After the Smoke Clears
I have written about football.
I have written about my relationship with food and my journey through weight loss.
Today, I have to write about both.
I wish I had a dramatic fairytale story, something like Wrexham’s. That would make for a better story — a montage of salads, early morning runs, and constant exercising, all with Gonna Fly Now from Rocky playing in the background. But the truth is simpler, and maybe more honest: I had help. I took Monjaro and later Zepbound, the tools that gave me the push I needed when sheer effort was not enough.
On February 28, 2024, I weighed the most I had ever weighed — 278 pounds. My goal was to reach 200 pounds, and today, April 27, 2025, I finally achieved that milestone. I lost it ounce by ounce, meal by meal, day by day.
I did not lose 78 pounds all at once. I did not make national or even local headlines. There was no documentary crew filming my progress. No roaring crowds. Just me — showing up, day after day, doing the work nobody else could do for me.
Yesterday, Wrexham AFC secured promotion for the third consecutive season, making them the first team in EFL history to accomplish that feat. They were promoted from the National League to EFL League Two in 2022–23, then to EFL League One in 2023–24, and now to the EFL Championship in 2024–25. In just four years, they climbed from the fifth tier to the second tier of English football.
Wrexham did not achieve their status on their own either. They also had help — Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased the club and brought it out of obscurity, transforming a small, struggling team in North Wales into one known around the world. But ownership alone did not win the matches. Wrexham still had to show up. They still had to grind it out — win by win, loss by loss, tie by tie, point by point, in stadiums most people could not even find on a map.
So, after the crowd’s roar settles, the parades are over, and the smoke bombs have cleared, what comes next?
Wrexham is in the Championship.
I have reached my weight goal.
These are both impressive milestones — goals some might have thought impossible to attain. And while I am celebrating both, they are still only waymarkers.
But the story does not end here. In fact, this is only the beginning.
There will still be bad days, struggles, and moments when grit falters, for both Wrexham and for me. But that is where the truth of it lies — not in the celebrations, but in what comes next.
I have to learn how to maintain my weight and not let it all slip away. Wrexham has to learn how to fight at a new, harder level.
But we both know how we got here.
And we will keep showing up.
Up the Town.
One day at a time.