Mine worker Steve King has lost 17kg since December after taking up karate with his daughter Chelsea at the Ryobu-Kai Karate Club.
Steve is employed as a high-voltage electrician with a seven-day on-off roster at a mine 500km away and his average working day is 12.5 hours.
On his off-week Steve would take his daughter Chelsea to Ryobu-Kai Karate Club at the Bundaberg PCYC to help give her confidence and to learn more about discipline and respect.
A year of sitting on the sidelines at karate, coupled with bad eating habits and long days away led to a routine health check at work highlighting how unhealthy his habits were.
If he didn’t take steps to fix his unhealthy lifestyle choices, he would face long-term consequences.
Steve took two steps, he fixed what he was eating and stopped sitting on the sidelines at karate.
Steve describes joining karate as one of the best decisions he has made, even though it was daunting to start a new sport at age 42.
Since December Steve has lost over 17kg.
He now has enough energy to play games with his kids and has noticed an improvement is his fitness, strength and flexibility.
Steve now has a more positive mindset, he looks forward to continuously learning new things, and has been able to make many new friends along the way.
Most importantly though, he has developed closer bonds with his daughter through karate.
When asked about his experience, Steve says that karate has been integral in his weight loss journey.
With the karate instructors giving him the necessary tools to look after his health during his time away.
The only thing he regrets is not making the decision sooner and encourages anyone with similar issues to take the first step and see where it takes them.
