So, a year ago, this little invite dropped through my door. It was posted through my letterbox whilst I was out at work one day, but I knew it was waiting for me when I got home from the ridiculously over excited Facebook messages I'd been getting from one of my Slimming World consultants, Shirley!
A few weeks earlier I'd been lucky enough to have been voted my groups Man of the Year after I'd lost just half a pound short of ten stone in less than 9 months. I'd gone from a 30 year old bloke with a BMI of 48 who could only just squeeze into a seat on a plane, to a 31 year old, serial 10k runner who wanted to sit in the seat on the flight deck and fly his own plane for real!
Of course, the first thing you need to do if you're going somewhere and you need to look presentable is hit the shops!!!
By this point, my wardrobe was pretty bare, over the preceding few months I'd pretty much had to replace my entire "collection" twice over as I'd shrunk from being a 6XL shirt and a size 48" waist to...
Well, there was only one way to find out, so one Sunday, Sarah and I trotted off to York Designer Outlet. Decent pair of jeans was the first stop, size 34" inch waist thanks very much! Then a shirt, and, for the first time in my entire life, I got one in a size without the letter "L" in it. One Medium shirt too and I was all set!
So, Sunday the 6th of July arrived, and I was up nice and early for the two hour drive down from East Yorkshire to Slimming World HQ in Derbyshire. First a short run to wake myself up then breakfast and off to pick up Shirley at 7 am.
It was a lovely morning, and we passed the time talking about what it might be like during the day and what to expect. Shirley had been a judge at a previous quarter finals so had some idea as to what would happen.
We were there before we knew it, and after a quick weigh in and breakfast in the Head Office restaurant it was time to take our seats and be welcomed by Slimming World Managing Director, Caryl Richards, and the incredible Man Of The Year 2013, Thomas McIntyre.
There were 36 amazing blokes there for the semi final that morning, between all of us we'd lost a mind blowing 362 stone!
We then split off into 5 smaller groups and each went off to different meeting rooms to get the chance to tell our own story to the others and to the judges that would pick two from each group to go through to the final in the afternoon.
The stories I got to hear in my group were absolutely incredible. Some of the guys had lost over 17 stone, and had literally saved their own lives. More than one had been told by their doctors that if they didn't do something, they would probably be dead within a couple of years. So they went out and joined Slimming World, lost an incredible amount of weight and changed their lives forever. Completely staggering, I was blown away by it all.
It was soon time to take a break for lunch whilst the judges deliberated over who would go through. It was at this stage where I truly and honestly thought I had no chance of getting through, but there was a silver lining...
I was about to have lunch in the Slimming World restaurant! All SW recipes, all with Syn values displayed, really tasty and on plan, it was fantastic.
After some group photos it was time to find out who the lucky ten finalists were. I was literally gobsmacked when my name was read out, I honestly had not expected it after hearing the other amazing stories.
There were some more photos of the ten finalists before we all sat back down in the middle of the room to tell out stories again to all the attendees. Everyone got 5 minutes to tell their own stories to the group, and these were even more incredible than the ones I'd heard earlier. There was Stuart who had lost over 22 stone, Phil who after being inspired by Sir Chris Hoy lost weight and started cycling to keep fit and Ritchie who had been a gamesmaker at London 2012 and had found inspiration from the athletes he saw whilst he was doing this...
And all the other guys too, they were just AMAZING!
I was sure there'd been some sort of mistake by this point, I'd just felt too hot on holiday, struggled to do up my seat belt on the plane and felt knackered after carrying a tent to the camp site at a music festival which made me want to change my life. I was no way as inspiring as some of these guys!
After one final break, it was time for the winner to be announced, I had my gracious loser face ready, I was so sure it wasn't going to be me.
But then, Caryl read out my name!
Annnnnd, I remember very very little about what happened after this point. There is a blank period in my memory of about 2 hours. I vaguely remember mumbling something about being so humbled and that all 36 of us should be winners, as we were all so incredible.
This was the point, where my roller coaster of a year started!
We were straight into it, there we some more photos taken in the glorious afternoon sunshine that bathed Slimming World's head office, then straight into a video interview that could all be used in the press releases...
