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Hi my name is Andrew Glover, I am 42 years old and have lived on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia for the last 14 years. I am married to Niki, with no kids.
I work as an IT Consultant, specialising in Java/JEE and Scrum, in Parramatta. Unfortunately this means I have a very sedentary job and a daily commute of about 3 hours, which is one of my biggest obstacles as far as keeping fit and in shape goes.
I grew up in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa in what was then a fantastic little village called Kloof, which is about 25 km inland from Durban. These days it and the neighbouring villages have grown so big that they are almost a single big town of their own.
I have always been a very sporty and active person. At junior school I played every sport available rugby, hockey, cricket, surfing, swimming, water polo, soccer, basketball, tennis, squash. I would give any sport a go. My friends, my brother and I rode our bicycles everywhere. As a 4 year old my brother and I rode about 2 km to school, with either Mom or our nanny Dudu in tow, making sure we didn't come a cropper.
At high school, from aged 13, my love for sport continued, in fact I thought the ONLY reason to go to school was to play sport, oh and see your mates of course! However I became a bit more selective and focused on rugby, swimming and water polo.
At this stage I stopped growing, at about 1.67 meters (5'6") and 62 kg (136 lbs), unfortunately all my mates carried on getting taller and heavier. Being a complete rugby nut I realised that I would need to pack on more muscle to compete with 'the big boys'. Thus I was introduced to what was to become my sporting passion for the next 10 years, weight lifting/body building. I was always strong and well built [pic], by the age of 15 I had packed on about 5 kg of muscle and built my core strength to quite a high level.
After school, like the majority of white kids, I went straight into the Army for 2 years National Service, during which I became heavily involved in weight training and body building. I also dabbled in a bit of boxing and Martial Arts.
After army I did a bit of studying and then joined the work force. Gym was an every day fixture, along with running and various other sports on the weekend. I built up to around 70kgs and pretty much stayed at that weight until my early 30's.
One thing to mention is that I was and still am very much into the 'natural' way. I have never taken steroids, hormones or anything along those lines. All the supplements I took had to be legal under the 'All Natural Body Building' laws. Thus I was not interested in becoming an 'Arney' or more likely a 'Sly'.
After a few years work I took off to the Continent to travel and work. I still maintained my gym work and fitness as much a possible. In late 1996 I married my long time girlfriend Niki. In February 1997 we went to Australia, for a year long honeymoon, and never left.
Despite being an IT Professional I didn't have an Internationally recognised IT qualification. Additionally the computer language I was skilled in and had worked in for 7 years was going out of vogue. So, in 1997, I decided I needed to re-skill and the best way to do that was to get a degree. However we could not afford for me to not be working, so I commenced a 3 year correspondence degree with the Open University in the UK, while working full time.
So began my first fat stage.
Working 8-9 hours a day, a 3 hour commute, then 4 hours of Uni work. Weekends were generally 6-8 hours both days of Uni. I got 1 Sunday every 5 or 6 weeks off. Additionally, Open University does not have the ridiculously long holidays of normal Unis. The year was split into 4 terms with a 2 week break in between.
I should point out that it was my choice to do what was essentially a full time degree while having a full time job. But that is just me, go hard, give 100% or go home.
So after 3 years I had a shiny big piece of paper that proved I really was an IT Professional, plus 8kg of fat and a wife who I had barely talked to for 3 years.
The main advantage of the degree was it allowed me to apply for Australian permanent residence, which I did and got in record time.
May 2000 me being fat
The next 2 years I basically recovered from slogging myself near to death. I lost a lot of the weight I had gained. At that time our little town where we live had very poor gym facilities, so gym was out of the question. I could have gone to gym in Sydney, where I worked but I had an 11 hour day. I started surfing again and that was my main form of exercise.
Then on Saturday 25th May 2002 my life changed for ever. I was surfing a lot, Niki had her own thing going and we hardly did anything together. So she decided we should 'start doing an activity'! Oh boy! We had met at gym in Pinetown, but she is not a sporty, exercise loving type of person. She has ideas of us doing dancing or something. Well anyone who knows me will contest I am an excellent dancer, only problem is I dance to my own tune, which is never the one actually playing! So I look more like a fish out of water than a 'cool dude'. Much to my annoyance.
