Bruce wanted to change his life around, so he lost 27.6kgs!

Hi, I’m Bruce, I’m from Cairns, and I’ve lost over 27kgs thanks to The Man Shake!

My story started on Boxing Day, 2022. I got COVID-19 over Christmas, and it left me completely bedridden for a week whilst I recovered. After a week, I got struck down again getting the flu, which left me in bed for another week. When I was essentially bedridden for three weeks, I began looking at ways to lose weight, improve my health and make better everyday choices.

I had seen various online posts before about The Man Shake, so I decided to look into it further. My starting weight was 114.6kgs, and I was ready for a change. After reading The Man Shake website and lots of comments and videos from other shakers, I decided to give it a go.

On the 14^th of January, I talked it over with my wife and said that I needed to make a change. That I was sick of having no energy and getting ill from constant flus and colds. On the 15^th of January was my late mother’s birthday, she passed away from cancer when I was 25. I had so many reasons to start my weight loss journey, and I wanted to be as healthy as I could so I could tackle anything in the future.

Finally, after recovering from the flu, I went to my local Terry White Chemist and purchased a selection of shakers. On the morning of January 16^th, I officially started my journey, with my initial goal of losing 25kgs, or weighing about 90kgs.

The Man Shake combined with daily exercise, support from my wife, and the Facebook group, The Man Shakers, helped me get to where I am today. My wife has actually started The Vegan Lady Shake too, which is awesome that we can support each other and shake together.

When I started, I went pretty hard for the first 12 weeks. I had two shakes a day - breakfast and lunch – followed by a small evening meal with no snacks during the day. Eventually I went back to a more relaxed schedule.

After 8 weeks of being on the shakes, I reached a fitness goal that I wasn’t expecting so fast. There is a walking circuit near my house that typically takes 70-80 minutes to do – it's about 4.45kms - however by March 15^th I was completing it in 36 minutes, which is pretty awesome.

As well as walking that circuit, my typical week of workouts looks like this;

• Mondays – 45 minutes to an hour of Upper Body weights
• Tuesdays – 20 minutes of walking with my walking buddy, my dog Malcolm
• Wednesdays – 45 minutes to an hour of Lower Body weights
• Thursdays – 20 minutes of walking with Malcolm
• Fridays – 45 minutes to an hour of Upper Body weights
• Saturdays – 20 minutes of walking with Malcolm
• Sundays – recovery/rest day

Each day I do weights I also do a warmup of 5-10 minutes of punching on the boxing bag, and I finish each work out with crunches.

When I lost 20kgs in early April, I decided to test my fitness and I added a 5 week Muay Thai course into my rotation, which was seven training sessions a week before work. It was really intense, but a great way to push myself physically.



My current everyday meal plan typically looks like this, and it’s about 1800 calories;

• 7am – 600ml of water
• 8am - banana
• 9am – black coffee (no sugar), and 600ml of water
• 10am – Man Shake and 600ml of water
• 12pm – green apple
• 2pm – Man Shake and 600ml of water
• 6pm – training, I usually have 600-1200ml of water when I work out
• 7pm – portion controlled healthy dinner
• 8pm – dessert, high protein yoghurt and berries, and 600ml of water

I also have a few rules for myself, such as, no other drinks other than water throughout the day. I also gave up alcohol, which you don’t have to for the shakes to work, but I wanted to make sure my efforts stuck. But I make sure I still have a cheat night, where I usually get KFC or a pizza.

My favourite flavour of shakes are(in this order)

1. Chocolate
2. Choc Mint
3. Coffee
4. Banana
5. Vanilla
6. Strawberry (it deserves a mention)

Unlike most shakers I never mix flavours together, although sometimes I add a scoop of Vitorria ground coffee to the coffee, chocolate or vanilla flavours. My wife likes to add coffee to her vegan shakes to make variations.

Honestly after doing the shakes, I feel amazing. I am full of energy, I love life, and I actually want to go and do things. I want to go home and go for a run with my dog Malcolm, or train in my home gym everyday. I’m 44 on the 15^th of July, and I feel better than when I was in high school.

Whilst I’ve just reached my goal, I’m still shaking every day, and running three days a week, and weight training three days a week, as the routine just works for my lifestyle and helps me stay on track. I’ve noticed some crazy changes with my body and fitness I never expected. Whilst I’ve lost 27kgs, my body fat percentage has dropped to 16.5%.

I honestly couldn’t have done it without the following people I’d like to thank;

1. The Man Shake
2. The Man Shakers group – we support each other
3. The arseholes that doubted me – look at me now!

As it’s starting to get colder, I went to Kmart recently to buy some warm clothes, and I was amazed to see that I wasn’t a 3XL shirt anymore, I’m a M. My pant size dropped from 108 cms to 92cms on my waist.

After my clothing size got so much smaller, I’ve decided to set a new goal – I'm working towards a fully visible six pack – and not the kind that comes from Uncle Dan’s!

The best advice I could give to a shaker just starting out is to approach it without any skepticism, and stick to the program, because it really works. And also to join The Man Shakers Facebook group, as there are a bunch of good blokes in there to help and support you.