A slim chance of recognising Adam (From Stroud News and Journal)

A slim chance of recognising Adam

Just over a year ago, SNJ arts editor, Adam Horovitz, 34, weighed 22 stone 2 lbs.

It took the cruel kindness of a close family friend to look him in the eye, tell him he was too fat and frog-march him to the nearest slimming group.

Now twelve months on, Adam, a poet, journalist and "attempted layabout" is positively sylph-like.

Six and a half stone lighter, he is about to be put forward as Male Slimmer of the year by his Uplands-based Slimming World group.

Tamsin Treverton Jones spoke to him about a weighty matter.

ADAM says his weight started to increase around ten years ago.

"It was caused by a number of factors, including serious illness but it was mainly due to laziness and unhealthy living," he recalls.

He had been a skinny child and had not had to worry about his weight in early adulthood.

But although he says he always ate a fair amount of healthy foods, looking back he admits this was far outweighed by the unhealthy options.

"I was very partial to pizza an curry," he says.

Now physically unrecognisable from his early photographs it seems unbelievable that Adam still has another stone and a half to lose.

But it is his quality of life that has improved as dramatically as his outward appearance.

"If I had carried on like I was, I would have never made it to 50," he says.

"Now I think clearer, I sleep better and I'm more confident. What's more, because I'm not carrying around the equivalent of 42 bags of sugar with me all day, there are no more hills in Stroud."

The foods he eats have now become more of a way of life than a diet.

"You do have to be disciplined," he admits. But he stresses he hasn't had to give up anything that he really likes to shed the stones - he has just learned to control what he eats.

"With Slimming World as opposed to something like Atkins, you don't have to cut everything out.

"Yes it's important to monitor your intake of fat, bread and sugar but you can eat as much fresh fruit and vegetables as you like," he says.

After most of his weight had dropped off, Adam experienced a minor set back in the shape of several Indian takeaways and a few pints. This resulted in him piling on another half a stone in a fortnight.

"I was celebrating losing 6 stone," he said with more than a hint of irony.

But realistically he says he hadn't come all that way to start backtracking.

Adam was soon back on track with the support of the Slimming World group and some man size willpower of his own and he managed to shift that extra weight within another fortnight.

He will know by July whether he has won Slimming World's prize for Slimmer of the Year - an adventure holiday in Australia or £2,000.

"I think I have a good chance, " said Adam.

"But the real prize has been getting my life back - I feel like a winner every day now."

Adam has written a poem about his slimming experience

Small Epiphany on the Road to Slimming World

Stern and creaking the fat man walks Up the hill to his slimming class. It will take time before he talks, Time and a refilled water glass

But he's decreasing, that's for sure. The fat is sliding from his frame Though his heart keeps falling through the floor And his lungs refuse to play the game.

"It's perseverance and resolve," he tells himself each time he goes, "and a thousand pizzas to dissolve. Keep at it kid until it shows!"

A small girl from a window calls: "Are you a monk? Nice bald patch mate!" He flicks a V sign, barely stalls, thinks: 'She said nothing of my weight!"

Copyright Adam Horovitz