After such a promising start last year to the continued work of the blog, silence again. I'm going to try to update you on my position over the last year and fill in a few blanks. Once again, I return, who knows for how long? I have tried to keep my previous posts 'as is' for now, mostly to help readers see the evolution of the blog and also my own journey. I may have to edit some of the links, as a lot of the you tube videos I used are offline now. I will keep the research articles, these give a good background on how knowledge of health has been evolving.
Big shock for me: I have Type 1 diabetes. It went undiagnosed for many years, even though I suspected it for a long time before my diagnosis, I ignored it due to thinking I was too fit to get diabetes. Surprising thing was even though I was qualified in helping people with chronic diseases manage their conditions (including Type 2 Diabetes), I still found excuses to acknowledge my own problems. At one end of my ignorance I thought positive thinking may eradicate it (people have done that for healing cancer, right?). The other end was just fear of weakness after spending so much of my life getting fit and strong.
The signs had been there for years and I ignored them, I tried to fix myself. Dry cracked feet, stomach problems, thirsty frequently and other things rather personal that the increase in sugars helped to feed some unwelcome 'guests'. What I now know to be diabetic frozen shoulder and mild neuropathy in my hands and feet. I was stupidly using all the techniques I knew to combat Type 2 thinking I could push this into remission. My bodyfat was still under 10%, I ate very little carbs anyway, but restricted them more. I added cinnamon and turmeric to my oatmeal every morning (an inside diabetics' joke). My exercise level went through the roof. Living in Thailand I had access to a great park where the outdoor exercise equipment was better than the stuff I had in London. The great weather meant doing a 5Km run at 4am was always a pleasure and I followed it off by high intensity calisthenics. I may not have been training as hard as I did with the Shaolin monks, but it was still pretty up there in terms of intensity.
I started to go downhill rapidly. My thirst became really strong and I found I needed to pee loads more in the middle of the night. I was drinking about 20 litres of water a day. I thought it was the training and the heat of Thailand. My bodyfat just stripped off me and I became really 'cut'. I thought; 'This is great, my training is finally working the way I always wanted it to'. No more struggling to keep those last few bits of water weight and fat off. As I was getting cut though, I noticed my energy levels depleting. Until one morning I just couldn't even get up out of bed. I had to just sleep more and get the energy to move. This was the start of my regular passing out.
I thought I knew how to fix it. I used all the knowledge I had gained from my nutrition education over the years. Strict food pyramid, just increase the amounts of food to create a caloric excess. I remember cooking big bowls of wholewheat pasta trying to carb load. This would follow with me passing out for a few hours. The next thing I pulled from my arsenal of knowledge was to exercise first, the insulin sensitivity must make it easier to get some calories in. I had enough energy to start swimming and this helped me greatly. I may have turned around my health for a while as I got healthier. This lasted for a few months before winter hit and the pools became too cold to swim in. My health was in tatters for the next year also. My weight had gone from 85Kg to 55Kg and no matter how much I ate, it might go up by a kilo for a few days before dropping again. Considering I was already less than 10% bodyfat at 85Kg, being even more cut and 55Kg made me look and feel really sick.
I mentally had enough by the time the next winter was nearing. In Chiang Mai, I was training at Go Gym, I think this place kept me alive. I remember constantly getting giddy and moving on to the crash mats to rest for long periods of time.I couldn't last long on the punch bags, but I forced myself. After a few months I still wasn't getting any better. I was in contact with my family back in the UK and started missing them a lot. I had a sense of impending doom, as if this was my last comeback to the challenges life puts out there. I had been planning to use the time to improve my writing and my research to keep this blog going and other projects. The reality was I was so tired all the time I just about managed to make it to the gym and then the store to buy food. I was passing out at the computer regularly. Still fooling myself it was the heat doing it.
I came back to the UK without a clue as to what my future was going to be, another leap into the unknown. My return was hastened by the death of my grandmother, who I had hoped to spend time with before what I thought were my last months alive (I felt that sick). On return to London and the UK, it was traditionally raining, wet, cold, and the old town seemed like I had never left. I made my way to my ' second ' family, to stay at the Buddhist Centre for what I thought would be a few nights.
