It’s all about what you eat, not how much
I AM NOW 56 years old but when I was 21 I started canoeing. I had had a few beers and a mate and myself challenged a friend to complete the Duzi. We did very little training and after finishing I vomited my lungs out. On arrival back in Pieter maritzburg I had severe diarrhoea and dehydration.
I went back for more and took up running to improve my Duzi times. I completed five Duzis and in 1984 ran the Comrades before moving to Cape Town.
In addition to running and canoeing in the Cape, I have completed the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour every year, bar one, since 1988. In 1999 I did the Tour on a tandem with my daughter and for the first time took more than four hours to finish. I weighed 96kg and was photographed walking up Chappies. I went up to 100kg and was obese, with a body mass index of 31.
On the advice of a urologist, I read the book The South Beach Diet by Dr Arthur Agatston. The book is not a diet but rather an eating plan and explains the whole low GI story, which is very similar to what Tim Noakes is saying; good proteins, fats and carbohydrates. You do not need to carbo-load if you eat correctly and you do not need these special energy drinks.
I started the eating plan on my 54th birthday and just five months later weighed 80kg. I now wear size 32 pants and lost 10cm around my girth. I eat just as much as I did before but it is what you eat that counts.
When I snack I have biltong and a small packet of peanuts and raisins rather than pastries or flour-based “poison”. The book explains the whole metabolism process. Once you are used to the new plan it is extremely simple.
Peter Wilson