each other to achieve our goals! That Monday we had our first shakes. It is important to me to lose weight and be healthy because ultimately I want to start a family with my darling Tanya and I want to be there for that, I don’t want to hinder or cut the time short because of poor decisions health-wise.

I tried slugging it out in the gym 4-5 days a week and just eating healthy all the time and not allowing myself that celebration meal and quite honestly starving myself, I saw some results but then put it back on tenfold but it wasn’t sustainable. I was depriving myself of vital foods and it came back to haunt me as I always fell apart and went back to bad habits.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that I am no longer lethargic throughout the day waiting for that fast food/sugar hit to get me going and when I wake up in the morning I don’t feel sick in my stomach and I’m eager to jump out of bed and start the day. It also good to note that every week I’ve enjoyed a treat meal such as pizza, HSP and burgers and still lost good weight.

The treat meals give your body a shock and help keep you sane. Another difference I’ve noticed is that it isn’t hard for me to say no to bad choices for example when Mum gets a Drive-Thru coffee at Maccas I don’t think twice about saying no and it doesn’t give me any regret because I know I don’t need it, and I can choose to have it as a treat meal and not hinder my process.

To sum it up, I feel utterly amazing.

I mentioned how I don’t think twice about saying no to bad choices, that wasn’t always the case. There were plenty of times when I had to stay strong mentally with fast food/soft drinks, especially with my history with Coca-Cola. I personally went cold turkey because I saw soft drinks as the catalyst to return to bad habits and I wanted to kick the habit, I got the headaches but I powered through the first 2 weeks and now I feel 100x better and I can’t stress enough that water is the best liquid in the world, it is your best friend and will help you achieve your goals.

I couldn’t do this all without a great support circle from friends and family but more importantly my darling partner in crime, since we started this journey together. She motivated me, kept me honest, and ultimately believed in me. We made it our goal as a couple and we did. She has lost 30kg on the Lady Shake and is my daily inspiration. She’s my rock!

I am so grateful for The Man Shake not just for helping me lose weight, it also has been a life lesson in understanding that food is not an enemy, it’s just how you implement food in your life and that is what I have struggled with for so long.

The Man Shake fit in my life like a glove. I took up intermittent fasting and my daily routine would look like this:

10:00AM – Coffee Man Shake with Chocolate Super Greens 12:00PM – Fruit/Man Bar 2:00PM – Man Shake 4:00pm – Tuna/Beef Jerky 6:00pm – Dinner

Even at the start when I was working taking a small container of powder and just adding water was so simple and took out decisions about what I would eat for lunch because I had everything on me. The shakes filled me up and I knew I was going to have another meal in 2 hours and then after dinner I would just drink water until my breakfast shake the next morning.

The shakes took so much stress out of my life because I never had to worry about what I was going to have because the shakes were there and I always kept the TMS Guide on me just to read and keep me on the same path toward my goal. I found using the guide’s logbook to keep track of my progress and meals really helped me stay on top of everything and see how far I’ve come because I don’t really count calories, I just find it works better for me if I write down what I eat.

I’ve had a lot of questions asked about how I’ve been losing the weight and I just let them know how awesome The Man Shake is. It’s been great to see friends and family say they’ve ordered their first bags and want to lose weight too. With the simplicity of it and the amazing support group that is the Man Shake Men Facebook group, you can go in there and ask questions or say you’re struggling and the blokes in there will rally behind you with positivity and support.

I still have a few extra kilograms I want to lose but when I do get to that maintenance phase I want to continue having a coffee shake with chocolate super greens every morning to start my day right and make sure I continue making good food choices to keep the weight off forever. If someone is out there thinking about starting what would you say to them to motivate them?

Just have a crack, get the sample pack to find out what flavours you like, and give it a go.

You’ve got nothing to lose but the weight. There are amazing blokes out there, even YouTube channels such as ThatFatGuy, JurdMan, and more to help you get started.

It’s cheesy but I was honestly one of the laziest people out, so if I can do it, you can do it, and if you’ve read this long. I believe in you and you can do it! You will not regret this decision! Start the journey to a better and healthier you today!