On your bike, diabetes!
We turned Dad from a 19st fast food junkie facing amputation into a super-fit cyclist – and his fitness plan can work for YOU
LAST week, I shared the story of how my fatherin-law Geoff Whitington, star of documentary Fixing Dad, shed six stone and reversed his type 2 diabetes. I told how, in 2013, he could barely make it up a flight of stairs, and faced the real possibility of losing his foot due to complications of diabetes.
But within a year, Geoff was taking on 100-mile cycle rides and enjoying life for the first time in years.
In the second of this two-part series based on our book Fixing Dad, I want to share how his family transformed Geoff from a sedentary, 19-stone takeaway addict by building exercise back into his life.
While exercise is not the route to weight loss in itself – to shed those pounds you need to make changes to your diet – it has a multitude of benefits, including improving posture, circulation, mood and sleep patterns, and is crucial for keeping weight off once you have lost it. THE first key element of my husband Anthony and his brother Ian’s plan to fix their dad was addressing Geoff’s nutrition, with a strict twomonth, 800-caloriea-day diet. The second was improving his fitness.
If you, like Geoff, want to embark on a new exercise regime, take time to go through these steps – they will be key to your success.
First, speak to your GP to make sure your training programme is safe. You should also consider running through your ideas with a personal trainer or exercise professional. Don’t be tempted to go for a quick fix just because you’ve heard it gets rapid results.
You should also consider what might best suit your diabetic loved one (or you yourself): is it indoor or outdoor exercise? Would you prefer to train alone or exercise in a group class? Are there any environments they would feel uncomfortable in – for instance, swimming?
This was problematic for Geoff on two fronts: first, circulation problems in his foot meant we couldn’t risk any cuts or scratches becoming infected; secondly, the idea of bar- ing his body in a public pool filled him with dread.
Walking, so often the starting point for exercise programmes, was also out of the question due to Geoff’s foot problems. Instead, Anthony and Ian hit upon cycling as a solution. They decided that if they kept Geoff on smooth tracks with no steep inclines, it would limit the weight driving through his feet. (Plus it was a good way to make use of the bike gathering dust in Geoff’s garage!)
If you have begun to follow the reduced-calorie programme we started last week, you could now add in the early stages of an exercise programme.
If, however, your loved one’s (or your) current weight is very high, you may prefer to follow the diet for a few weeks before introducing exercise.
Either way, try to make an effort to move more and build physical activity into everyday life so that it becomes a habit – and this could mean anything from taking the stairs rather than the lift, to parking the car further from the office and beginning the day with a walk.
However you start your new regime, do it slowly and listen to your body. A good guide when embarking on a new regime is that you should always be able to hold a conversation when exercising.
This is known as the talk test, and it’s a simple of way of ensuring the body is not over-exerting itself. Your loved one, or you, should stop if there’s any dizziness or nausea.
Maintaining a good posture is also important, as it will ensure all the physical effort is happening in the right places. Stretching promotes healing and flexibility and reduces the risk of injury.
And try exercising together – cycling has become a passion for Geoff, no doubt helped by dragging himself out of bed on cold,
wet mornings to go on a ride with his sons.
EXPECT SETBACKS
SETBACKS are inevitable – yet some are bigger than others. During an MRI scan as part of a general health check to pass Geoff fit for his big 100-mile bike ride, he discovered he had kidney cancer. Thankfully, it was caught early.
As obstacles go, it was a big one and we couldn’t blame him for lapsing back into some of his old, unhealthy ways; the aim became not to allow him to undo all the good work he had done.
Whether your setbacks come in the form of arguments and rifts, collapses in motivation or resolve or, as in Geoff’s case, a medical emergency, the obstacle is not important – it’s your attitude and approach in finding your way past it that matters most. Make sure you regularly look back over the motivations for going on this health journey. For Geoff it was not wanting to leave loved ones behind. Feel proud of your family member, or yourself, and get inspired again.
Take it from Geoff and us, his family: the effort will be well worth it.