When he was younger, Johan used to stay active by playing rugby and going to the gym fairly regularly. He was also reasonably careful about what he ate, although he always knew that he drank too much alcohol. He knew he should be careful with his diet and lifestyle because his Dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in his 50s and both of his Grandfathers died of heart disease.
After Johan and his wife had twin boys in his early 30s, Johan found it difficult to make time for playing rugby and fell out of the habit of attending training and matches. He also stopped going to the gym regularly and he felt less able to control his diet because of the combined pressures of work and looking after his children. “I know that looking back on it now I should have made my health a priority, but it was a very busy time in my life and I really took my eye of the ball,” Johan said.
By his early 40s, Johan was overweight and was told by his doctor that based on his waist circumference, blood lipid profile and blood sugar levels he had metabolic syndrome and was at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. “I was really scared to hear the diagnosis from the doctor, and also angry with myself for getting into such bad shape. I knew I should have been more focussed about my diet and exercising because of what happened to my Dad and my Grandfathers,” Johan explained. “The hardest part of understanding and absorbing the diagnosis was how many things seemed to be abnormal, my weight, my blood sugar and my blood lipid profile. It almost felt like it was too many things to be able to solve all at once,” Johan adds.
Johan found himself in the same situation faced by many other people across the world living with metabolic syndrome, and he needed to make the right decisions to start managing his metabolic syndrome. Together with his doctor and family he began to re-organise his life to include regular exercise and completely changed his diet based on advice from his doctor and from online communities. “The first few months were the hardest. It wasn’t actually hard to stick to a healthier diet, because I like healthy food anyway and it made me feel so much better. But, getting back into regular exercise was really challenging at first, I had gotten so out of shape it made me really upset to find even basic exercise so hard,” Johan explained. After discussion with Johan, his doctor also put him on several medications including statins to lower his low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
One year after his diagnosis, Johan has already lost a significant amount of weight and has reduced his waist circumference to a healthy level. He has been going to a gym frequently and recently has even started taking Crossfit classes a few times a week. He is also making good progress towards having a healthy blood pressure and a normalized lipid profile. “I still have work to do, and it will take a lot of effort to maintain my current lifestyle, but I feel a lot more energetic now and it also feels like a lot of stress has been taken off me knowing I am making positive changes and doing something about my metabolic syndrome,” Johan reports.
When asked what advice he would give others who are in the situation he was in after being diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, Johan said “I would tell people firstly not to feel bad about being scared or maybe even feeling ashamed because that is normal, you have to accept it and face up to the fact that you need to make changes. After that, I advise people to get online and learn as much as they can about metabolic syndrome and how lifestyle and diet can help you reverse it – there are lots of good resources available. Also, listen to your doctor and work with them to get your blood lipids, blood pressure and blood sugar back to normal levels, even if this means starting medication.”