First. I'VE GOT ANOTHER CONFESSION TO MAKE!!! (If you didn't read that in the tune of the Foo Fighters song 'Best of You', then we can't be friends anymore)
I haven’t been to the gym in over 2 weeks because the sauna and spa facilities aren’t working. Something wrong with the gas lines that heat that area of the building. Seems silly to not use the gym that is in perfect working order just because I can’t visit the sauna and spa. Maybe I’ve just got lazy. Yep, that’s it. I’ve got lazy. Lazier with my eating habits, lazy with my drinking habits, lazy with my exercising. STEP UP LEE! DO BETTER! I’m getting back into my structured eating plan. I am going on an alcohol detox starting now and I am getting back to the gym regardless of whether or not I can sit in a hot room with a bunch of other sweaty dudes that don’t speak English. I’m all over this shit! Last Tuesday, I got an email from one of the producers of ‘The Project’, asking me if I wanted to come on the show and talk about my health journey and where I was at with it all. I was a little hesitant to do this at first because it’s a nationwide tele show and I didn’t want to make a dick of myself, potentially……Then I thought about how cool it would be to get on there and tell my story to someone who was maybe going through the same thing and give a little advice on how I have managed to do so well. I am so glad that I did it, too. It was a LOT of fun and the crew there (at the project) were so accommodating and lovely. I was sitting backstage in the green room with Ben and Tom from The Block and a bunch of dudes with AMAZING BEARDS who were there to talk about the beard and moustache festival competition or something. Whatever they were there for, they made me feel so inadequate as someone who was quite proud of his beard. It was so blatantly obvious to everyone in the green room just why they were going on the show. Ben and Tom were obviously there to talk about The Block NZ, the television show that they’re on. The beardy twats were obviously there for their facial hair achievements, but why was a fat, bald bogan in a ROCK 1500 t-shirt there? Ben decided to find out…… So, why are you here, man. What are you doing on the show? I had no idea how to explain why I was there in a few sentences without getting into EVERYTHING, so I said Well, I used to be really fat with diabetes and now I’m just fat without it. Oh…………… Poor dude looked so confused, ay. So, I went a little more in-depth but only a little. Sorry bro. (laughing)… I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic in May this year due to being so fat. And now I have reversed my diabetes diagnosis in three months and lost a bunch of weight and I’m here to talk about that……. All good man, congratulations. Cheers mang. Prior to sitting at the desk, I had a chat with Arun, one of the producers about what questions they were going to ask me etc. It was important that I didn’t say that I ‘had beaten diabetes’ or that ‘I had cured diabetes’ because technically, you can’t cure it. It's an incurable disease. What you can do however, is reverse the diagnoses and no longer be a type 2 diabetic. I know what you’re thinking – isn’t that the same thing, Lee? Honestly, I’m not too sure. From the research I have done, you’re only a type 2 diabetic if your hbA1c count is over 50. If it is under 50 and between 41-50 you’re a ‘pre-diabetic’ and if you’re under 40 – you’re not pre-diabetic. So, if you’re asking me – and you are, right?
I was a type 2 diabetic. Now I’m not. I’m a person who falls into the category of being ‘pre-diabetic’. So again, I am not a type 2 diabetic, but my hbA1c count could rise again to over 50 (making me one again) if I don’t keep going with my lifestyle change. Ya follow? All of that would have been far too much to squeeze into a 4-minute interview on live tele so I avoided the whole thing and talked about how my hbA1c count was at 82 in May and then 90 days later, it is now at 43. I talked about my motivation and my family and my doctor’s reaction to my amazing 90-day turnaround. I talked about the fact that I was probably undiagnosed for a year or so and some of the symptoms that I had. It felt good to do that show. They have a lot of viewers and hopefully my story helped someone and if it didn’t, ah well. It helped me. It turns out that a very dear friend of mine (Catherine) is good friends with Jesse Mulligan from The Project and was at his house for dinner the weekend before my appearance. She told him that he had to get me on the show and told him my story and about how I was writing about it and how incredibly open and honest I have been with it all in my blog pieces. I guess Jesse read a few of my pieces and thought – Yeah, we’ll get this bogan on for sure. The one thing that I’m gutted that I didn’t talk about was how much weight I have lost. But that’s they way it goes, you prep your whole day for what you’re going to say and then when the big dance finally arrives, and the spotlight is on you, you forget all the moves. I am glad that I said that I knew that it was my fault that I got the diabetes diagnoses and that I didn’t pick up some disease overseas or anything, it was all a result of me allowing myself to get to the size that I am and that I own that completely. If you have a skim through my previous blog posts, that is probably the most common recurring theme. ‘That it is my fault and I own that and my situation completely’. ‘That it’s on me to change it and that the only person responsible for this whole mess is me’. All in all, it was a pretty good interview and I had a lot of incredibly positive feedback on how eloquently I spoke and how I represented myself. I did have to google what ‘eloquent’ meant, though…………. I knew it was a positive word and that it was associated with speaking and presentation end shit, but I certainly had never used it in a sentence. It means “Fluent or persuasive in speaking or writing”. I’ll take that. A friend of mine told me on Friday night at The Rock 1500 party that I made the show better. That I made tv interesting and fun. Educational and entertaining. Again, I’ll take that. It was a lot of fun to do and then to re watch when I got home. It was also nice to get make up put on my big bald head. Still – they didn’t have to put me on straight after those dudes with the glorious beards, though. I’m still trying to cheer my beard up. I feel it will take some time.
