Once a week during this time of lockdown and social distancing, my wife Ann and I get a delivery of a takeaway meal – that sounds a bit oxy-moronish. Well yesterday evening we settled on pizza from our local Pizza Hut here in Salisbury. Not the wisest choice of culinary fayre I’ll grant you, but I’ll get back to that in a little while.
As a 62 year old male with elevated blood pressure (BP), someone who requires medical certificates for driving large goods vehicles, public service vehicles and flying aircraft, I am acutely aware of how even a slight increase in my current BP would almost certainly result in my ‘wings being clipped’ and significant privileges of my driving licence being temporarily if not permanently withdrawn.
Elevated blood pressure however, isn’t just a symptom of too much salt in one’s diet, but also the result of being overweight. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a rough indicator of the amount of fat a person has stored in their body; this morning after a particularly poor night’s sleep (a doubtless contributor being a large Deep Pan Chicken Supreme pizza and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream), I came to the decision that it is time to take a radical approach to reverse the trajectory of my body mass. As of 08:30 this morning I calculated my BMI as 31.6. This makes me clinically obese, 30 being the magic number, and at a high-risk of developing debilitating conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other health complications.
But it doesn’t stop there; despite all the possible health threats, from being overweight, I am already experiencing frequent bouts of tiredness during the day and especially so after meals. Most evenings I walk between 3 and 4 miles, but I’m often completely exhausted afterwards and even find it enormously difficult just climbing up the stairs to bed. Then I don’t sleep well, I get woken up occasionally with acid reflux in my mouth and in the mornings I feel physically drained for at least half an hour after getting up.
Additionally, there are other quality of life consequences from being overweight. I’m told by my wife ‘that I snore for Britain’, sometimes even the noise wakes me up, and so for the sake of my marriage I agreed three years ago to sleep in a spare room until such time that I get my weight down to 79 Kg’s (it’s presently 97 Kg’s); but even then I will still be overweight and should ideally continue to lose a further 13Kg of adipose tissue to get into the optimum weight zone for my height and build.
As to the reasons that I have ended up in this condition, there is more than one determining factor: age, lifestyle, lack of hard physical work are just a few, but also it seems I only have to look at food today and ‘it’ puts weight on me.
I can understand that even those of us with the inability to acquire great wealth as we get older, we are still ‘blessed’ to be able to acquire large amounts of fat, and all without effort, qualifications or skill. This vicious circle seems to have no easy ‘escape lane’ as the heavier you are, the less you can exercise and the more weight you pile on. Actually, let’s be honest – it’s not weight we pile on, it’s FAT, disgusting, ego deflating, parasitical, stinking fat.
When I turned 62 last month I had to admit defeat to a goal I had set the previous year of intending to run a mile at 61 in the same time I used to average when I was 16. I spectacularly failed to achieve that goal and struggled to do it even two minutes slower in 8 minutes. I thank God that I have a strong heart and cardio-vascular system, anything less and I am sure I would have killed myself in the attempt.
As to my general lifestyle, I don’t drink alcohol, smoke tobacco or take drugs (prescription or otherwise), except the occasional over-the-counter pain killer for a headache and I use prescribed inhalers to relieve me from the mild symptoms of asthma.
But I am addicted to food. If I was to stand up in a FA (Foodaholics Anonymous) meeting, I would declare, “My name is John and I am a foodaholic”. So there, I’ve said it, I’m addicted to food.
So what is the remedy, if there indeed is one? Well reader, I know that there is one and it is my avowed intent during these next 6 weeks to not only describe how to do it, but to provide you with a daily update on the efficacy and tangible benefits I am experiencing throughout the journey. I will also tell you of the challenges I encounter and the temptations to quit.
I am hoping that you will be inspired both by my testimony and the backstory I provide, however I am not suggesting that you should follow my example without first seeking the counsel and approval of your doctor or suitably qualified dietary health practitioner before embarking on the same journey. For some people to do what I am proposing to do may either kill or do serious damage to their health or even their minds. Nothwithstandng, I believe that what I am about to undertake is a God given antidote to the evil of living in a generation where more people are dying from diseases associated with being overweight, than are dying from the effects of famine.
What I am going to write about will either capture your interest, or you may dismiss it as insanity.
My late mother used to say, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating – Son”, but I would anagramize that to say “The turning of the tide on adipose – Mum” It’s time to fight back against this insidious killer – food.
If the statistics are to be believed, then 62% of the UK population have a BMI of over 25 which categorizes them as overweight, and 25% of the populace are classed as obese.
So join me on this journey and be inspired.
