HE USED to eat two pizzas in one sitting and wash them down with a crate of beer, but now Dale Fraser is 43kg lighter and has entered the Ironman 70.3 triathlon next January.
Fraser, 24, who ran a lodge beach bar in Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago for two years, watched his craving for bread and beer send his weight to a hefty 141kg.
But thanks to an intensive exercise programme and low carbohydrate diet his weight is back under control.
“Bread is my drug and I could eat a packet of six Portuguese rolls on the way back from the supermarket and drink 24 beers without them having any effect,” said Fraser, who also knocked back 10 cans of fizzy soft drinks a day.
Then a year ago his doctor told him if he continued piling on weight he would not be able to walk by the time he was 30.
“I tried gyms in the past, but I was never self-disciplined enough so when I moved here I joined Boot Camp East London. After the first session on the field I stopped the car and threw up, but my adrenalin had started running and something told me to stick with it.”
After losing 6kg in the first month of cardio-training, Fraser swapped stodgy snacks for five high protein and vegetable dishes a day – and the kilos melted off. Eighteen months later, Fraser, who manages his father’s bed shop in the city centre, has reached his goal weight and no longer resembles the double-chinned, pudgy man in his old photos. He now attends Boot Camp three times a week, works out with personal trainer Marc Robertson five times a week and does the Nahoon Park Run every Saturday.
Last week he began training for the Ironman. “I watched it this year and the look of achievement people had when they finished made me want to do it, so I signed up and am aiming to finish it in six hours.”
Although exercise now comes easily for a man who had to sit on the sidelines while his friends kite surfed, eating healthily remains a daily challenge. “To control cravings is still difficult, and I do sometimes eat bread, but then it is low GI, not white bread, and it is in moderation.”
Besides looking and feeling like a new person, his dramatic weight loss has another spin-off – women now take the time to chat to the hunky former chef who now dreams of being a personal trainer and inspiring others to overcome the battle of the bulge. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
From pillowman to Ironman
Fraser, 24, who ran a lodge beach bar in Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago for two years, watched his craving for bread and beer send his weight to a hefty 141kg.
But thanks to an intensive exercise programme and low carbohydrate diet his weight is back under control.
“Bread is my drug and I could eat a packet of six Portuguese rolls on the way back from the supermarket and drink 24 beers without them having any effect,” said Fraser, who also knocked back 10 cans of fizzy soft drinks a day.
Then a year ago his doctor told him if he continued piling on weight he would not be able to walk by the time he was 30.
“I tried gyms in the past, but I was never self-disciplined enough so when I moved here I joined Boot Camp East London. After the first session on the field I stopped the car and threw up, but my adrenalin had started running and something told me to stick with it.”
After losing 6kg in the first month of cardio-training, Fraser swapped stodgy snacks for five high protein and vegetable dishes a day – and the kilos melted off. Eighteen months later, Fraser, who manages his father’s bed shop in the city centre, has reached his goal weight and no longer resembles the double-chinned, pudgy man in his old photos. He now attends Boot Camp three times a week, works out with personal trainer Marc Robertson five times a week and does the Nahoon Park Run every Saturday.
Last week he began training for the Ironman. “I watched it this year and the look of achievement people had when they finished made me want to do it, so I signed up and am aiming to finish it in six hours.”
Although exercise now comes easily for a man who had to sit on the sidelines while his friends kite surfed, eating healthily remains a daily challenge. “To control cravings is still difficult, and I do sometimes eat bread, but then it is low GI, not white bread, and it is in moderation.”
Besides looking and feeling like a new person, his dramatic weight loss has another spin-off – women now take the time to chat to the hunky former chef who now dreams of being a personal trainer and inspiring others to overcome the battle of the bulge. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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