Food For Thought

Doing without a few of my favourite things

With apologies to Julie Andrews, these are a few of my favourite things: Cake, bread, beer, ice cream, biscuits, extra bread, profiteroles, cheese, butter, Yorkshire Puddings, even more bread, chocolate, lasagne, butter.  Did I mention bread?  For the last five months I haven’t been able to consume any of the above – yet it’s made me really happy.  Let me explain…

Being a gentleman “of a certain age” I keep a close eye on my health – and what my GP was telling me last August was enough to keep me awake at night.

My blood pressure was persistently high; I was perilously close to a diagnosis of diabetes; my ‘bad’ cholesterol was rising; and I was a couple of stones overweight.

I wasn’t quite on first name terms with the bar staff in the Last Chance saloon, but the message was clear – unless I rapidly changed my lifestyle I was risking catastrophe.

The doctor was willing to prescribe tablets, but I was resistant.

I know there’s no shame in having to take medication for a serious health condition, but I was irked by the thought that much of this was self-inflicted.

Could I just have one last shot at changing my diet and lifestyle in attempt to reverse these dire readings?

The doctor listened and we broadened into a more general conversation about health. 

Old crock that I am, I also suffer from gout, and we discussed research suggesting a link between inflammation in the body and research into the effects of wheat and dairy.

Was I willing to go without them for a few months, just to see what happened? 

The effects of stress and the importance of work/life balance were also factored into the equation.

This wasn’t a traditional NHS prescription; rather, the doc was encouraging me to take a more holistic approach to my well-being.

I was advised to read around the subject, safe in the knowledge that the tablets were there if I needed them.

My own studies drove me towards intermittent fasting, which involves pushing my first meal of the day back to 11am or noon.  The theory is that if you can go 16 hours without eating (including time spent sleeping) you’ll start burning up body fat.

Exercise is obviously important too.  I love swimming, but only usually managed to get to the pool once or, at most, twice a week.  Instead, I started walking, which is easier to fit into my daily schedule, and now have a daily yomp of 50-60 minutes duration. 

It’s a great way to hang out with friends or listen to podcasts, forcing me out of my mental “work zone”.

I also started logging my working hours, limiting myself to eight hours a day/40 hours a week, which as any freelance will tell, you isn’t easy.

The aim is to close the laptop no later than 9pm and relax before going to bed, with a view to enjoying a longer, more restful sleep.

And yes, I cut out all of the yummy food listed at the top of this article.

The “old me” would have been reading this and thinking, ‘blimey, without that lot, life’s not worth living’.  Now I’d put it another way – none of them is worth dying for.

None of these changes is remarkable on its own; taken altogether, they’ve had a dramatic effect.

My blood sugar levels have dropped to the point where I’m no longer pre diabetic.  I’ve shed more than a stone in weight, and the levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol have rapidly declined.

But the blood pressure is stubbornly high (I’m blaming my genes!), and I’ve now accepted a small daily dose of a drug designed to inhibit calcium that might otherwise clog my arteries.  You obviously can’t solve every health issue with diet and exercise alone.

People ask me if I miss all of the foodstuffs I once enjoyed, and the answer is “yes, of course I do” – but I can still eat chips and rice and crisps. Without beer, my appreciation of red wine has come on leaps and bounds too – not to mention my consumption.

Can I keep this up?  We all know friends who’ve gone through dietary fads only to eventually fall back into their old bad ways, and maybe I will too.

For now, though, I’m finding it relatively easy transition. 

Julie Andrews, eat your heart out.