SLIMMER RICHARD
WHEN a stranger told Richard Glen he was punching “above his weight” with his wife Kirsten – his confidence took a battering.
Although he felt secure in his relationship, it was the kick he needed to transform his health.
And now he thinks those cruel words actually did him a favour as he couldn’t be happier after shedding five stone in half a year on a diet and fitness programme through Xercise4Less.
Now he says he looks 15 years younger – and is about to compete as a bodybuilder.
Richard, 44, and Kirsten, 43, from Glasgow, met on a night out with friends in 1993.
“I was attracted to her and, once I got to know her, realised how much of a beautiful person she was inside as well,” he said.
“Back then I was very thin and when we married in 1994 I was only 10-and-a-half stone.”
The couple went on to have three children, Richard, 22, Ross, 19, and Rachel, 16.
But Richard began piling on the pounds when he grabbed fast food while working long hours after launching his own business as a decorating contractor in 2010. At his heaviest, 5ft 9in Richard was 18st, with a 42in waist and wore up to 3XL clothes.
“I had to work plenty of hours, sometimes even 16 a day. This was very stressful and I turned to food and drink to cope.
“My food consisted of missing breakfast, McDonald’s at lunch, crisps and chocolate for snacks, Chinese takeaway for tea then snacking all night on crisps and chocolate. Also, I had to add in a few bottles of beer to get to sleep when I was stressed.
“My weight affected everything. I would buy clothes that fitted rather than ones I’d want to wear.
“It stopped me on holiday doing things like going to the water parks or taking my top off.”
Then he was forced to reassess what he was doing to his health after a throwaway comment on a Christmas night out last year.
Richard said: “I was standing at a bar next to a stranger who was making chit chat. He saw Kirsten and said, ‘Is this your wife?’
“I nodded and he said, ‘Oh my God, you are well punching above your weight. Your wife is too good-looking for you’. “I felt as though someone had put a dagger in my heart and twisted it. People say silly things when they’re drunk but it was like a punch in the face.
“That spurred me on to lose weight and get fit so Kirsten could have someone on her arm she could be proud of.
“I told Kirsten the next day and she said, ‘Don’t be so silly, I just see you the way you were when I met you’. But I told her I was