My story is most definitely a once upon a time story. It started way back in my childhood when I was around 9 years old. These days marriages don’t seem to last the distance and my parents were no exception. So at 9 year old my life was turned upside down. My father was always strict especially with me and with him out of the way I basically started to be a little shit. After a couple of years of torturing my Mother my Aunt and Uncle let me stay with them to give my Mam a break from my behaviour. They spoilt me rotten. I done what I wanted, when I wanted and this included eating like a pig. This lead to me putting on a LOT of weight rapidly. At my largest, I was around 19 years old and weighed in at 18 stone, 10 pounds – 118.8kgs and with me being a bit of a short arse (5ft, 9″), it wasn’t a good look.
In my early twenties I tried different diets and failed every time. By this time I didn’t want to do a manual job any more as it was too difficult for me so I thought I’d be a taxi driver, what a great idea!!. So here I was a morbidly obese smoker, sitting on his arse 12 hours a day, snacking in between jobs and ending my shift with a 12″ deep pan pizza, fries and 2 litres of CocaCola followed by 8 hours sleep and then repeat. I was a mess, totally down about my life and how I looked. This made me eat more to get that sugar rush high only to send me crashing like a cast iron kite back into depression and into the fridge. It was a vicious circle.
I did however manage to break this circle when I was around 23. I found a miracle pill which cost me £12 a week. I still to this day haven’t got a clue what I was taking but I some how told my brain it worked and my will power took over and I lost 7 stone in 9 month. I of course put some back on as I didn’t change my eating habits so I yo-yo’d between 13 and 16 stone until I was in my early 30’s by going on my very own bran flakes diet when ever I got close to 16 stone. This diet was crazy, it was bran flakes twice a day and one 300 calorie meal for dinner. The weight of course dropped off me quickly and of course came back as quick. I also had a little more energy and decided I didn’t want to be a taxi driver any more, I would go back to being a painter and decorator during the day and a bouncer on a night. I started work in a nightclub in Sunderland, my home town. Here I made a whole new circle of friends who liked to go to the gym and eat lots of chicken and eggs. I liked how they looked, big and strong, all the ladies liked them and I thought right, this is for me. So I started weight training and I didn’t get the results I wanted quick enough so I introduced steroids into the mix and I went from 12 stone to 16 stone but this time I liked being at 16 stone and wanted to be even bigger. This was totally the opposite of everything I had been doing for as long as I could remember and I kept doing it until 2008.
In May 2008 I was big, muscly and tanned and I thought I was the bees knees. I had a season ticket for my team Sunderland and went to watch them with my mates against Arsenal. It was the last game of the season and we got beat 0-1 (surprise surprise). During the game I kept getting intense shooting pains in my stomach, I had never felt anything like this before in my life and it scared me big time. The game ended and I headed out of the ground, doubled up in pain before I collapsed to my knees outside, we had almost 48,000 fans there and not one of them stopped to help me. My mates were all waiting for me at the pub as we were sitting in different seats. Fortunately my Mam only lived a short distance from the ground so I called her and told her something was wrong and gingerly made my way there. My step Dad and my Mam ran down the road to meet me. At first my step dad thought I was drunk but soon realised I wasn’t and they had to call an ambulance as something serious was wrong. I got rushed to the Sunderland Royal Hospital, it seemed to take them hours to distinguish what was wrong but I was off my nut on morphine by then so didn’t really mind.
Acute pancreatitis caused by gall stones was the diagnosis. I remember the doctor telling me, it was so severe that if I had been an older man it would have probably seen me off. I was of course kept in hospital, wasn’t allowed anything past my mouth. After a few days they removed my gall bladder. I was still feeling really ill so they sent me for a CT scan. This came back with even more bad news. My pancreas had 2 big pseudocysts, which had to be drained. Basically a pseudocyst is the wall of the pancreas filling up with pancreatic fluids which include digestive enzymes. So this swimming around in your pancreas for any length of time isn’t going to do it any good. I had the cysts drained under local anaesthetic and honestly if I knew what was going to happen I would have refused, it felt like someone stabbed me with a bread knife.