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Over the past week I have been reflecting on my journey over the last 90 days and just how far I have come. I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty bloody chuffed with myself.
On the 23rd May I was 164 kilos and had just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes as a result of my weight and my diet. It was the worst thing to have happened to me since my mum lost her battle with cancer and slipped away from me and my family on the 9th December 2010. Man, that sucked. It sucked so bad. It was a Thursday evening that she passed. The Wednesday night before, my wife and I were at our church (we were youth group leaders at the time) and the night was drawing to a close and I said to my sister Gary (remember the nickname evolution from Carol-Anne – Gary that I outlined in a previous blog) “Hey Gaz, we’re off mate, come on let’s go”. We used to drop Gary off to mum and dads on our way home (even though it wasn’t on our way home at all) but this meant that we could sneak in a mid-week cup of tea with my mum in her sick room (a little room off of my parents kitchen that had a nice hospice bed in it because she could no longer make it up the stairs and I guess it was cheaper than putting in a chair lift) and it was close to the downstairs toilet. Gary replied by saying “Nah mate, I’m staying at Lily’s house tonight” This didn’t feel right to me. I don’t know what it was but something about the fact that we weren’t dropping Gary home and therefore not going to get to see mum made me feel a little queasy. In fact, I have that feeling right now just writing about it. I told her to “stop mucking around and to come with us” She reckoned that “mum and dad know that I’m staying at Lily’s and it’s all-good” So, Nikita and I headed home. The next morning as soon as I got to work, I noticed that I had 6 missed calls from mum and dad’s landline number. This was not uncommon as dad was often calling me multiple times to ask me if I had ‘borrowed’ the diced lamb from his freezer. I very seldom receive a call from dad that is not of an accusatory nature. There is a little bit of small talk at the beginning, the old “How are you, how’s Nikita” Then comes the question “Hey, you didn’t happen to borrow a can of chilli beans/diced lamb/500g pack of bacon while you were here last week, did you”? NO DAD. I DIDN’T. I logged into my computer, set up for the day and then I returned the call to see what I had supposedly taken this time and my mums friend Cheryl answered. Hello, weir household. Cheryl? Yes, that you sweetie? Yeah, I have a bunch of missed calls from dad. What’s up? Hang on, I’ll get your brother. No no. What’s going on. Lee – I’ll put you on to Adam …………………………………………………………………………………….. Lee? Yeah man, what’s going on? Come home, bro. Oh god, no……. Really? Yeah little brother. It’s happening now. Come home. On my way. I called Nikita on the way home and she was already on her way to my mum’s house. My Oma as on her way from Cambridge and my uncle and aunty were shooting down from Kamo. I got a txt on my way home that simply read “Beer” So, I stopped by King Dicks Westgate and grabbed a slab of Tui and a slab of Lion Red. And raced back to mums. When I got there, I was told that last night my mum needed to go to the loo, so she went to get out of bed and had had a fall. She pressed her ‘help’ alarm and my brother Adam had come out of the sleepout (where he was staying during the last few months of mum’s life to help out) and found her on the floor in a delirious/hysterical state. Dad came downstairs, and they both successfully managed to get mum back into her bed, but she was still incredibly unsettled and in a total state. Dad called the doctor and he told him to give her a sedative to help her calm down and get back to sleep. So, he did and sadly, she never woke up from that sleep. I remember every minute of that day like it was yesterday. Thursday 9th December 2010. The day that one of the two people that loved me unconditionally and would have given their lives for me without question if it meant that I would not ever feel pain, couldn’t hold on any longer and slipped away from me. I love you mum. I really wish you were still here. Wow what a tangent. Anyway, Over the past three months I have worked extremely hard to get my health in order. I ate less. I ate healthier and I exercised daily. Something that I know I probably should have been doing from the get-go, but still; I am glad to be doing the right stuff now. I am still not happy with how much I weigh, and I do have a goal weight in mind and until I reach that I will keep on doing what I am doing and keep on going hard and pushing myself to do better. I would like to thank everyone that has supported me in this journey (and it is far from over) but I am grateful for all your support so far. Especially my wife, Nikita, my family, my work crew at The Rock & Morepork and my children. That’s who I’m doing it all for – My children. They need their dad around for a long time. I want to teach my son how to drive. I want to dance with my daughter on her wedding day and I want to be around to experience the joy of grandchildren. I am not too sure when my next blog entry will be so thank you for reading them and thank you all for your kind words. |
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AuthorLee Weir - Radio Announcer, Marriage Celebrant and Guinness World Record Holder. Archives
January 2024
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