Breaking Ground

Jakes Fernandez Overcame His Fear of the Unknown to Discover a New, Healthier – and Far Happier – Way of Life.

- Kieran Legg

Jakes was always the big kid. He struggled with ADD, and his sluggish motor skills left him trailing during PE classes. Bottom line: sports didn’t appeal to him. Sweet treats? He had that covered. Jakes went from heavy in his blunder years to even heavier as an adult. By the time he turned 27, he weighed 148kg. At 44.1 BMI, he was living in a high-risk zone. It was a wake-up call to turn things around. So he swapped sweets for supersets – and now, he’s 45kg lighter. Here’s how he did it:

1 THE PROBLEM

Poor motor skills and coordination problems made Jakes fitness phobic. While he’d try to diet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that life wasn’t quite the same without the sweets and chocolates. He would relapse hard and fast. “I never really felt huge,” he says. “But I did find myself wondering, ‘will this chair hold me?’ or ‘could I get stuck in it?’.” Not exactly a winning mentality.