STRATTON’S Rob Welch will represent Cornwall in Physical Culture Association’s national bodybuilding show in March after losing 12 kilograms in 16 weeks after being teased by his children that he looked like Santa when surfing at Widemouth Bay over the summer.

Rob, 40, an emergency co-ordinator for a national fostering agency based in Stratton, explains: “I was 84.6 kilos, recently divorced and surfing with my kids at Widemouth Bay at the start of September. When I took my shirt off to go in the water, my eldest Mariana (nine-years-old) started laughing at the way my belly hung over my boardshorts and said if I had the beard I’d look like Santa.”

It made Rob realise that he’d been living off comfort food, ice-cream and pasties all summer.

He joined the local Bude gym the next day and signed up to a nutritional programme called Isagenix that is growing in popularity locally.

He added: “Within a month I’d lost four kilos and just felt so much better about myself, I had more energy and more enthusiasm for everything.

People started to notice changes in me and it pushed me to go further. Some people at the gym said I should think about competing and I thought ‘why not?’. It’s good to have a goal.

“Everything kind of came together from that and I met an excellent trainer who worked with my technique and kept my diet on track.”

Rob trains at the gym twice a day and his diet involves two Isagenix protein shakes a day and a 500 calorie meal while he also fasts one day a week with Isagenix’s nutritionally supported cleansing system.

However he always finds time for a treat.

He said: “I reward myself every Saturday with a proper pasty, life is for living after all.

“Everyone talks about getting in shape. I always thought it would be about punishment and sacrifice but these shakes taste great and I have never felt better, I’m fitter than when I was 20 and surfed all day every day.”

Rob will be competing at the PCA First-Timers event in Stafford, West Midlands on Friday, March 31.

Further information about his diet and programme can be found at Facebook.com/veganrob2