A while later I became quite the layman's diet and nutrition expert and dropped from 97 kilos to 72. I heard 'eating disorder' a lot at the periphery of casual conversation. I was about the skinniest I'd been since the age of ten. But a sustained diet requires a heavy dose of moderation and lashings of virtuous, which didn't fit so well beside compulsive.
Through the years I have infrequently used diet to control my weight but as I hit forty the kilos started piling on. In 2008 I was 41 and weighed 102 kilos. Standing 177cm tall, this placed my BMI at 32.6 and way beyond cuddly. I was officially obese.
In March 2009 I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The fingers on my left hand would tingle when I was out of breath, I had chest pains. I stopped all physical exertion for fear of exhaling my last while trudging up the stairs at work. I now weighed 107 kilos. I went for a full medical at the local Nuffield, which included an ECG while peddling a bike, in the company of three very alert medics. My heart was in rude health. Stress had made the muscles across my back pull excessively on my chest and shoulders - explaining the tingling fingers and chest pains. I just needed to lose weight.
Running had never been my thing because keeping up is just too much like hard work. Except a good friend had started and swore by it. His advice was to run for yourself and ignore everyone else.
In April 2009 I ran beside my friend around the main 7k oval of Greenham Common. We averaged 7 minutes 50 (7:50) per kilometre. At least it was running, just. By August I'd extended the Greenham run to 10k and was averaging each kilometre at 6:00 minutes.
Seven months later in March 2010, I ran my first half marathon at Silverstone in just over two hours (5:58 per kilometre) and two weeks later I did the Reading Half in just under two hours (5:39 average). I now weighed 83 Kilos. There were some wild dietary deviations from virtuous but these were the exception. It was a relief knowing I could go a little crazy without worrying about ruining everything. The constant of running kept me on track and healthy diet always fell in line.
In 2011 I cycled from Reading to Lands End and did something painful to my right leg along the way. I finished the Birmingham Half marathon in October 2011 in one hour fifty (5:23 average) but couldn't walk for a week after. The same leg, this time the knee.
By March 2012 I had spent a fortune on physio and had to stop running. I could have kept running - I didn't get the crippling knee pains if I just jogged, but my old friend compulsive wasn't having any of that. It was all or nothing.
In March this year (2013) I was 102 kilos. Life can be a bitch. The stark landscape of virtuous diet had no appeal without the deviations exercise allowed. I like a beer or two. I like to eat out sometimes. Garlic bread and pizza at home occasionally.
Last week I went for my first run in over eight months. Time and a quelled need to push myself meant I just jogged and enjoyed it. But the thought of virtuous dieting was quite frankly, depressing.
Yesterday (Saturday May 4) a package arrived in the post. For my wife. One of her patients had watched a TV program about a revolutionary diet and her husband had lost six stone as a result. The package contained the same book her husband had read. It was based on the TV program and called 'the fast diet'.
Such books regularly appear on the kitchen counter as a result of my wife's hopeful impulses while wandering the aisles of the local supermarket. Except this one had not been invitingly displayed, bargain bucketed, pushed through the door, emailed or attached to the front of a magazine. You can't really get any better than a first hand recommendation. Especially when someone feels so impassioned they go to the trouble of buying the book for you and posting it.
The book was in fact the result of research undertaken for an episode of the BBC's flagship science series: Horizon. Still dubious I headed through to the conservatory and started reading it. Three uninterrupted hours later I finished with the full expectation my life was about to change forever. Why?
Largely because it makes sense. It doesn't require subscription, promise miracles or offer bleak landscapes of no thrills lifestyle. The book looks at the history of humans and the eating habits that prevailed through our extended evolution. It focuses on our ancestors not being able to dish up four, or even three or one healthy balanced meal a day. They often ate a lot in one sitting and went hungry for long periods of time. So if we evolved in these circumstances, what might a similar approach to eating have on modern day humans?
The book focuses on short periods of fasting that result in all kinds of health benefits. When not fasting you eat at will. Over time the fasting improves your health and tempers your food choices. The book covers a lot of the science, explaining in simple terms how it all works.
By the time I'd closed the paperback and bought the Kindle version for myself (£2:38) I was planning my first fast and writing this post in my head.
The first fast day: Monday the 6 May 2013
See you soon.
The Fast Diet website
The Fast Diet on Amazon UK
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