Big shock for me: I have Type 1 diabetes. It went undiagnosed for many years, even though I suspected it for a long time before my diagnosis, I ignored it due to thinking I was too fit to get diabetes. Surprising thing was even though I was qualified in helping people with chronic diseases manage their conditions (including Type 2 Diabetes), I still found excuses to acknowledge my own problems. At one end of my ignorance I thought positive thinking may eradicate it (people have done that for healing cancer, right?). The other end was just fear of weakness after spending so much of my life getting fit and strong.
The signs had been there for years and I ignored them, I tried to fix myself. Dry cracked feet, stomach problems, thirsty frequently and other things rather personal that the increase in sugars helped to feed some unwelcome 'guests'. What I now know to be diabetic frozen shoulder and mild neuropathy in my hands and feet. I was stupidly using all the techniques I knew to combat Type 2 thinking I could push this into remission. My bodyfat was still under 10%, I ate very little carbs anyway, but restricted them more. I added cinnamon and turmeric to my oatmeal every morning (an inside diabetics' joke). My exercise level went through the roof. Living in Thailand I had access to a great park where the outdoor exercise equipment was better than the stuff I had in London. The great weather meant doing a 5Km run at 4am was always a pleasure and I followed it off by high intensity calisthenics. I may not have been training as hard as I did with the Shaolin monks, but it was still pretty up there in terms of intensity.
 |
| Skinny Seb |
I started to go downhill rapidly. My thirst became really strong and I found I needed to pee loads more in the middle of the night. I was drinking about 20 litres of water a day. I thought it was the training and the heat of Thailand. My bodyfat just stripped off me and I became really 'cut'. I thought; 'This is great, my training is finally working the way I always wanted it to'. No more struggling to keep those last few bits of water weight and fat off. As I was getting cut though, I noticed my energy levels depleting. Until one morning I just couldn't even get up out of bed. I had to just sleep more and get the energy to move. This was the start of my regular passing out.
I thought I knew how to fix it. I used all the knowledge I had gained from my nutrition education over the years. Strict food pyramid, just increase the amounts of food to create a caloric excess. I remember cooking big bowls of wholewheat pasta trying to carb load. This would follow with me passing out for a few hours. The next thing I pulled from my arsenal of knowledge was to exercise first, the insulin sensitivity must make it easier to get some calories in. I had enough energy to start swimming and this helped me greatly. I may have turned around my health for a while as I got healthier. This lasted for a few months before winter hit and the pools became too cold to swim in. My health was in tatters for the next year also. My weight had gone from 85Kg to 55Kg and no matter how much I ate, it might go up by a kilo for a few days before dropping again. Considering I was already less than 10% bodyfat at 85Kg, being even more cut and 55Kg made me look and feel really sick.
 |
| Last night keto saved my life |
I mentally had enough by the time the next winter was nearing. In Chiang Mai, I was training at Go Gym, I think this place kept me alive. I remember constantly getting giddy and moving on to the crash mats to rest for long periods of time.I couldn't last long on the punch bags, but I forced myself. After a few months I still wasn't getting any better. I was in contact with my family back in the UK and started missing them a lot. I had a sense of impending doom, as if this was my last comeback to the challenges life puts out there. I had been planning to use the time to improve my writing and my research to keep this blog going and other projects. The reality was I was so tired all the time I just about managed to make it to the gym and then the store to buy food. I was passing out at the computer regularly. Still fooling myself it was the heat doing it.
I came back to the UK without a clue as to what my future was going to be, another leap into the unknown. My return was hastened by the death of my grandmother, who I had hoped to spend time with before what I thought were my last months alive (I felt that sick). On return to London and the UK, it was traditionally raining, wet, cold, and the old town seemed like I had never left. I made my way to my ' second ' family, to stay at the Buddhist Centre for what I thought would be a few nights.
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