Gaining on weight

Nick pearson loved food - lots of it. Result: he put on lots of weight. 120 kilos, to be precise. His wife, Kim, too was putting on the pounds. And then realisation kicked in. Pearson recounts his amazing turnaround to Ritu Raizada

In May 2004 he weighed 120 kilos.

In less than six months? time, he lost 43 kilos.

On February 17, 2006, he completed the Dubai Marathon in 4 hours, 21 minutes and 20 seconds.
It was Nick Pearson?s final journey from being fat to fit!

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Keen to find out more about his life-changing journey, I set up a meeting with him. Over a cup of coffee, the 44-year-old British national shared the highs and lows in his life and how his wife was responsible in a large way for making him change his lifestyle.

"I come from Beverly, East Yorkshire, in England and have travelled and lived in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Cameroon," he begins. "My family comprises Kim, 39, and three kids - twins Mathew and Lauren, aged seven, and William, aged five."

The eldest among four brothers, he says he had a happy childhood. "Even as a kid, I wasn?t fat but I would bloat if I did not eat sensibly. But yes, I was heavier than I should have been.

"Otherwise, I have no family history of obesity. My dad never weighed more than 63 kilos in his entire life but Mom had a tendency to put on weight if she didn?t (take care)."

How he put on the pounds
When Pearson left college, he was an excited 22-year-old who weighed around 73 kilos and stood 5?11". He landed a job in a brewery. It was the beginning...

Soon "I became one of those who choose to live to eat rather than eat to live. I ate all the wrong things in wrong portions and often overate even when I was not hungry. When I returned from work, I used to snack on peanuts, went heavy on cheese dipped in peanut butter and never exercised."

To top it all, his beverage intake began to skyrocket.
 By the time he turned 43, he began tipping the scales at 120 kilos. Pearson admits having gone on different diets and yes, he did lose some weight. But, he says, "if it?s not in your attitude, nothing would happen".

Complex situations
"When I was obese, I lacked self-confidence," says Pearson. "Sometimes, I felt a bit uneasy just standing up in front of senior people. People have their own opinion of your abilities if you are overweight. That put a lot of stress on me but it did not stop me from getting promotions and hikes in my professional life," he says.

But he began facing problems in other areas of his life. "I found it very difficult to play with my kids as I used to end up gasping for breath," says Pearson.

A '?morning person' (early riser), Pearson, despite his weight, has always enjoyed good health.

"In the last 21 years of my career, I have taken only six days of sick leave and that is probably because I have a very strong constitution. I will battle flu or a bout of cold and get over with it in a day or two on my own. I am also fortunate to not have any problems with my blood pressure or cholesterol."

The inspiration
Pearson was not alone in putting on weight. Whenever he was at home, Kim too used to gorge on the wrong foods.

He recalls: "When we shifted to Dubai in 2003 (from Nigeria), Kim decided to join a weight management group. At 101 kilos, she was finding it very tough to lose weight. Eventually, she lost 11 kilos over a period of four to five months."

How it all began
Pearson's decision to manage his weight began in May 2004. Kim asked him to accompany her to the Dubai Country Club where she was attending one of her weekly weight management meetings.

Sure that he would be bored if he joined his wife at her meeting, he chose to watch the FA cup soccer match which was being shown on TV in another section of the club.

He laughs as he remembers how Kim dragged him at half-time and introduced him to her friend Carole Holditch, the head of the weight management group.

"At the back of my mind I had begun to worry that my obesity might leave me with a condition such as diabetes," he confesses.

 "So I said to myself that I was going to get into shape and set a target of coming down to 85 kilos by March 2005. I signed up with the group and thus began the battle of the bulge. In the initial two weeks, he lost about 6 kilos. That was because I stopped drinking," he reasons.
 
The motivating factor
"In 1996, I had bought a very expensive suit for myself," he recalls. "That time my waistline was 42 inches and I was able to use the suit for just six months. Later, it got too tight and it was left hanging in my wardrobe. For the next 10 years, I was shifting base from one country to another."

He kept carrying the treasured suit around hoping that someday he would be able to fit into it.

"When I decided to lose weight, I made it my first target - rather my motivational factor - to get back in shape. I wanted to fit into my suit.

"After five weeks of being on the treadmill, I lost about three inches and finally was able to fit into the trousers. That was also the moment when I knew that I could lose more weight. It was like I had reached one milestone.

"When I was fat, I could never ever wear designer wear," says Pearson.

