Never give up (motivational image attached)

Hi All,

I'd like to share my update with you all, it's been an incredible journey through a lot of stuff I'm not even sure I can post on here, but I'll skip past as much detail as I can.

The person on the left is who I was, I use the word "was", because everything about who I was then is very different to how I am now, 3 years on, my world inside and out has changed.

The picture was taken in Dubai, 3 years ago, I was incredible depressed, despite the false sense of happiness. Insecure to the bone, with a need to be isolated from the world. I can't express how horrible that felt. I was also addicted to drugs and cigarettes. I was very close to death, I was in bad shape.

In April 2013, I decided to make use of our back garden gym. No cardio, just weights, we have an Olympic bar which would allow me to do bench press, squats, deadlifts etc...

My diet has varied throughout that time, with periods falling off the tracks, but for a good portion of that time, I was following a ketogenic diet.

In January 2015 I had enough confidence to join a gym and started to take weight training to a new level, still at this point, very little cardio, it wasn't until November/December 2015 I began doing cardio, and now do an hour a day.

I've been clean for a while now, and quit smoking a few days ago, the difference it has made to my health already (and my cardio performance), is phenomenal.

I am now a happy mid 20's guy who has been off anti-depressants for over 2 months, my self esteem is healthy (perhaps cocky at times), and I feel a million times better, not just psychically, but mentally.

That brings my weightloss to a total of 70kg almost, 150lbs.

I promise you, if you're starting out, it is worth every moment of pain.

Winners never quit, quitters never win.

Rob