I saw a 41-year-old man the other day and gave him a trophy for massively improving his health. He has given me permission to tell his story.
When we met
When I first saw him 5 years ago he was overworked, overweight, with very abnormal liver function tests, a poor cholesterol profile and a terrible diet.
He was too unfit to enjoy mountain bike riding with his friends on the weekends, and found himself consistently at the back of the pack. As a competitive person this bothered him immensely.
What he has done
He figured that he couldn’t get fitter just by riding on the weekends so he purchased a road bike and started riding during the week.
Utilising an iPhone App, he tracks his times for certain cycling segments and directly compares them with friends (or anyone for that matter) who also use the same App and cycles the same segments. This App really raises the intensity of the goal setting and competitiveness for him.
He is now cycling between eight and 10 hours a week.
His work day is down from 14 hours a day to a minimum of an eight-hour day (sometimes 10). His productivity and business parameters have improved.
He is now perfect from a metabolic risk viewpoint
- His weight has reduced by more than 10 kg
- His liver function tests are very normal now, and even at a low normal range. His liver function has improved by a further 30% within the last 12 months which is excellent
- His healthy cholesterol, HDL, has increased by 70% – which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in my professional life. Note: HDL improves with exercise, takes out the lethal LDL from the arteries and also dampens down the reaction to plaque in the arteries
- His uric acid, which is a marker of a bad diet and carrying weight, has decreased by 30%
He has totally transformed the situation
His diet is still far from perfect (he doesn’t like vegetables or salads) however he has cut his future risk of a heart attack or stroke, and likely some cancers, by 50% or so I would estimate.
Inspiration to us all
It’s always incredibly inspiring in this practice to see patients run with their program and effect such positive change.
We see significant purposeful weight loss and health improvement typically once a week but this particular person has really outshone everyone in terms of the endpoint of metabolic marker improvement.
We give out trophies for those that have made a significant improvement. He received one last year as this is when the changes started to happen. And, for the first time ever, I’ve given him a second trophy this year – in fact, I was so delighted I gave him two trophies!
