In March 2009 I have completely changed my personal diet. I have been reading a lot of books and articles about healthy nutrition for men. I then took what ever sounded suitable for me and adapted it into my personal lifestyle. I’m trying to cook my own meals as often as I can. I’m going for low fat and low sugar and I’m eating a lot of chicken. Some products with “healthy fats� like fish I do eat as well, but in healthy measures.

I have stopped drinking all sorts of sugary fizzy drinks of the like of Coke. During my worst times I sometimes drank 500ml of coke every day of the week. This has now been replaced by a lot of water, some tea, coffee and fruit juices. Some of the fruit juices have almost the same sugar content as Coke, but it is natural fruit sugar and the body seems to react differently to that.

Instead of sweets and chocolate I’m trying to eat a lot more fruit and unsalted nuts. Every weekend however I’m allowed to treat myself and will have an ice cream, cake or some chocolate or biscuits.

I have also changed the way I eat in the evening. I try to eat as early as possible, even though I’m not always able to have my tea (dinner in Wales) early. And then I’m usually not having any carbohydrates in my evening meal. The unwritten rule is: “No carbohydrates after 5 p.m.�. So I would have meat or fish with a lot of vegetables, but no bread, cereals, potatoes, rice or pasta. Again, that is not always possible, especially when the money gets tight at the end of the month.

Besides the difference in nutrition I have also started to exercise more. I’m doing a lot of walking and hit the gym a couple of times. I desperately need to go back to the gym soon, haven’t been for 5 weeks now. But I’m still trying my best to do some fast and long walks.

So far this effort had the following results:

I started at 150 kg or 23.620 stone in March 2009 and the last time I weighted myself I was 128 kg or 20.156 stone and that was the result from July 2009. Recently I found that I had gained 1 kg or 0.157 stone between July and August, but that was down not having moved around enough in July I guess. And I treated myself a little too often in the past month. As soon as I found out about the weight gain I got my act together and I’m trying to keep on losing it.

I don’t believe that all this weight loss is just the result of different eating and exercise. I think it God had His hands in there as well and I praise Him for that. The weight loss journey continues. Watch this space…

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In March this year I decided to stay in Wales until God is going to tell me to go to another place on His beautiful planet earth. The 2 years I wanted to check if living and surviving in Wales was possible weren’t exactly over, but I kind of sensed that it was time to make a decision. I prayed and thought about it for a week and decided to stay on. At the time I was still living in a shared house in Barry town centre. Not the place where I wanted to be. I wanted to live in Gibbonsdown, the place where my church is doing all the social and community work.

Short after my decision to stay on, I started talking to one of the guys from church who was thinking about moving house inside Gibby. We prayed about it and both of us had the impression that it would be good for us to look around for a house for rent and start a new house share in Gibby. Around the end of May we found a house that we wanted to check. The day of the viewing came and even though it was the first one we looked at, we both loved the house from the first time we saw it. Believe it or not, it became the house for our house share. We handed in our notice to our individual landlords and moved at the end of June.

This place is just a little piece of paradise. It is in a quiet cul-de-sac at one end of Gibbonsdown and according to Google Maps we’ve got one of the biggest back gardens in the area. We managed to negioate the rent amount a little lower then the initial request of the landlady. We are both under the impression that this a place where one can just take a deep breath, relax and be oneself. The landlady turned out to be a very friendly lady and her partner is brilliant as well.

I’m glad that I’m back in Gibbonsdown. 18 months was a long waiting time and I didn’t end up getting a council house, even though I was threatened by becoming homeless at least twice. They just didn’t see me as a priority. But I didn’t want to cheat myself into the scheme either.

So I’m back in Gibbonsdown. The first part of the good news. More to come. Watch this space…

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