Dedicated to Cheryl Julie Matthews Thank You for Being My
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Dedicated To Cheryl Julie Matthews Thank you for being my ‘Mum in a Million’ “Don't worry, about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be all right.” Contents Foreword 1 Introduction 2 The Why 3 Fundamentals 4 The Balancing Act – Hormones 5 Striving For Stereotypical Perfection 6 Mindset 7 Movement 8 Macros 9 Madness 10 Marriage 11 Money 12 Moving Mountains – Everest Obsession 13 Putting It All Together 14 Small Stuff, Big Results 15 It Was All Just A Myth 16 The Three Phases 17 What Is It Really Like To Lose 100lbs? 18 I Was Having A Heart Attack About The Author Thank You Foreword By Laura Matthews After another day of hearing my colleagues go on about various ailments and how there’s “nothing they can do about it” (with me biting my tongue and shouting in my head ‘THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO!!) I finally set aside some time to start writing this blog. You see, I’m on a journey to improve my health but like a lot of people, I ignored the signs my health was on the brink of some black hole until it had gotten really bad. I want to take you through what caused me to question traditional ways of thinking about health. And who knows, maybe you could benefit from some of the stuff I’ve learned too. So many times I hear about people eating a cube of cheese followed by umpteen cups of green tea as they’ve heard Ruth at slimming world lost 10 inches from her thighs. Or others merely saying “I really need to get back into yoga/running/swimming” when we all know full-well when the weekend comes, that goes out the window and it’s off to the pub for a ‘quick one’ (which turns into 10) or a takeaway which invariably means you feel like death the next day and don’t do the very thing you keep meaning to do, which is be HEALTHIER. Inevitably procrastination follows, (I mean it’s so hard to get back on the straight and narrow once that happens) then you realise it’s been 3 weeks since you did any exercise or ate anything vaguely nutritious. And you start to get little niggles. That headache which won’t go away, the itchy skin, the tiredness. But it’s not all the time so you must just have a bug that’s going round or you’ve not been getting enough sleep. Or it’s that new moisturiser you’ve been using, right? So you go to bed a bit earlier for a week, dose up on vitamin C and chuck that expensive moisturiser in the bin. (It was over- priced anyway). Then you feel a bit better and resume the lifestyle you had before. And so the cycle continues. And that’s exactly what the majority of people do. Jeez, I was one of those people. The Beginning If I cast my mind back I was at University when I started to feel things weren’t quite right. I would get stomach pain ranging from mildly annoying to severely debilitating (like doubled over and couldn’t stand up straight) and terrible bloating. I couldn’t understand what it was. It felt like a build up of gas in my stomach and the only thing I could link it to was my lack of food on those days. So I tried to eat more regularly but it still kept happening. The ‘cure’ was laying down and taking one of those tablets which helped with trapped wind. Sure enough my stomach would duly deflate after an hour or so (after a lot of gas had, er ‘escaped’) but it wasn’t ever dealing with the issue. At this time I was getting the symptoms occasionally so I just took the pills and got on with things. Back then – we’re talking 18 years ago – food allergies were hardly talked about unless it was that one person on board the plane which meant you couldn’t open your packet of nuts, then everyone talked about it. (Usually in hushed tones so as not to look like the unsympathetic type.) Anyway, I digress. During this time I also started to get knee pain, usually when I was running or sitting with my knees bent for long periods. I was studying Sport Science (which is a real degree I’ll have you know!) so I had access to journals containing a wealth of information on different kinds of knee pain and how it may come about. Lack of collagen, kneecap not tracking properly, flappy cartilage etc. So there began my countless trips to various health professionals to try and figure out what was going on. I recall the first hospital referral I had was in the town in which I was studying. I had an x-ray then 2 weeks later I had an appointment with a doctor. Without even touching my knee, the doctor asked if I wanted an arthroscopy (camera inserted through a small opening in the joint) to see what the issue was! Suffice to say I declined and got the hell out of there sharpish. So again, without much hope of getting an answer, I just treated the symptoms and reduced my road running, rubbed inordinate amounts of ibuprofen gel onto my knee when it was painful and always sat with my legs straight. Diagnosis 1 – We Aren’t Sure Once I had finished university I was back in my home town and eventually found a job at a Sports Centre. This was great, I got a job in my chosen field and chatted to people – happy days! I could train there for free before/after my shift so it was ideal. However, my knees started to deteriorate and make these weird clicky noises. I decided to go my GP and explain what had been happening over the past few years. He did some basic testing on the knee to check the stability and suggested some physiotherapy. I met a particularly abrasive, physio in the initial consult. She did similar tests to the GP and asked me what were the issues I was experiencing. Genuine disgust crossed her face when i explained its hurts when i run or sit with my legs crossed. Her answer was ‘well, can you just not run then?”. I sat there and thought “Er, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt you to consider running a bit yourself you overweight old bag”. But rather than piss her off, I maintained it wasn’t right that I was having knee pain this severe at a young age. After 6 sessions of physiotherapy and some painful manipulations later (with a different physio, thankfully) I was no better off and was told it was likely my kneecap wasn’t tracking properly due to one of my thigh muscles being too weak to keep it in a straight line. I was given some exercises to try and isolate and strengthen that muscle and rock tape was also suggested. Suffice to say they made a very small amount of difference. “Better than nothing though” I thought. Diagnosis 2 – Weird Feet Fast forward a few years and I get referred to the biomechanics department at the hospital. I have my feet manipulated, watched as I walk up and down barefoot then an impression of my feet are taken. The guy in charge states I have ‘downwards pointing feet” which apparently is common in women. In conjunction with stiff joints in all parts of my feet/lower leg, these issues are contributing to excessive force going through my knee as the joints lower down aren’t absorbing the impact. The end result is custom made orthotics to go in my shoes. They raised the heel about ¼ inch, which should help with knee pain. And guess what, they made…little difference! By this point, as you can imagine, I’m debating whether to cut my legs off above the knee and be done with it. What the heck is happening in there? I continued in this slow downward spiral until about 3 years later. It was winter and my knees always played up in the cold but this was different. I was struggling to get up and down stairs or straighten my legs fully. I was having to get the bus to work when I lived 20 minutes walk away. I went back to the GP and had some blood tests done. I got a pretty quick referral to the hospital (compared to how long it takes now in 2018 anyway) where they took an MRI scan of my knee. Diagnosis 3 – The Game Changer A few weeks later I got the results and it came back as sero- negative arthritis. Which basically means there’s no markers in the blood to confirm it but based on my MRI and description of symptoms that’s what it was. I actually cried in the doctor’s surgery. I was 31 and had this disease which (as far as I was concerned) only old people got. At this particular time, I felt REALLY sorry for myself, like I was doomed to have a life of shuffling about with a stick and missing out on ‘stuff’. Yes, a bit dramatic but at this point my whole world was crashing down around me. I was sent back to the hospital for an initial appointment in the rheumatology department, which was to become my 2nd home for the next year or so. I was surprised to see quite a lot of patients under 40 in the waiting room.