This is a simple biography about my life and my weight loss journey. Thank you all for your time and I really hope this will help you in knowing me better.
1. My Story (Back
)I grew up in a small family where the belief in bringing up a child is to have him or her fed as much as possible, in other words, fatten up! That way, others would see the child as being fortunate because he has more than enough to eat.
I certainly enjoyed this privilege of eating and being very inactive. That resulted in my weight to balloon so much. So much that I outgrew my peers(horizontally) all the time. Childhood was more of eating than having fun, I had a maid to watch over me and my food, so I was never ever hungry!
By Primary 2, at the age of 8, I was already seeing a specialist at the Institute of Health for my weight issues.
This was me, when I was 11. I was about 80kg then.
Spot me now! This was a class picture taken when I was 12.
Weighing about 100kg at the height of 162cm, I was the fattest in my level. That did not stop me from eating though, I still ate when I have the chance to. Almost all of my daily SGD$5 allowance was spent exclusively on food.
2. The Wake Up Call (Back
)I was only 12, going 13, when I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. But during that point of time, Diabetes wasn't any concern to me at all. It didn't affect the way I look nor the way I live, it just didn't make sense to be bothered by it. (This is where I think it should be improved, educating newly diagnosed diabetics.)
I was actually diagnosed with Hypertension and High Blood Cholesterol levels much earlier. At age 11, I already had these two symptoms of obesity. But again, it didn't really matter to me much.
The real blow came to me when I was 13, I was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea(OSA) after an overnight sleep test known as the polysomnogram. (I hated that test! It's extremely uncomfortable sleeping with 20 probes and surgical glue on your head) Obstructive sleep apnea is common among the Obese because of their restricted air flows.
Soon after, I was scheduled for a surgical procedure to fix my OSA. Crap, I hated surgery, and I certainly don't want a scar that runs along my neck. If there is anything(legal) I could do to just avoid this damn surgery, I'll do it! But things was going too fast, the next thing I knew, I'm already on my bed, waiting for my surgery the next morning.
Something miraculous happened just as I was being pushed into my operation theatre. They ran a temperature test on me and I had developed a fever. Pandadols did not work and the Surgery was cancelled!! I was happy, nevermind that I wasted money and a day, I was really really happy. Suddenly, I remembered my doctors saying, if I could lose some weight, my OSA might be reversed.
To cut my long story short, I crashed dieted, lost 32kgs and did a sleep test again. This time I was declared free of OSA, I don't need a surgery anymore!
3.Losing weight (Back
)I was Obese, Twice! I've manage to maintain my weight of around 68kg that I got from crash dieting for a few months. After that, I decided to try building some muscles. Now, for those of you out there who is familiar with building muscles, you have probably heard of the 'bulking' phase. This is a phase where a person eats as much as he can so the he can build as much muscles as possible. A perfect disaster for someone who had just lost major weight.
Soon after, my weight went back on, and i was back to obese again, now weighing slightly better at 95kg(not much better!). I gotta admit that it's funny how that I thought all those weight gained was majority muscles. Unfortunately, it was not! This time round the weight gain has negatively affected my diabetes and hypertension. I was placed on two medications, Metformin for my diabetes and Nifedipine for my Hypertension.
Eventually I lost weight again, this time through sound and proper nutrition. Soon after, I'm off my medications. I was only prescribed with enalapril when I'm found to have slight Proteinuria.
4. My Life Now (Back
)Today, I'm a completely different person from what I am a few years back. I don't eat the same food and I definitely have a different view on food. I don't count my calories, I don't time my meals, I do eat junk food every now and then. But still I'm doing fine! There should be something that I'm doing right but everyone is doing it wrong. And that is the purpose of this blog, to share it!
5. Why Listen to Me? (Back
)I'm no doctor nor nutritionist, I don't have qualifications for that. But what I have is personal experience and that is something that can never be learnt from education. There are many times that I wish someone would guide me along, but sadly, that didn't happen. I'll be really glad if I could pull anyone out of this disaster.
6. My Dreams (Back
)I want to save obese children, from all these consequences that are very real. They are so vulnerable and oblivious to anything that is happening, just like I was. I've been searching for an organisation that I could perhaps help out in, but I've found nothing. I don't believe that the figures for obese children will be coming down any time soon. I hope I can set up a non-profit organization someday to support my cause!
I would also love to write a book. It would most probably on weight loss but it's not another fancy dieting book. I know I won't be able benefit financially from believing and writing in what I stand but that's not my purpose anyway. Maybe I could just start of with an E-book first.
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