Why I built a fitness app instead of just going out on my bike!

TL;DR: I'm overweight, unfit, and unhealthy. By combining software development, AI, and obsessive data analytics, I'm hoping to get myself fit and healthy again. This blog is my public accountability mechanism. It'll be rather embarrassing to go to all this effort and then quietly abandon it in 12 months.

Why a Blog in 2026?

Let's address the elephant in the room. No, not me. We'll get to that.

Why am I blogging when the rest of the world is making TikToks and YouTube shorts?

Simple: I'm no PewDiePie. I'm not cut out for internet stardom, and the camera does not love me. More importantly, I don't love the camera. I'd rather type than talk, and I'd sooner be coding than watching TV. So here we are, on this old-fashioned blogging platform that I built myself. Because apparently I can't just use WordPress like a normal person.

A Brief History of My Waistline

I've never been slim. Not since I raced mountain bikes at 15-16, anyway. Since then, I've been what my mum would diplomatically call "well-built" and what my jeans would call "under considerable structural stress."

My sister Lindsay and I in Miami

In my late 30s, I finally decided to do something about it. Armed with a strict diet and my genuine enthusiasm for cycling, I went from 19st 2lbs down to 14st over about 18 months. I rode the London 100. I hired a bike on holiday and rode up an actual mountain. A small one, but it still counts. I cycled most Saturdays. Life was genuinely different.

Work wasn't as stressful back then. I worked from home and could squeeze in a ride during downtime. Either on the trainer with TrainerRoad or a cheeky lunch ride when the weather cooperated. I also didn't have a Megan back then. My partner Louise has a daughter called Megan, and I absolutely love her. I used to get up at 4:30am to take her to ice skating training at Nottingham Ice Arena for 5:45am. That's love. But let's just say free time looks a bit different these days.

But that period was incredibly rewarding. I went from a 40" waist to a 34". I felt amazing. Genuinely amazing.

Then 2020 Happened

COVID hit. Louise was furloughed. I was busy starting my new business, Your Home Care. And drinking in the evening became a habit, as it did for many of us. Louise and I discovered we actually enjoy a drink together at home. I'd never really drunk at home before, but suddenly a beer or two at night seemed like a nice way to unwind. On more stressful days, two became four. Weekends became heavier. Diet? What diet?

I should mention: I have a sweet tooth that could strip paint. I absolutely love chocolate. This did not help matters.

Before I knew it, I was back at 19st. The 40" jeans were my friends again. Tight friends, but friends nonetheless.

I felt low about my weight. Conscious of how I looked. And increasingly fearful that if I didn't get control of my health, I'd reach an age where reversing the damage would be impossible.

Thin (ish) Paul

Fat Paul - Unsurprisingly it was hard to find an image of all of me

Why This Actually Matters

I work in home care. Every day, I see people with poor mobility and health facing all sorts of issues. Issues that often stem from decades of neglect that seemed harmless at the time. I want to be there for Megan, and hopefully her kids one day. I want Louise and me to spend our retirement travelling, not managing preventable health conditions.

Also, I'd quite like to fit in my TVR. Those seats are not forgiving.

The False Starts

I've tried more recently to lose weight. Diets. Indoor cycling. Walking. I had a decent attempt last summer and lost a stone and a half. Then I got poorly, went on holiday, and basically fell off the wagon. Before I knew it, my old friends the 40" jeans were tight again.

My problem, and I've identified this pattern before, is that I'm not very good at dieting on its own. But if I'm cycling, I'm good at dieting. And if I'm dieting, I'm motivated to exercise. I need both wheels turning, so to speak. Doing just one doesn't work for me.

And with life being so different these days (being overweight, lethargic, with a family and a business to run) getting both wheels spinning again felt like a tremendous feat.

Enter Mounjaro

That's when I bumped into Dave. A local friend who'd been using Mounjaro. He'd lost over 7 stone and looked absolutely amazing. I barely recognised him when I saw him. Inevitably, in the pub. He was raving about how he'd lost all this weight with minimal side effects.

