Yes, yes, yes. I can sense the eye-rolling as people see the title here. I can hear the ‘oh, here we go again – he’s banging on about needing to change AGAIN… Yawn, yawn – we’ve heard it all before’. And I absolutely get that. But this time, it’s serious. Let me explain why.

I’m now 52 and there are 4 health & wellbeing issues which are really hacking me off. Most prominently right now is a medical episode I had whilst on holiday at the end of July. I woke up one morning and was certain I’d somehow broken the big toe on my right foot. The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t put any pressure on it. I had to walk on the outside and/or heel of my foot. It was agonising even to the gentlest of touches. After a couple of days of trying to tolerate this, I bit the bullet and saw a medic (we were abroad at the time). Cutting a long story short, he poked and prodded, asked me if I drink a lot of alcohol, and eat a lot of red meat or shellfish, then told me to see my GP when I get home and have my uric acid levels tested. My own GP, following a blood test, confirmed it is gout.

For those unfamiliar with the condition, gout is a common and painful form of inflammatory arthritis, caused by a buildup of uric acid crystals in the joints. Basically, those small crystals form inside and around the joints, causing sudden flares of severe pain and swelling, typically in the big toe and typically at night. This certainly rang true with me – the night before I saw the medic, I didn’t get to sleep until 5am as my toe was constantly throbbing (no matter how I lay) and something as innocuous as the touch of a light bed sheet was hideously painful. Some short-term medication resolved this within 4-5 days, though my GP firmly stated it will return at some point. Longer-term medication is an option if that is the case, though lifestyle changes remain my best chance of reducing the likelihood of recurrence. I’ve had other foot-related issues over the past 6-9 months too, including Plantar Fasciitis (painful inflammation of the thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of the foot) and Achilles Tendinopathy (an overuse condition causing pain, swelling and stiffness in the Achilles tendon (which connects the calf muscle to the heel bone). There are multiple potential factors which cause these conditions, though I’m certain that both my feet having to support a 17-18 stone carcass for every minute of every day certainly won’t be helping…

The second issue is the blood pressure medication I’ve been on for a year now.  My blood pressure wasn’t excessively high, but high enough to result in me taking a pill every day to manage this. I’m really not happy about this. I know such medication is fairly commonplace these days but I don’t want to be in a position where I’m relying on it for the rest of my life, certainly not at the age of 52. In fact, I’m really frustrated at this – it sours my mood every morning when I pop the pill.

Issue number three is the good old weight problem. I’m a stone lighter than I was at the beginning of March this year, though that’s nowhere near good enough. I’m still around 3 stone above what I believe is a healthy weight for me (my own estimate – not confirmed by any medical professional or those ridiculously generic (and, in my humble opinion, worthless) BMI charts). I need to get down to around 14 stone, and I now need to do it pretty swiftly.

The fourth and final issue is intrinsically linked to issue three – I’m sick and tired of being tired (absolutely knackered, actually) pretty much every day. On the very worst days, this affects every important element of my life. It affects my mood (and therefore relationships with those close to me), it affects my productivity and desire to do anything of note, and it affects my state of mind overall. I find this every bit as frustrating as the other issues listed here.

So, what to do to change all the above (and change for good this time around)? I’m suddenly incredibly mindful of the old adage ‘If you keep doing the same things, you will get the same results.’ As ever, I strongly believe weight loss is the single most important thing I need to address. I’m also acutely aware of how much of a factor alcohol is when gout occurs, therefore this is most important and immediate change for me. I haven’t touched a drop since our last night on holiday (a month ago at the time of writing) and I intend keeping it that way until I reach my goals. I can do that with ease – six months without alcohol won’t be an issue at all. Perhaps I’ll reach that stage and believe this a change I need to make for life – time will tell. The rest of the changes are the good old core basics which so many experts advise when advising how best to lose weight – eat the right foods at the right times, severely reduce foods high in saturated fats and sugar content, severely limit ultra-processed food, aim to complete frequent short-term fasting (i.e. 16 hours without food prior to an 8 hour eating window each day), move more, and walk and exercise frequently. I’m also aiming for consistent sleep patterns every single day of the week – for me, that means a target of 7 hrs sleep per night and waking up at roughly the same time each morning, including weekends. Essentially all the really simple yet highly effective stuff.

Basically, I cannot continue like this – there has to be significant change and that has to commence immediately. Plus, I don’t want to risk getting to a point in life where a much more severe health issue really forces my hand. I’m incredibly conscious that I’ve looked a bit of a clown in the past when I’ve mentioned here, on more than one occasion, about the intent to lose weight, though it hasn’t happened to the extent I’ve suggested. Yet, the fact that I’m doing that again here hopefully emphasises the importance I’m placing on this. Plus, when people see me in 4-6 months, and marvel at my transformation (!), I want to point back to this article, to prove that the change will be a result of good old hard work rather than hitting the Ozempic jabs!

I will clearly keep you posted here. If, in the meantime, you see me out and about, hopefully you now won’t need to question why I’m sipping a lime & soda or a Guinness Zero…

Best wishes and take care.

Mick