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In an earlier post I wrote about what the famous quote attributed to Socrates… “the unexamined life is not worth living” means to me and how I can utilise mindfulness (which I believe is inferred in the quote) in my day to day life.

What I hadn’t mentioned is what might happen when you stop using mindfulness to examine your life and start falling into the bad habit of living life on autopilot.

This is what has happened to me.

Firstly, a few days ago I got booked for speeding not by a speed camera but by a police officer with a mobile radar device. It was around 9:30pm on the Wistow to Strathalbyn road and I was doing 111km/h in a 100km/h zone.

Why was I doing 11km/h over the speed limit? I just wasn’t mindful of my speed, I was concentrating on the destination rather than (the speed of) my journey and in turn I was penalised for it.

Not a good thing when you’re running out of demerit points on your licence. Yes, I have been caught speeding a number of times by speed camera and always for going about 10km/h over the limit.

That’s inattention not hooliganism.

I’m currently waiting for my fine to come through to me by post and also whether I’ve run out of demerit points which means I might lose my licence altogether for a period of time or, I might get one point back as a second chance.

Secondly, I’ve started to get migraine headaches again, culminating in one that knocked me off my feet the day after I got done for speeding (I’m sure the stress of it all didn’t help matters).

It’s times like this that my body forces me to stop and take stock of what is happening to it and what I found isn’t that good.

Since coming to Goolwa I’ve put on about 10kgs and my overall health has noticeably deteriorated because of it. All of that hard work I put in last year after my Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis was starting to fall apart fast.

I’ve gotten lazy, comfortable and content. Again, I’m eating and drinking the wrong things, at the wrong time and in the wrong portions. I haven’t been walking due to my knees being sore which is due to my weight gain.

All of this is also because of inattention, of me not being mindful of what I’m doing in my day to day life but now that I’ve caught myself doing all this, I can now get back on the mindful wagon again and get back on track.

In essence, I need to practise what I preach and walk the walk. I need to stop getting obsessed with things that take my eye off the ball and I need to stop listening to others that have a contrary view to me when it comes to my overall health and wellbeing.

I need to get back to living the examined life, the mindful life. I need to slow down, steady the ship, be still and simplify my life again because life is the greatest teacher of all and if I haven’t learnt my lessons now after what has happened to me over the last week, then I never will.

But I won’t let that happen.

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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I put in the word “obligatory” in the title not as a sarcastic inference but as something I am obliged to do for myself and for all of you too.

This obligation was set up by my May 27th post It’s Time To Take My Health Seriously and it is an obligation that I do take seriously.

So, with that all being said… Here is the update.

Since I started my “changes in lifestyle” journey on May 20th, I have lost a total of 22 kilograms and in that time (just under 5 months) I have not once succumbed to the temptation of ordering takeaway food.

This means that all of my meals at home to date have been cooked by me, from scratch and that in itself is a HUGE achievement.

When I started out I was pretty strict on myself and this was partly due to me “punishing” myself for getting my health into such a poor state.

Now, while this worked getting the initial weight off of me, I realised (with the help of a wonderful nutritionist) that my restrictive program was not going to be sustainable in the long run.

I have since then started to add foods into my life which strike a balance between good to eat and good for my pancreas as well.

Compared to when I started (check out my original post here)…

  • I drink more water (but I can always do more)
  • I’ve only just started introducing alcohol again (red wine mostly)
  • Coffee consumption is the same but it’s now black, no sugar
  • No takeaway food (not even once)
  • Occasional walking on treadmill (I’ve got to do more exercise)
  • Food portion sizes are still smaller
  • Still intermittent fasting (eating window of 2-6 hours depending on whether I have a late lunch or not)

At the moment my weight has plateaued but that was expected and all I really need to do is to address some of the issues listed above (especially increase my exercise) and I can start losing some more weight but more importantly, start feeling even lighter, more energetic and sharper in focus.

I’m due for another blood test to see how my blood sugar levels are going and whether I am on my way to reversing my Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis.

I’ll make sure I get it done in the next week but nevertheless, I’m pretty proud of myself and what I’ve achieved so far and I can’t wait to see what I can do for the future.

Mara would be very proud.

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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People that know me, know that I’ve always weighed in on the heavier side of the scales.

Even when I was in my younger, fitter football and cricket playing days, my “big boned” stocky build would always shine through thanks to my Scottish/English heritage.

But last week, on May 20th, after a visit to my doctor to review my latest blood test results he gave me some pretty awful news… I am now officially a Type 2 Diabetic.

Now, only just mind you (with a blood sugar percentage of 7.8% with anything over 7% being Type 2) but nevertheless, I have Type 2 Diabetes and I have to do something about it NOW!

When I got the news I was numb at first but soon afterwards, the shame, the anger and regret started to creep in. “How could I do this to myself?” I asked while looking in the mirror. Well, it was actually quite easy.