After 7 weeks I was allowed to go home, I had lost 4 stone and looked really poorly. I started working again painting but still felt ill. I had another CT scan and the pseudocyst had returned. This time I asked to be referred to a pancreatic specialist I had found at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. He admitted me straight away. I was there for 2 weeks before they attempted to drain the cysts endoscopically but failed which meant I had to have open surgery the next day.
It took me months to recover and again I lost loads of weight, I was down to 11 stone. I started to feel loads better though but still had pancreatitis attacks every few weeks, which seen me in bed, eating morphine, this went on for 2 years. I actually thought this was how my life was going to stay until 1 day I was working at a doctors house in Newcastle and he noticed me doubled up in pain while smoking a cigarette near my van. He walked over and asked me what was wrong so I told him my story and he said “stop smoking”. Of course I ignored him and 2 weeks later was rushed into hospital again from another big attack. I was kept in for 2 weeks this time and as I left the hospital I walked by all these patients outside smoking their heads off and from that day I have never had a cigarette, that was December 2011 and I have never had another pancreatitis attack either. Figure that out!!
I still didn’t really eat totally clean but did start to exercise more, I started to go hiking and cycling with my fiancee and our friends. I got right into it and really enjoyed it.
Then in 2012 at my 6 month check up they discovered the diabetes, this for me was a game changer. I had spent around 12 weeks in hospitals watching guys with diabetes have feet and legs amputated and this frightened the life out of me. I had to take control of the situation and make sure that never happened to me. I upped my hiking and cycling but still wasn’t really eating as good as I wanted, I guess old habits die hard.
In 2013 I married my Linda, she had been there for me right from 2010, looked after me, worked long hours and supported me. She was and still is my rock. Linda is German and we were married in Germany and it was very special, a perfect day.
I kept going how I was going with my blood sugar level always between 10 and 16 mmol/, which isn’t where I wanted it.
I decided I needed to up my game and drafted in some help. This was Graham Low, a personal trainer from Seaham. He showed me the error of my ways and helped me get my sugar levels down to a solid 6.0 mmol/L. I dropped 2 stone in weight from 14 and a half stone to 12 and half. I lost inches off my waist and chest. I then joined his bootcamp and found the group sessions really pushed me to my limits. He also showed me how to eat cleanly and I found a love for cooking and trying new things. Linda and I have never ate another jar of pasta sauce or frozen meal since.
My doctor was so impressed with how I had turned things around, he stopped me taking cholesterol and high blood pressure medication, shook my hand and said he wished all his patients could take a leaf out of my book. I was chuffed too bits.
In 2016 Linda and I decided to pack in our jobs, pack everything up and go off and travel the world. This was scary for me. I was worried about my diabetes and my medication and missing bootcamp.
We left in our camper van in July 2016 and headed over to Germany first to celebrate my mother in laws 50th birthday. Soon after that we were in Sweden and Denmark then jumped on a ferry to Iceland where we spent 3 weeks, it was magical. In November we headed to Indonesia, then Australia, then New Zealand, then Hong Kong then Taiwan. By this time I had noticed I was losing a lot of weight and no matter what I ate I couldn’t put any back on. I felt weak, tired, thirsty and knew exactly what it was. On July 1st I left Linda in Taiwan and headed home. I was 10 stone, everyone back home was shocked and couldn’t believe how I looked. I went to my doctors and my HbA1c test was 138mmol, it should be around 48mmol for someone with diabetes. The doctor tried then and there to put me on insulin but I refused as I knew my diet and routine was to blame and I could make it right again.
I went back to bootcamp as soon as possible and got back into a routine and started to eat right again. I slowly started to lower my blood sugar level and when I went back to see my GP in January 2018, my HbA1c was 46mmol.
Eating the right food, staying hydrated, getting plenty of rest and regular exercise can and will lower your blood sugar levels and if you join me, you too could be booting type 2 diabetes and also pre-diabetes.