Press releases! I'd never had a press release written about me in my life! Wow!
We made some arrangements to go down to London to meet some of the press and have more photographs in a couple of week's time. London? To meet the press? What the?
What followed was a very surreal drive back from Derbyshire up the M1 and M18 where Shirley and I just sat in stunned silence, punctuated every so often with one of us bursting out laughing, or by the sound of another message of congratulations coming through on her mobile.
The funniest was when, out of nowhere, Shirley suddenly said:
"Oh my God, you absolute git! I'm really going to have to try much harder to stay on plan now I've got to go up on stage with you to receive your award from Peter Andre at the Awards night this November!"
She wasn't going to go to the big SW ball that year, lots of consultants do and she'd been the year before but decided to give it a miss. I remembered how buzzing she'd been the week after the awards night last year, telling us all about the fabulous members that she'd seen up on the stage collecting their awards with their consultants. Well, that was going to be us in a few months!
We'd arranged to go down to London in a couple of week's time, my wife, Sarah, and I were off on holiday at the end of July, it was our fifth wedding anniversary and we were planning a mini tour of Europe, starting in Rome, then onto Barcelona, ending up in Paris. We tagged a couple of days in London on the beginning!
Slimming World know how to look after their title winners! We were whisked off to The Ritz, in an amazing suite, I had a stylist waiting for me and we spent an afternoon trying on different outfits before settling on "the one", before going out for a lovely relaxed meal in Mayfair and a few cheeky cocktails before our early start the next morning. Was this how some people live? It was a once in a lifetime experience (well once in many lifetimes really), and we loved every second, it was out of this world!
The next day I had photo's done, and answered some questions the journo's had for me before a couple of phone interviews. They would all be published the next day.
Before we knew it, it was late afternoon and for us to head back up north. We had an early flight to Rome the next morning for the next leg of our tour.
My phone was going mental, people tagging me on Facebook and mentioning me on Twitter, friends, family and colleagues that had seen it all, and even people I didn't know, tracking me down, and sending me a message saying how they'd been inspired by reading about me. It was unreal!
We had a fabulous couple of weeks away, both still buzzing off our taste of living the high life in London. We did things that neither of us would have ever considered or even been able to do before we lost weight.
We must have walked miles, seeing all the sights! We even hired bikes and went out cycling for the day in Spain, the most activity I usually got on holiday was walking from my sunbed to the bar and back!
We got home and we're heading to a music festival, Tribfest, the weekend after. It was at Tribfest the previous year that I'd made up my mind I needed to do something about my weight. So it was going to be epic to return 11 stone lighter and make the most of every second.
What was even more amazing was that the BBC were coming to film me for a feature on the news as well! How incredible!
However, not sure if anyone has ever tried getting changed into something presentable enough to wear on TV in the middle of a field at a festival, it ain't easy! I had by some miracle managed to keep it relatively uncreased, win!
Check out Tribfest if you haven't heard of it, it's a cracking weekend! I even ended up on stage with the "Blues Brothers Experience" on the last night (I'm the one on the left)...
In September I found myself back in London again for another photo shoot, this time for Slimming World magazine and marketing. More outfits, then photos in a shoot house and a bar. Drinking Guinness in a three piece suit at half nine in the morning is a new one for me!
I was there with the amazing Helen Guy, who goes to a Slimming World group just down the road from me in Bridlington. We had a right laugh! Both of our photos have gone on to be used nationally to advertise SW. It's very very strange when you suddenly spot a poster of yourself in the randomest of places! There was an entire shop window completely covered with my poster at one point in Saffron Walden, Essex!
A few weeks later I was out running alongside the River Ouse in York when my phone rang. I stopped and answered and it was Leigh from Slimming World head office on the other end asking if I'd be OK to appear on BBC Breakfast the next day to talk about weight loss and the affect drinking alcohol has when trying to shift a few pounds (or a few stone in my case)!
It just so happened I was going to be nearby the studios in Salford the next day as we were meeting up with some friends to have a bit of a Halloween night out, so I said no problem!
