I was 34 years young. I failed my IPPT in 2013, due to my slow running of 2.4km. To you it might not mean anything but it was such an insult to me. I met a friend (Darren) whom I knew in secondary school and he was just as surprised as he recalled that I was on the track and field team running the 100m, 4 x 100m, 400m & 800m. If I’m failing in my strength, something must be wrong! Oh well, as we age we get worse right? Nope.

 

Between 2009 and 2012 I was excused from IPPT due to a recurring neck injury that led me from Western Medicine, Proposed surgery, TCM – Acupuncture and finally Chiropractic help (which helped the most).

 

I decided that it would be great to attempt IPPT again in 2013. I failed by a small margin, took the test again within a month and barely passed. My last IPPT in my previous financial year was in 2015, barely passed as well. Trying to train for the test and to pass it was a challenge as I could not push hard as before due to my past injuries.

 

Many look at me and think that because I don’t have that much visible excess fat, it means I can pass IPPT. The truth is that my condition and strength did not allow me to train with full push ups, I had to do several weeks of knee push ups just to develop enough power to graduate to full push ups.

 

3 events gave me the opportunity to change my diet, health and strength

1) My IPPT failure in 2013

2) Someone told me I was borderline obese at 24% body fat in August 2016

3) I looked at my cholesterol report in November 2016 – this report was quite motivational for me to make some changes

 

I’ve had the privilege of meeting several people who have educated me and shared their stories and knowledge of fueling the body. But I still had to personally make the final decisions to eat less of certain foods and more of other kinds of food. And I’m glad that I did.

 

Now (15 Jan 2017) I can attain IPPT Silver on any given day now (my last Silver was in 2006) and I’m very close to an IPPT Gold standard (my last Gold was in 2002)

 

Thanks in advance for cheering me along the final 6 weeks of training for my IPPT on 25 Feb 2017. I’d like to cheer you on too in making better choices in 2017. Have a great week ahead.