As a kid I never got ill, had more energy and could out run any kids my age, and in a lot of chases older than myself, was never in the house, always out playing football, riding bikes and just being a kid. As I got older I was still just as active, always doing something playing drums in a band, out with friends and just constantly on the move, so you would have never of guessed that the only thing I ate was chips (and a few other potato products) and toast.
I never considered changing my habits as they did not affect me doing anything even after a trip to the doctors.
My mom was worried about me, the doctor told me not to worry about it as it not stopping me in any way. Now at the age of 27 it was time to change as I was becoming ill more often, It was preventing me from doing thing such as going to Gym, playing football again and boxing as my body would not recover from the lack of protein, and just about everything else, you get from food, as I was not even taking vitamins to supplement this.
This is when, at Christmas 2015, I found a website for Edward Arran and decided to contact him. We talked and met up, and discussed what would happen, and what I wanted from the sessions.
The Goal: To be able to take my wife out for a real meal for her 30th birthday in May.
We had our first session and nothing happened, and I didn't try any new food, but what my wife did notice was I was looking at all the food in shops that I never look at before. After the second sitting things then started to look up. I tried a sausage for the first time, which I really liked.
The first big turning point came that weekend when we went out for friends birthday. Now the idea of trying something new would rarely cross my mind, but doing it in public would never cross my mind. I order Ham, Egg and chips, which is something I use to order, but always left the Ham and ate the egg and chips. This time I started to eat the ham, surrounded by 20 people, few were real close friends of mine and just looked in shock.
I didn't finish it, but it was a start.
This then led onto trying a wide range of new food over the next few weeks including risotto, pizza, takeaway, chicken, couscous as well as other things and side foods such as onion rings and sauces like mayonnaise and barbeque.
There was a few moments where I could across food which I didn't like and this all came at the same time. I tried a cheap Pizza twice in the same week which I didn't like and I also tried chilli and did not like the mince meat in there, these along with a few other small things I tried knocked my confidence and for a few days until my next session I reverted back to eating my old way.
Edward helped me to see that these things will happen and its not a bad thing and the confidence to carry on.
The next week was slow but I did try. The goal was technically reached 3 weeks early on my birthday, when my wife arranged a meal out with 10 of my closest friends. A lot of them didn't know I was seeing Edward let alone trying to better my lifestyle, so you could image there face when I ordered a chicken burger from the menu and sat eating it.
This was one of the biggest moments on the journey and I actually took a moment to text Edward to celebrate this moment with him. I may have been have been ordering and trying all of these foods, but I was not finishing any of them. I can honestly say I was liking a lot of the food I was trying, and also finding food I didn't like, I was not finishing all the food, and this was addressed during the next couple of sessions.
The moment of truth rolled round early March, it was my wife's birthday.
I had treated her to a weekend away at a Hotel and spa weekend, and had booked up a meal where the friends who were at my birthday, came down to eat and celebrate her 30th birthday with us. I ordered, what I can only describe as a monster chicken burger, with chips and salad. I ate all of the chicken burger, and for the first time in my life, I choose to eat an item of food over eating the chips first.
I have reached the goal and this made my wife birthday that bit more special, as I was now able to take her out for meals as I never enjoyed doing this before, because I didn't eat anything. There was still just one more problem that was bothering me.
Everything new I was eating I was cutting up into small piece, when all i really wanted to do was pick up the burger and bite into it.
If you image cutting up a piece of popcorn chicken into four, that was the size of the bites I was taking. This was spoken about on my very last meeting with Edward. It may have taken a few weeks after my last meeting with him, but I ordered a BBQ Chicken wrap and started to cut up the wrap to eat it, but after 3 bites I picked it up and just ate it, and it was good. I now feel that all the problems I had I can beat.
There moments through this journey where I was ill, but one of the bugs that were doing the rounds, and was unable to eat anything at all let alone try new food. Once I was back to health, it felt like my brain had reset itself, but I was able to speak to Edward over email and the journey resumed itself that following day.
Would I have ever been able to do this with the help of Edward. I would say No.
I had tried new foods before meeting Edward, but these new foods were years apart from each other, so No, I would not have been able to do it without him. I will always be thankful to him for helping me achieve what I wanted and helping me open up this whole new world that I am currently experiencing.
My wife and myself are planning doing a lot of travelling around the world, and around the UK also, starting the end of this year and throughout next week as this is something we have spoken about for years and have never been able to do until now, with one of the factors being my diet and the fact now I can experience all these new and wonderful places as well as the food that comes along with it.
I can also start doing the things I enjoy doing, such as going the Gym, boxing and football without my body feeling like it done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson every day. If you are unsure if Edward can help you with your problems, then I highly recommend you speak to him and just ask If he can help, he will and support you all the way.
As I said I will never be able to thank him enough.
Remember all I use to eat was chips, and below are some of the meals I have been eating since Edward started helping me.