I'd never been on live television before, I wondered what it would be like to sit in the studio with all the hustle and bustle of a live broadcast, in front of millions of viewers.
I have to say, it was totally bizarre!
I was met at reception and taken up to make up and then to the studio. We walked through offices with people working away. Offices no different to the one I worked in really, it was a Friday so people had dressed down, and were just getting on with their day. Was the studio really in here?
We came to some double doors and went in. There it was the famous red sofa on Breakfast, with Charlie and Louise sat there, and just two other people doing all the other bits. I think I expected hundreds of people with headsets to be buzzing round.
It was all really relaxed though, and I was made to feel at ease with everything, whilst it went out to SEVEN MILLION people!
(They only told me that afterwards - probably for the best!)
I also ended up doing a dozen or so live interviews with BBC local radio stations that morning, one on Radio 5 Live and another TV piece for the News channel. After talking about booze all morning, I was ready for a drink that night!
Soon enough it was November and time for the Slimming World Awards 2014 at the ICC in Birmingham, the host was none other than Peter Andre and I would have to go up on stage to collect my award officially from him and answer a few questions for the 2,000 strong audience of Slimming World staff, consultants and partners.
Shirley and I had a quick rehearsal in the afternoon and then we went off for photos and quick chats with Peter and Slimming World founder and chairman Margaret Miles-Bramwell. Peter was genuinely really nice, and properly interested in our stories and kept getting told off for standing chatting to me and all the other winners that were there too. We asked him for a small favour, my sister in law and her then fiance are massive massive fans and were due to be married so he signed a wedding card for them which we gave them at the reception! They were totally made up!
I was one of the last to go up for my award, and, I won't lie, I'd had a few by this point. For the nerves if nothing else!
It's also worth noting at this point, that Slimming World has turned me into a proper lightweight! I used to be able to put away a reasonable amount of drink. I grew up in Blackpool after all, drinking excessive amounts of booze is actively encouraged there I believe. But these days, a few pints, and I'm on my arse.
It was another of those "is this really happening" moments though. To stand there with a proper A lister in front of thousands and have to talk. I loved it though, and I think we managed to have a bit of banter on stage to entertain everyone.
It was also on this night that the Slimming World Woman of the Year was announced. The fabulous Bríanán McEnteggart won, she's incredible! I was a bit peeved however that the Woman of the Year got a little Tiara to wear, so I decided to try it on!
Maybe Man of the Year should get a crown? Or a sword? Definitely a sword!
Since then, I've run half marathons, modelled in a fashion show, been the face on the promotional leaflets of the new frozen meal range in Iceland supermarket, been along to the ceremony where the greatest loser 2015 was announced, and just a few weekends ago, presented an amazing consultants with their 2015 Group of the Year award at the Slimming World Oscars.
There's one other thing I'd had the pleasure of doing though. And it's been the best thing I've done. My absolute favourite. And that's visit other groups and meet real Slimming World members, tell them a bit about my story, answer their questions and try and spur them on to their own dreams and goals. I've loved that the most. From the inevitable shy question you get at each group without fail about "loose skin" to getting a message of the consultants that week after telling me how amazing the group's weight losses were the weeks after I'd been to see them. I love it, and hopefully it's something I can still do even when I hand over my title to the 2015 winner and I'm sooooooo last year, old news!
Literally everything I've had the pleasure of doing with Slimming World over the last year has been amazing, and I usually find myself taking a step back going, "Woah! Hang on a minute! Did that really just happen?" Like I'm living a dream or living someone else's life for a bit and everything will go back to how it used to be and the dream will be over.
But now, my year's at an end and this weekend I'm off to find out who the next Slimming World Man of the Year will be. All the people that change their lives losing weight are amazing, whether they do it with Slimming World or not, whether they lose 20 pounds or 20 stones, and they all deserve an award.
I'm looking forward to hearing all the stories of the finalists and finding out who the winner is, knowing what an amazing year they'll have in store!
Some people have asked me if I'm sad or if it's going to be bittersweet. I'm so glad it happened rather than sad it's over. And with this new me I've got with the help of Slimming World I wake up every morning feeling like I've just won Man of the Year!
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