"You can still find shirts in XXXL sizes but the best stuff does not come in big sizes. Now that I had reached my first milestone - of fitting into the dream pair of trousers - I started pushing myself to the next milestone - wearing designer stuff."

Getting to be healthy was important but the designer suit was the motivation. Once he fitted into the suit, Pearson bought his first pair of jeans and got 20 of his shirts altered.

Six weeks later, he got them altered once again. Pretty soon, he lost 12 inches off his waist and about two-and-a-half inches off his collar.

Finally, he had to throw away all his old clothes and buy new ones that fit!

What he did to lose weight
"I began with the treadmill and the rowing machine," he reveals.

On May 23, 2004, he was weighing 120 kg. By October 9 that year, he had lost 35 kilos and was down to 85kg. By Christmas, he lost another 8 kilos.

However, by mid-June 2005, he put on 4 kilos (because he was underweight). Pearson now weighed 81kg - a weight that he has maintained since.

"There came a time when I looked like a skeleton and my face looked drawn," he laughs. "That is when I decided to get into weight training. My waist went down to 32 inches from 44 inches."

How good times started rolling in
By mid-2005, Pearson decided to take up running. "Initially I ran on the treadmill. Then I left (the gym) and started running on the streets. It was during one of his morning runs in Safa Park that he began toying with the idea of running a half marathon (which was scheduled January 6, 2006).

"He knew that if he set his mind to it, he would be able to make it. So he decided to take the first step - a 10-km running session thrice a week.

"In January this year, Pearson and his family returned from a vacation in the UK only to find that the Dubai Marathon had been postponed. I took it as a signal from God that I should forget about the half-marathon and now compete in the full marathon and that this was going to be the culmination of my endeavour," he reminisces.

The marathon was scheduled for February 17, 2006, and Pearson started training for the marathon approximately five weeks before D-Day.

Though he was travelling extensively as part of his job to India and to Nigeria during this period, "I stuck to my schedule", he states.

"In Delhi I used to train on the streets of Gurgaon at 6.30 am. It was the same thing in Abuja (in Nigeria). I returned to Dubai 36 hours before the marathon."

The achiever
From a man who could not run for more than two minutes on the treadmill without taking a breather or play with his children for more than a few minutes, Pearson completed the Dubai Marathon in four hours, 21 minutes and 20 seconds.

"It was such a fantastic feeling," he grins. "I still remember how my legs were all seized up but it was a great sense of personal achievement. I was happier than words can ever describe. I was determined to compete, and complete, the marathon and that really worked."

There was also hidden reason for his participation. "My mother had died of breast cancer and I felt I could do something for cancer research by running the Marathon," he says.

"If Mom had seen me running in such shape and that too for a cause like this, she would have been so very happy," he says, his eyes misting over.

The refreshing change
Pearson insists he has always been a very happy person but he says he feels so much better now.

"Ultimately, it is the person inside that matters," he says. The best thing to have happened to him is that he can now buy and flaunt designer wear. "What is the point in wearing a designer T-shirt and then have a paunch to spoil the look?" he laughs.

But Pearson's love of food has not dimmed. Today he concentrates on quality, not quantity. "I prefer to spend on healthy food. Kim complains that I have got obsessed with food. If she so much as casually eats one strawberry, I scold her.

"The truth is that I (now) watch every little thing about food and maintain a diary to record all the small blunders. Nobody can force me to eat wrong food now. If someone serves something rich in calories, I ask myself: is it worth 200 calories? If it is not, I will say no to it.

"(At one time) I thought I could never give up some things. But I was so wrong. There is not a single food that I miss."

Today his diet comprises plenty of fruits and vegetables, salad, lean meat, porridge and oats. His diet also includes low-fat dressings, low-fat milk and lots of yoghurt. What he has given up are "bad food" like pizzas, peanut butter and fried foods.

Coping with the kids
In their bid to lose weight, the Pearsons completely overlooked the fact that their children were taking note of every food move they made. Occasionally they would woner about their own calorific intake!

This alarmed the couple and at one stage he sat down with the family for a session on nutrition.

"Kim and I explained to them how important it is to eat and not diet like us," he adds. "But I am really glad that at this age, my kids are already aware of what is good for them and what is not!"

The philosophy
"My only advice to overweight people is: if you want to do it, you can do it. Look at me: I was the worst case. I ate all the wrong food, in huge quantities, and I exercised so little. But if I could do it, so can others."