I started noticing more people using it. People I went to school with on the Book of Face. Colleagues at work. Everyone was talking about how it had helped with cravings.

I was genuinely at war with myself about whether to try it. I hate taking paracetamol when I feel off, let alone a relatively new medication. I read extensively. I went down a Reddit rabbit hole that I'm not entirely proud of. But ultimately, I decided to give it a try.

January 1st was my first jab (2.5mg) and the day I stopped drinking for Dry January. Well, mostly. Apart from a quick 48-hour trip to Braga to watch Nottingham Forest in the Europa League. Some things are non-negotiable.

The Results So Far

The early results have been astonishing. I've lost 10lbs in two weeks and I feel genuinely good. I'm drinking lots of water. No cravings. Sometimes I actually have to remind myself to eat, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write.

I feel full incredibly quickly, so my portions have shrunk dramatically. It's difficult to believe I can survive on so little food. My past self would be horrified.

That said, I'm not naive. I know people who've used these medications as a shortcut, barely eaten, and then piled the weight back on when they stopped. I don't want that. I want to use Mounjaro as a catalyst, not a crutch. The goal is to build sustainable habits while I have this pharmaceutical assistance.

The Plan

From a fitness perspective, I'm aiming to ease back onto the indoor trainer between now and spring. Short 30-minute sessions. Nothing heroic. Just rebuilding the habit.

Then in spring, I'm planning to treat myself to a new bike and try commuting 2-3 times per week. It's about 6 miles each way. Enough to make a difference without being a ridiculous endeavour.

The plan is to gradually reduce the Mounjaro dose until I can come off it entirely. By then, I'm hoping to have adopted genuinely healthy eating habits and built enough of a fitness base that commuting feels easy rather than aspirational.

Fair weather cycling only, mind. I don't mind a bit of rain, but when it gets properly cold and miserable, I'll retreat to the indoor trainer. I have limits.

Why This Website Exists

I mentioned earlier that I need to obsess over things to succeed. Hence this website.

I've brought my other hobby into this: software development. Or as the kids call it, "vibe coding" with AI assistance. I'm using Anthropic's Claude Code, if you're curious. I was a software engineer before I moved into care. I genuinely love coding.

I thought I'd build this blog partly for accountability. It'll be rather embarrassing to go to all this effort (building a custom fitness tracking platform from scratch) and then quietly abandon it in 12 months. Public shame is a powerful motivator. I want this to be a blog about success, not one I sheepishly delete when things don't work out.

But building this also solved an annoying practical problem. I use a WHOOP band. I use TrainerRoad. I use Strava for outdoor activities. And I've tried various calorie counters that inevitably want money after 7 days. All this data from multiple sources, and none of it talking to each other. I just wanted it centralised.

Then I stumbled across Grant Ritchie on YouTube and his video about using AI as a fitness coach. And suddenly all the pieces aligned in my head.

What I'm Building

I'm vibe coding the following:

• WHOOP data collection - Recovery, strain, sleep, all automatically synced

• Nutrition tracking - Calorie and macro logging without the subscription fees

• Body measurements and weight - Tracking the numbers that matter

• Strava data collection - For when I eventually venture outdoors again

• Blood test monitoring - Planning to do these quarterly or so

• AI integration - To leverage all this data for fitness plans and nutrition advice

• This blog - To document the journey and keep myself honest

I genuinely cannot think of a better way to get fit: obsess over the numbers, incorporate my hobbies, and build something useful in the process.

Current Status

So far, we've implemented:

• WHOOP integration

• Strava sync

• Nutrition tracking

• Weight and body measurements

The data you see on the front page is live from my tracking app and will update as I sync and log new data.

What's Next

That's it for now. I'll post more about the app itself, the tech stack, the AI integration, and (hopefully) some actual fitness progress in future posts.

You can keep in touch on X if that's your thing. And if you actually read this far, let me know. I'd be genuinely impressed.