I’ve just had a massive scare – so listen up!

In my youth and early twenties I was always a skinny little thing…

Here’s me about 1984 (22 years old)…

I’m only 5’6″ so you can judge how heavy I was in these photographs.

I started lifting weights and exercising vigorously about this time. After about 6 years of dedicated training and eating correctly I eventually looked like this…


Which was great…

For a while…

Then life starts to interrupt…

Family and work start to take your focus…

After about 1997 my training slackened off. Just a little at first…then not training became more prevalent than training.

I started a love affair…

We’d meet most nights for little liaisons.

And of course there’d be the little midnight feasts that accompanied these liaisons….

I’ve never had a serious illness and always thought myself as ‘robust’…

Tick, tick, tick…

The weight crept up, and up, and up…peaking at 17St! My brain kept telling me I was still in ‘some sort of shape’.

A few weeks ago I noticed I was getting very thirsty and urinating a lot. I went to the docs for a check.

BOOM!

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes!

Hang on. Things like this don’t happen to me right? Wrong!

When I was told the news I just couldn’t take it in. The shock, anger, fear, trepidation. I was literally paralysed with info and emotional overload.

I trudged to the chemist for my meds. (I didn’t even know where the nearest chemist was, shows you how ill I’ve been in my life) thinking “What now?”.

I started researching on the web…and soon discovered there’s so much conflicting information out there. The one ‘common theme’ is diet and exercise. The need to take in lower calories and understand that carbs and sugars are your enemies.

I’ve taken the week off work. Firstly because one of the initial side effects of the meds is flatulence and diarrhoea, and it’s problematic when you can’t tell one from the other! Also, I’ve had to get my head straight. Understand and plan.

The house is now cleared of most junk food.

(Got to leave some treats for this fella).

I’m now on a diet of Low Gi foods, no added sugars, restricted calories, unrefined foods etc. and no whisky!

In 4 days I’ve lost 2lbs. I know this level of weight loss is not sustainable, however goes to show how many unnecessary calories I was consuming.

I’ve now got a diet and exercise plan. Last night I had the best nights sleep I’ve had for years, didn’t wake up once and woke up refreshed and positive.

This is a lifestyle changer, one that’s stalked up on me when I was ignorantly unaware.

So listen folks, this can happen to you with no symptoms whatsoever, I was fine…although my body probably didn’t think so.

I’ll keep you informed of my progress…

 

02 October 2015

UPDATE!

I’ve stuck religiously to my diet. I’m training harder than I have for years. I’ve lost weight and people are starting to notice…I think I’ve lost at least one chin!

 

01 November 2015

In January of this year, this is what I looked like (sorry folks!)

 

And here is a photo I’ve just taken, not quite washboard abs but we’re going in the right direction!

The clean eating and exercise is definitely  starting to work…