I sat in the chair wondering why they make them so narrow as the wooden frame cramped my thighs. The coffee was excellent though, and the selection of tray bakes, bagels, croissants, cakes and muffins just what my heart desired.Carrot cake sounded so virtuous, like one of the five a day healthy diet options. Another slice with whipped cream…why not?
When I came to I was on a trolley in a hospital corridor already crowded with trolleys. A nurse hurried past saying over her shoulder “we’ll be right with you Mr Reed, you gave us all quite a scare.”
A week later and I was injecting myself with insulin shots like a professional. I had never really identified with the clinical description ‘morbidly obese‘ so it came as a surprise when I was diagnosed with diabetes. My blackout was hard to argue with and my heart was in no condition to put up a fight.
The consultant had casually advised me that unless I committed to a change in lifestyle, my risk of heart disease and stroke was high, and a shorter life expectancy a certainty. My enquiry about gastric bands was met with a weary response “sign up for weight loss classes, eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, less fatty foods, take more exercise and reduce your alcohol consumption – then we’ll see.”
Mortality is a funny business, the blinkered approach to excessive eating had always worked for me. Now I had to take the blinkers off, stop filling my face and look for other ways to feed my desire for comforts. Running had given me the adrenaline buzz in my youth, but I was in no fit state to be pounding the pavements in Lycra. I would start gently, join a gym, get myself assessed by a personal trainer and stick to the plan.
Months later women has started to take an interest again, my physique not quite buff, but certainly healthy gave me renewed energy and a spring in my step. I stopped outside my old coffee shop and looked at the selection of strawberry tarts with disdain – I spurned the pastry temptations and set off for the moral high ground…George Reed was a new man and loving it.
odespinner 