Let me share my story with you and you might understand why health is important to me.
As of this post, I am 40 years old and was diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome) at the age of 17. This is not a serious illness or even shortens your life span, but not pleasant to have. You never really get used to it, but you learn to live with it.
Around that same time, I started getting Kidney infections every year. After the eighth time, I just started treating it myself. Life goes on, but then I got my worst fright ever around a year ago...
I went to bed the one night, not feeling to well, when I woke from a pain in my chest. My heart gave these funny palpitations and I'm thinking: "Could this be the start of a heart attack or what?" My chest tightened and I kicked the blankets off me and rolled on my back. Beads of sweat ran down my face; waiting in anticipation for this heart attack to come. Well, it never did...Needless to say - I haven't slept much that night.
My wife saw that all was not well and insisted that I go to the doctor. I did...
The doctor took some blood tests, gave some medication and booked me of for the next couple of days.
The next day, I got a call from the doctor, wanting to see me urgently. Once there, he showed me the test results: A life threatening high Cholesterol count as well as a high sugar count. He gave me a speech: "You will be a typical, young South African, male statistic who dies of a heart attack, because we eat and drink ourselves to death!" I was a bit shocked; since I do not drink any alcohol and I surely do not overeat, but I said nothing. Next up was a Glucose Tolerance test....
The results came back and the doctor classified me with Diabetes 2! You can just imagine what he had to say then! The point he just tried to get through is that this is serious. I did not think that any of this was my fault; however the high Cholesterol was. (will shortly explain why) The doctor said that he is entitled to put me on life long chronic medication with the results he have in front of him, but he will give me three months to sort my body out and that I have to go and see a dietitian immediately.
So I went. My goodness! The diet was like a death sentence! You see...My body did not respond well to Glutton either and I can NOT, I repeat, I just can NOT swallow 100% Rye bread. I was not used to healthy eating and in fact, I only ate evenings when I got back from work. There is the problem right there: That does not constitute a balanced diet and therefore I lacked the nutrients to carry the 'bad' fats away and it clogged around my heart. I'm not a huge fan of vegetables either - well I'm 'forced' to be now; since the tremendous benefits they give.
Obviously, 'The Craving' set in: I missed my pastries, chocolates, Pizza, red meat and sugar in my coffee. So when ever the opportunity presented itself, I pigged out on all these 'forbidden fruits'.
Long story short, I have done a lot of research over the last few years. Not to mention: Looking for that miracle cure for Diabetes that do not exist.
In this blog, I will share all the knowledge I gained and what I have tried.
Healthy living!
Johannes Zeeman
As of this post, I am 40 years old and was diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome) at the age of 17. This is not a serious illness or even shortens your life span, but not pleasant to have. You never really get used to it, but you learn to live with it.
Around that same time, I started getting Kidney infections every year. After the eighth time, I just started treating it myself. Life goes on, but then I got my worst fright ever around a year ago...
I went to bed the one night, not feeling to well, when I woke from a pain in my chest. My heart gave these funny palpitations and I'm thinking: "Could this be the start of a heart attack or what?" My chest tightened and I kicked the blankets off me and rolled on my back. Beads of sweat ran down my face; waiting in anticipation for this heart attack to come. Well, it never did...Needless to say - I haven't slept much that night.
My wife saw that all was not well and insisted that I go to the doctor. I did...
The doctor took some blood tests, gave some medication and booked me of for the next couple of days.
The next day, I got a call from the doctor, wanting to see me urgently. Once there, he showed me the test results: A life threatening high Cholesterol count as well as a high sugar count. He gave me a speech: "You will be a typical, young South African, male statistic who dies of a heart attack, because we eat and drink ourselves to death!" I was a bit shocked; since I do not drink any alcohol and I surely do not overeat, but I said nothing. Next up was a Glucose Tolerance test....
The results came back and the doctor classified me with Diabetes 2! You can just imagine what he had to say then! The point he just tried to get through is that this is serious. I did not think that any of this was my fault; however the high Cholesterol was. (will shortly explain why) The doctor said that he is entitled to put me on life long chronic medication with the results he have in front of him, but he will give me three months to sort my body out and that I have to go and see a dietitian immediately.
So I went. My goodness! The diet was like a death sentence! You see...My body did not respond well to Glutton either and I can NOT, I repeat, I just can NOT swallow 100% Rye bread. I was not used to healthy eating and in fact, I only ate evenings when I got back from work. There is the problem right there: That does not constitute a balanced diet and therefore I lacked the nutrients to carry the 'bad' fats away and it clogged around my heart. I'm not a huge fan of vegetables either - well I'm 'forced' to be now; since the tremendous benefits they give.
Obviously, 'The Craving' set in: I missed my pastries, chocolates, Pizza, red meat and sugar in my coffee. So when ever the opportunity presented itself, I pigged out on all these 'forbidden fruits'.
Long story short, I have done a lot of research over the last few years. Not to mention: Looking for that miracle cure for Diabetes that do not exist.
In this blog, I will share all the knowledge I gained and what I have tried.
Healthy living!
Johannes Zeeman
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