Hi, I'm Coen, 46 years old and an entrepreneur in IT. In other words: a desk job. I'm 1.92 metres tall and at my heaviest I weighed 130 kilos. That was far too much, even for my height.
I'm a driven person by nature and I like having a goal, in sport too. I ran marathons and triathlons and I'm a fanatical kitesurfer. I took part in the Hoek tot Helder several times. The first photo is from back in 2022, when I was 130 kilos. The second photo is from the last edition. That time I finished among the first, even though I hadn't kitesurfed for a very long time. Purely because I started strength training after my relationship with Fajah began.
SELLING THE COMPANY
Until I was 40 I was always fit. After that I was able to sell my company, but I still had to stay on for three years. Three years of pushing hard with high targets and above all a lot of calls across different time zones, which resulted in stress, little sleep and no space left in my head for sport.
The workload was enormous, which resulted in a relaxing glass of wine on the sofa in the evening. That was my off switch. I didn't eat all that unhealthily, but Fajah taught me that you have to combine carbohydrates when you eat them. In other words: no sugar on an empty stomach, and no fruit either.
When the end of the earn-out came into sight and the targets had been met, I got some space in my head again. Every afternoon I walked to the gym around the corner to row for an hour. I was incredibly driven. My name had to be at the top of the board. In the beginning the kilos flew off. At a certain point, though, nothing happened any more and I also got very tired from all that rowing. After that hour I found it hard to focus. With a few small adjustments Fajah taught me how I could improve even further.
NUTRITION AND FASTING
I never paid attention to my protein intake. In fact, I ate a lot of vegetarian food and therefore automatically a lot of carbohydrates. The first thing I started with was fasting: 16 hours a day. After that my first meal was always a protein-rich meal. Only with my second meal did I add carbohydrates. I no longer eat fruit on an empty stomach, and really only blueberries these days.
I learned that with all those supposedly healthy products, such as dates, figs, walnuts, kiwi, banana, muesli and raisins, I was secretly putting away around 650 calories during my first meal.
I started adding protein to every meal. If I don't feel like meat, I have a vegan shake. I never used to do that, but for my body weight, now 93 kilos, I need about 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight. That's around 148 grams a day. That's a lot, which is why I often top it up with one or two shakes a day.
Limiting alcohol to the weekend was probably the hardest change. Because of that I also had to learn how to switch off. If I don't have a drink, it feels like I have to keep working. Now I'm really learning to relax for the first time: horse riding, walking and other things that help me. Otherwise you stay in that vicious circle of work pressure and switching off with alcohol.
STRENGTH TRAINING IS THE ANSWER
Fajah didn't believe me when I said I had never held a dumbbell. She had made a very simple plan for me: push-ups and pull-ups.
Because I have a wrist injury, I can't do push-ups on my hands. There was no discussion about that: then you do them on dumbbells. That's how I learned to do push-ups for the first time in my life. By now I do 150 push-ups with ease. I can pull myself up well and saw my body change by the day. Just from those two exercises. That's what I started with.
When the first lines became visible, she made a complete training plan for me. To finish it off I took part in the Killerbody Challenge. I'm really happy, I feel fit and strong and I've completely got the taste for it.
At the start of our relationship we ate out very often, but now we actually think that's a shame. We choose our moments and really enjoy healthy cooking. It's much more fun to enjoy a drink or a restaurant if you live healthily the rest of the time. I enjoy it much more now.
If you do it together, it's easier. Fajah motivated me into it, because she also found it hard to keep saying no to dinners, glasses of wine or when I made risotto. Now she doesn't have to be strong any more, because we have a goal together. A shared goal in which we encourage each other to be the fittest version of ourselves.
We enjoy it so much that we came up with couples coaching. A programme for couples to get fit and motivated together and to stay that way. Want more info? Then click on the LINK
Are you on your own and would you also really like a new lifestyle? Then click on this LINK
