As the weight continues to drop off, iafrica.com?s Rob Peters is setting new goals, but is he getting just a little too obsessed with this whole body-image thing?

A funny thing happens when you lose weight.

What starts off as a positive experience can quickly turn into an emotional rollercoaster as you battle to come to terms with how your body is, quite literally, shaping up.

You weigh less, your clothes fit, but when you look in the mirror the reflection staring back at you is still out of shape? at least in your own eyes.

Since starting my training at Transfit, I have dropped from 92.7kg to 78.4 (on my last weigh-in), and I have cut off close to 40cm in my measurements, but despite this I am not overwhelmingly happy with where I am physically. My initial desire to lose weight has turned into an obsession for perfection.

My jeans may be hanging around my waist, but why the hell am I still shaped like a pear? When I leave the house with my wife, it is no longer she who asks: ?Do I look fat in this?? I have begun to weigh myself before and after workouts ? every day?

Things have been getting a bit dark upstairs.

John, of course, has picked up on this and duly warned me of the dangers. Obsession generally leads to disappointment, which in turn means a lack of motivation to continue. And while John is happy with how far I have come, he knows there is still a long way to go. The worst thing that could happen now is me bombing out.

With that in mind, he has also decided to shift the focus away from pure weight-loss — although I still stand to a lose a couple of kilos — to building lean muscle. That means more one-on-one sessions (where I will be under intense scrutiny) with the new goals being achieved by "focussing on more explosive exercises from a multi-joint perspective?"

I am not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds tiring. I will be sure to reveal exactly how it goes once I have done a couple of sessions.

John will also be looking to use more performance-based goals for my appraisals, while working on my body conditioning for an upcoming boxing bout (more on that soon). Effectively it means I will need to stop focussing on how much I weigh, in favour of what I can achieve physically, which is probably a good thing.

The third month in my programme has proved to be the most difficult to date — more emotionally than physically — but with just over a month to go, I am well aware that I have to step things up considerably. I may have come a long way since first stepping through those doors, but the road is only half-travelled and the journey ahead will be a rough one.

  • Rob will be tracking his progress in a bi-weekly column so be sure to follow what is certain to be an emotional and amusing journey for our out-of-shape sports pundit right here on iafrica.com.

  • Any comments ? or advice ? for Rob? Have you say below!

  • To contact John Meintjes give him a call on 082 564 8594 or e-mail him at john.transfit@gmail.com

  • To get in touch with Transfit: e-mail them at info@transfit.co.za / or visit their website.