Hi everyone,
Here at Sleekgeek even our Judges have amazing stories to tell and continue to smash their limitations. 
This week I was very proud because Jonathan Allan-Barrett finally achieved the 95kgs he has been pursuing for years!
Here is the milestone post he made on Facebook.
For those that do not know Jono, he has a story to tell about his life and transformation.
Before he does that it should be known that Jono was always my greatest inspiration during my “fat days”.
On twitter he is well known as @JonathanAB and he inspired me to health and fitness…. as he has done with countless others.
As such he is the Head judge for the Sleekgeek Challenge judging panel.
So,here it is in his own words.
Jono’s story
“You have to keep going to gym until not going is harder than going”
For the last 6 years of my life I have repeatedly said that I was “Saved by Grace inside Virgin Active clubs”. This might seem like a weird thing to say, but it is sincerely the truth behind my own transformative personal revolution. I wake up every single day feeling grateful to be alive and to be clean and sober. It’s the first thought that enters my mind every day, even at 3.45am when I wake up.
You see, I had a devastating, destructive and potentially lethal addiction to drugs and alcohol for many years. From the very first time I picked up drugs to the day I finally surrendered because I just could not do it anymore was 11 years, 1 month and 1 day. I’ve always believed there is something in those numbers. The reality about addiction is that there are many other people who are damaged and destroyed as a result of the addiction, but mostly you annihilate your own body, mind and soul.
When I came into recovery in 2006 I was essentially psychotic. I weighed 67KG’s , I was so thin (NOT lean!) you could see the rib bones in my chest. I couldn’t string sensible sentences together and I was very sick. Not just physically, but spiritually and mentally as well. This was hardly surprising when you consider that I would binge for 7 – 9 days with no sleep, repeatedly. For years.
Once the fog started clearing from my mind I made a decision to give back to my body everything I had taken from it. It was a tangible and understandable way for me to start taking action immediately to literally rebuild myself. This was the start of my own “Sleekgeek journey”. I discovered in the process that by making better choices and treating my body with respect and working hard to make it stronger, fitter and more powerful – I actually rebuilt my spirit and my mind too. I know because of my own experience and the miracle in my own life that exercise and working on your body can and will change your life. I can guarantee it.
I had been living this personal journey out loudly through my own social profiles and sharing the excitement I found everyday in training and the changes I was seeing through tweets, check ins and Facebook updates. Last year in November 2011 Elan tweeted me to say that he was going to Zanzibar in 7 weeks and he needed to get a six pack and he asked me how to do it. I replied to ask him if he really wanted to know what the secret was, to which he of course replied with a resounding “Yes!”. My reply was “Diet and Exercise”.
He of course thought that this was ridiculous advice at the time. In my next tweet I challenged him to do exactly what I told him to do for the next 7 weeks and to see what the result was. In true Elan style, the first Facebook group was born to help keep him motivated, and this is the point at which Elan began the journey which is now SleekGeek. [Join the group here]
Elan is a visionary and I am so happy to be part of SleekGeek. My mission has always been to inspire people to discover what they are really made of. My own second life in this one lifetime has given me an eternal burning desire to keep what I have by giving it away and SleekGeek is a platform for many to experience the same personal change and be inspired to achieve their goals and transform their lives.
Love!
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Spread the word and inspire others. It is a gift. It takes one spark to change a person’s life.
Elan is the founder of Sleekgeek which is a social community to help support you in achieving your healthy lifestyle goals. Leaving a career as a corporate executive which included being General Manager of News24 and Group Head of Digital at Avusa which own brands like Sunday Times, Exclusive Books and Inet Bridge he decided to pursue his purpose to empower others. After losing 17kgs and finding a healthy lifestyle for the first time he decided to give up the boardroom to help people full-time to discover theirs. Elan is sponsored by Reebok and is a Wellness Warehouse Ambassador. Follow him @elanlohmann on Twitter.