Anyway, the wheels of destiny turned (I don't believe in luck) and a very pretty girl knocked on our front door asking if we wanted to do Karate. Niki said "Yes, we will try that". I had no choice in the matter and I figured a of bit fitness would certainly help my surfing and it was better than dancing.
So on Wednesday night 29th May 2002 we attended our first Karate lesson and as stated my life changed forever. We both loved it and in no time at all we started doing a double class on a Wednesday, 2 and a half hours. Our first instructor, Dave Bugden, really liked to train hard and gave us a fantastic work out. Within a month we were invited to the Senior class and then we were doing 2 nights a week, 5 hours plus. Thus we became Dojo rats, increasing our training more and more. My fitness and strength came back and the weight dropped off. Soon we were assisting in class and then running our own classes. Life was great.
Then in February 2007 while surfing I herniated 2 discs in my lower back. This was probably the scariest moment of my life. I woke up in the middle of the night needing a pee only to find I couldn't feel my legs or move them! It took me about an hour to get out of bed and hobble to the loo. In the morning I couldn't get out of bed unassisted.
I was off training for about 3 months but was not able to really train hard for nearly 9 months. During this time I put on a little bit of weight but managed to keep it under control.
After a year of really hard training and getting back into shape in December 2008 I was awarded the rank of Sho-Dan Ho (provisional Black Belt). Life was looking up again, the body was working well, all was good.
In the last training session of 2008, I was sparring my Instructor and snap! I felt like I had been kicked in the nuts and they had exited through my head. Within seconds I couldn't walk, bits that shouldn't be purple went purple. Bits that should be plum sized went grapefruit size. The pain was rather special.
May 2002 me not being fat!
The next day I went to the hospital, barely able to walk. After being prodded and poked in fore mentioned bits, x-rays, ultrasounds and a few other interesting pictures. The verdict was, mmmm not too sure we think you have damaged something. No kidding Sherlock! I could have told them that. Fortunately I was put onto an EXCELLENT Sport Physician, Dr Neil Halpin, who is amongst other things the Team Doctor for the Newcastle Knights Rugby League team. He is also, probably the foremost authority on groin injuries in Australia (IMHO if not the world).
Turns out I had a 80% enthesopathy of the left Adductor Longus from the pubic bone. In layman's terms I had almost ripped the muscle off the bone. Additionally I has ruptured the tendon and torn the muscle. After a few cortisone injections and loads of pain killers I was not getting better and decided to go under the knife in April 2009. The surgery, subsequent autologous (self) blood injections and physio were a success but I was not able to train properly again until August.
As to be expected I put a little bit of weight on. I was around 74kg.
I was hoping to attempt my full Sho Dan grading in December 2009, so I started training like a maniac, lost some of the fat and was fortunate to awarded the grade! I was getting stronger and fitter all the time, the weight was dropping off. Life was getting good again.
Then while teaching my Karate class in April 2010, BANG, BANG! Now that was off the scale sore! Cold sweats, room spinning, I slammed down 4 Nurofen and finished the class. This time I didn't need a hospital and tool myself straight back to Dr Halpin.
This time I had a 90% enthesopathy of the right Adductor Longus from the pubic bone and a a 70% enthesopathy of the left Adductor Longus from the pubic bone. Basically I had almost totally ripped the right one off and re-ripped the left one! Sterling job my boy. This time, for various reasons and on Dr Halplin's advice I decided to defer surgery and instead had a number of autologous (self) blood injections and physio. I was not able to train at all and slowly started to put the weight on.
In late 2010 I was introduced to a different karate style which is much easier on the body and joints than the very rigid Japaneses sports based karate that I had been doing. Unfortunately my legs were still giving me grief and I was only able to train at about 80% capability. This was not good enough so I decided to go under the knife again on 19th January 2011. Because I had waited so long after the injury, this time my recovery was a lot faster. By April I was back in the Dojo, training at about 50%. By September I was at 80%.
As of the beginning of 2012 I am not yet back to the level I was at 2007. I have come to terms that after a few years and some pretty bad injuries, I might never get back to that level in my karate again. However that does not preclude me from losing the weight and getting into shape.
I currently weigh 76 kg, so my goals are to get back onto the surfboard, back onto the surf-ski, onto the Dojo floor and down to 70 kg. I am not putting a time frame on anything other than loosing the weight by April 2012.
In conclusion, I proudly classify myself as weekend warrior who is a geek and who has never quite grown up.
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