An Australian father leaves his wife and two sons to live in Thailand for 10 weeks in a drastic bid to lose weight – after one of his children called him fat.
Jimmy Mitchell, 38, from Western Australia, told FEMAIL he was leaving his family behind on January 12 in a determined bid to shed pounds.
Mr Mitchell said he has been concerned about his weight since leaving the Navy in 2011 and even more so after becoming a father nine years ago.
The father-of-two said being overweight is ‘slowly taking away’ from you and your mental health.
And a comment from one of his children – who called him “fat” – “really stuck in my head.”
‘It is difficult to set a good example for the children [about health and fitness] when I’m not in the best shape and I’m out of breath when I exercise with them,” he said.
To kick-start the year, he has signed up for an extremely intense physical training course, supervised by Muay Thai masters, training for four hours a day, split into two sessions.
The training sessions include 5-10 km running, shadow boxing, boxing with others and other cardio exercises.
Jimmy Mitchell, from Western Australia, told FEMAIL he is heading to Thailand on January 12 to focus on losing weight and getting in shape
While in Thailand, Jimmy has two main goals: compete in a professional Muay Thai fight and get back in shape by losing 15kg
Jimmy, his wife Pauline and their two sons Riley, eight, and Liam, nine, have lived in South East Asia for the past two years and are currently based in Malaysia.
‘My weight has slowly crept up. Four years ago I weighed 126 kg, the heaviest I have ever been. Now I weigh about 118kg,” says Jimmy, co-founder of digital marketing agency My Online Guy.
‘When I joined the Navy in 2004 I weighed 68kg, when I left in 2011 I weighed 89kg and was much fitter then.
Jimmy said the weight gain made him concerned about his family history of diabetes. If he can, he wants to avoid the same fate.
‘My weight has definitely had an emotional impact on me. When I got to the beach I felt self-conscious about it, so I’ll wear a singlet,” Jimmy added.
‘During our time abroad we had some crazy adventures and activities as a family, but some I wasn’t able to do because I was overweight.
‘It’s quite embarrassing to have to sit on the sidelines and not be involved.
“My family has been absolutely wonderful and they work around it, but it’s been hard for me.”
Jimmy currently trains two to three days a week and has been doing Muay Thai for 18 months. He starts his day with a protein shake before working all day on his business, which he believes has contributed to the problem.
Lunch often consists of two wraps and dinner with the family varies from chicken or beef with vegetables to Malaysian dishes.
The 38-year-old has been concerned about his weight since leaving the Navy in 2011, and even more so after becoming a father nine years ago
While in Thailand, Jimmy has two main goals: compete in a professional Muay Thai fight and get back into shape by losing 30 pounds.
“I want to prove to myself and others that I can do this, even though I’m a little older,” he said.
“The fight will force me to get in shape. I want to be prepared.”
When Jimmy told his wife Pauline about the idea of going to Thailand alone, she was “really understanding” because she was aware of her husband’s weight.
She was more concerned about Jimmy getting into a fight than about being away from her and their children for more than two months.
The couple sold everything they owned to move their family of four abroad after finding they could not afford a comfortable life Down Under.
Jimmy previously told FEMAIL that he worked endlessly to earn a decent amount of money but felt like he was ‘never getting ahead’ and would sometimes come home in tears.
At the time, the couple rented a four-bedroom house in Mandurah, an hour south of Perth, and struggled to save for a home deposit despite the long working hours.
Jimmy, his wife Pauline and their two sons Riley, eight, and Liam, nine, have lived in South East Asia for the past two years and are currently based in Malaysia
“The main reason we decided to travel full-time was to improve our quality of life and spend more time together as a family,” Jimmy said.
The pair haven’t looked back since taking the plunge and are unsure when – or if – they will return to Australia permanently.
‘We made good money in Australia, I couldn’t ignore that. We had good jobs, but we always felt like we weren’t getting ahead,” Jimmy said.
“The more I worked and the harder I worked to earn the money so we could have the things, the less time I could spend with my family.”
The stress felt like such a huge burden that Jimmy would sometimes come home from work crying, and it only “progressively got worse.”
‘I came home and said to Pauline: ‘I can’t live like this any longer.’ And that was a combination of the fact that we both worked in the company, the kids were in school and we had hardly seen each other,” he said.
“We just got fed up and couldn’t continue.”
Pauline agreed, saying that every day felt like a repeat of the last.
‘We felt like we were living the same stagnant life. You just do the same thing day in and day out, and there was just no reprieve from it,” she said.
“Even on the weekends you think you’re going to have some family time or go somewhere, but the plans never materialize.” Due to the stress of running a business, even during short family outings, the couple was always receiving phone calls or emails from staff and customers.