This Police Officer Learned to Meal Prep and Lost More Than 100 Pounds

Like most men, Stephen Griffin’s weight gain came on slowly. A few pounds crept on here, another few pounds there, and soon enough he was weighing in at 342 pounds by his mid-twenties. As a member of the Irish Police, Griffin’s weight not only became problematic, it also became the butt of a few jokes. But those very same snide remarks motivated Griffin to drop 100 pounds—and now he’s the one laughing.

“I had become incredibly lazy. I think I even knew that much myself at the time,” Griffin says. ”But I simply didn’t have the want or the drive to go and change it.”

At his job as a member of An Garda Siochana—the Irish police—Griffin’s day-to-day involved shift work. That meant a lot of lying around between shifts, doing nothing but scrolling on his phone and eating.