I ate and drank the wrong things, at the wrong times and at the wrong quantities whilst not moving all at the same time.

But since then, after some very stern advice from my doctor, I’ve been taking the positive steps needed to improve my health to the point where I can reverse my Type 2 diagnosis.

Now, I had suspected that something was up beforehand because I felt I had reached the point where I was really feeling the consequences of many, many years of not looking after myself properly and on May 20th, all of my suspicions were confirmed.

This post is not going to be the start of a long rambling series of before and after shots and blow by blow accounts of how much weight I’m losing on a day to day basis (I’d rather keep that information as personal) but this post is something I wanted to write for the sake of transparency and honesty.

Let’s face it, if I’m going to reverse my Type 2 diagnosis, feel way better about myself and also get back out into playing gigs again, I need to be physically and mentally fit as well as gig fit and to do that I need to change my lifestyle and dietary habits.

The main question I needed to answer was “How am I going to do this?”

Even though I’ve just started this “change of lifestyle” journey since May 20th, I’ve realised that you don’t have to make incredibly huge changes to make a real difference health-wise.

Changes such as…

Drinking More Water
Just doing this first step has made a huge difference. I’m finding myself going to the toilet a lot more but I feel less stodgy and much more cleaner inside.

I have a PuraTap connected at home plus a SodaStream machine that makes “boring” water turn into sparkling water so increasing my water intake hasn’t been that much of a challenge.

I try to consume at least two litres of water per day.

Cutting Out Alcohol
This was an easy thing to cut out as I don’t consider myself a big drinker anyways but I’ve noticed a slightly better sleeping pattern resulting from this one small change.

Cutting Down On Coffee
Frank Zappa once said in an interview that coffee wasn’t a drug to him, it was FOOD.

That’s how much I love my coffee (either with sugar or more recently, honey in it) but I also knew that I was drinking way, way too much of the stuff and at really stupid times as well. No wonder I’ve been having problems with my sleep for years.

I’m now limiting my caffeine intake to a maximum of three cups a day and when I do have it, I have it black with NO SUGAR. 

It’ll take me a bit of getting used to but it’s worth it.

Cutting Out Sugar
This is one of the hardest things for me to cut out of my life, but my body is already starting to feel so much better for it.

For me, cutting out sugar meant the following:

  • No more sugar or honey in my coffee/tea
  • No more soft drink
  • No more desserts

I know that there’s a lot of hidden sugars in one form or another in the food that we eat and therefore cutting out all sugar in my diet would be a challenge but cutting out the usual suspects has already made a huge difference in my life.

Cutting Out Carbs (And Takeaway)
That means giving up on pasta, rice, pastries and bread (oh, I really miss pizza)

I didn’t realise how much carbohydrates I was consuming until I decided not to eat them anymore. I was amazed, but it did show me that eating carbs takes far less effort than not eating carbs and I needed to turn that equation around.

I needed to start falling in love with preparing and cooking good food rather than just relying on takeaway which was happening far too often especially since I found myself cooking for one again over the last six months.

Start Walking
It was really obvious to me that I wasn’t moving and exercising enough in my day to day life so I’ve been trying to get into the habit of walking for up to 30 minutes a day.

Now besides cutting out the sugar in my life, getting back into some sort of exercise routine has been the biggest challenge (basically because I’m lazy) and it’s something that I’m still working on but, I’ll get there.

Decreasing My Portion Sizes
First of all, I don’t go for seconds anymore. Further to that, my first portion sizes were also too big so I’ve been getting into the habit of just halving my normal portion size or, eating off a smaller plate.

From doing this I’ve really noticed that I can still function as a productive and creative human being with far less food in my system.

Experimenting With Intermittent Fasting
Now this is the most interesting part. I’ve started to experiment with a concept called Intermittent Fasting.

Now, I’m not going to go into too much detail about it but the first site you come to on Google when you type “Intermittent Fasting” is an article by James Clear on his website called The Beginner’s Guide To Intermittent Fasting which goes into detail about the following:

  • How Intermittent Fasting works
  • The benefits of Intermittent Fasting
  • Examples of Intermittent Fasting protocols
  • Frequently asked questions about Intermittent Fasting

James Clear defines Intermittent Fasting in this way…

“Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating. It’s a way of scheduling your meals so that you
get the most out of them. Intermittent fasting doesn’t change what you eat, it changes when you eat.”

Again, I’m not going to go into all of the in’s and out’s of it but changing my normal eating habits to eating a ketogenic diet (high protein, high (good) fat and low carbs) whilst intermittent fasting has made the most significant difference in my health so far.

Since starting my journey a week ago, I’ve lost five kilos and I do feel very proud of myself.

I’ll keep myself honest and post some more health updates from time to time but I’m not going to obsess about it. I’m just happy that it’s now rather than later (when it can be far too late), that I’m finally doing something about my health.

I’m sure Mara would be proud.

Peace,

Corey 🙂