BIG News!

We interrupt Nat's Travel Monologues with some breaking news...

Back in January I mentioned that I was embarking on a new healthy lifestyle regime, determined to shift some weight by making some permanent changes.... such a New Year cliche, right? Right!

I promised not to bore you all with nonstop, tedious calorie-counting tales.... so I haven't! I dabbled with a separate weight loss blog, optimistically named Not So Fat Nat.... not my finest work. I barely manage to keep up with this little collection of random tales and travel pics, let alone maintain a healthy eating journal too. However, while that blog never really got off the ground, my weight loss plan did... and I am happy to report that by last night I had reached my new target weight at my slimming club.

I've shifted almost 3 stone (that's 42 pounds/20 kg), dropped from a UK size 16 (US size 12) to a UK 12 (US 8), and got my BMI down to a healthy 24.1 (it was pushing over into obese at 30).

How have I done it? Pretty much the boring old-fashioned way... I eat less calories and move more. But I have not been depriving myself - I eat a huge amount....of fruit and vegetables, supplemented with reasonable portions of lean meat and fish, eggs, pasta, rice and potatoes, and keep tabs on the little treats. Nothing is off the menu, it just has to be kept in control. I have to exercise restraint to get a healthy balance.... splurge tonight on a meal out, eat modestly the next few days.

Warning! Some serious stuff coming up.....and just possibly way, way TMI.....

My decision to adopt a healthier lifestyle is not one that is driven purely by vanity - although it is really nice having everyone telling you how good you are looking and being able to shop for nice clothes! Around this time last year, I was screened for bowel cancer. This dreadful disease took my dad away from us last year, his mom and her mom too before that, and a whole lot of others on that side of the family. With such a strong family connection, I was considered at high risk for one day developing the disease myself...so I had to undergo a colonoscopy - at the age of 37, that is quite unusual. As anyone who has ever been for one will tell you, the procedure itself is relatively pain free.... and they give you Happy Drugs! I was very chatty, apparently...

The worst part is in fact the preparation the day before... you drink a whole load of horrible salty stuff, and then you spend the next few hours... ahem... chained to the toilet. By the end of it, I was cr*pping through the eye of a needle! Fortunately I work from home. Unfortunately, I am a medical writer and I have written reports about the very medication that I was putting through its paces... or rather it was putting me through mine! So I knew exactly what was in store....

Not to dwell on that any longer, the outcome of the procedure was that the colonoscopy picked up a growth that was removed and sent for lab analysis... and it is the type that had the potential to develop into bowel cancer if left to just do its thing. So yes, my risk is a lot higher than the average person.

Butt, I'm not going to take that lying down.. well, apart from the next colonscopy that's scheduled for next year. The results of research into the causes of bowel cancer (and others!) suggest that being overweight or obese increases the risk, as does drinking too much alcohol, physical inactivity, and eating processed meats and animal fats. A diet rich in fibre, fruit and vegetables has been associated with a decreased risk. With my dodgy genes, I'm not taking any chances! I plan on keeping the weight off and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

So I won't be doing too much of this....

The Old Fat Nat

And instead keeping up with this....

I'll be eating my greens

And movin' to the beat!

Please read more about bowel cancer over here.

Never fear, faithful readers, normal broadcasting on Just Nat will resume shortly with a glimpse of my time in Cambodia earlier this year.....

Putting Things Into Perspective

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.

Ancient Persian Saying

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Depending on how often you swing by here to read this drivel inspiring prose, you may have noticed that I was having a bit of a bad day yesterday... never fear, faithful readers, I’m not back on here today to do more biatching about the sorry state of my life... but rather to tell you how the day ended, and how it certainly put things into perspective for me, at least.

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With the way things were going yesterday, I was in two minds about heading out to our regular Thursday evening Aikido class. Fully expecting to break an ankle, acquire a black eye or have someone crash land their fat ass on my head (again!)... and all that before I’d even gotten out of the parking lot and into the sports centre... I was pleasantly surprised to have a really good class.

I could actually grasp the techniques being taught fairly easily, Sensei did not haul me up in front of the class to show up my ineptness (under the guises of “demonstrating” what needs doing) and the aerobic exercise was doing me a world of good.

Towards the end of the class, it became apparent that one of the guys (Sweaty Man*) was not feeling too well. I’d actually spoken to him at the start of class, as he hadn’t been for a while and I wondered if he’d been away on holiday... he had in fact been ill with a rather nasty inner ear infection (labyrinthitis), that had kept him bedbound for weeks. Sweaty Man was taking strain and went to sit out at the side and drink some water, but he was clearly not right.....

Slurred speech, loss of the use of his right arm, his face seemed droopy on one side.... alarm bells started ringing! These are the classic symptoms of stroke!

B charged off to call an ambulance and paramedics were on the scene within minutes. They checked Sweaty Man over and said it was almost certainly a recurrence of his labyrinthitis (the symptoms are almost identical!), but they would take him into hospital for observation.

In the meantime, some of us were going through the emergency contact numbers we’ve all had to provide, thinking someone should let his wife know... but before anyone could pick up the phone, Sensei told us quietly that Sweaty Man had split up from his wife a few weeks’ back so perhaps she was not the best person to call.

Poor bloke! His marriage is breaking down and he has some serious health issues... he really is having a bad time. Kind of made my little problems of porridge exploding in the microwave and clients being their usual annoying selves seem...well, quite trivial and pathetic, really.

Sensei accompanied Sweaty Man to the hospital... and was thankfully able to report later that Sweaty Man had recovered, that it was indeed his ear problem giving him hassles. So, all’s well that ends well, and today is Friday!

Happy weekend, everyone!

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* I have nicknames for many of my fellow Aikidoers... Tattoo Man, Burpy Man, Spider Man, Get-A-Pedicure-Man! and so on that I wrote about here and here.