Caldwell's Chronicles

Face to face with reality
I had been ignoring little warnings for ages but one day last November I came face to face with reality and could ignore the signs no longer. My hat blew off as I walked across an exposed dam up in the Lancashire hills. Over the dam wall it sailed and landed on the water's edge. Easy. I'll nip over the wall and retrieve it. It was a Tilley hat after all.

The wall was about four feet in height and I managed to struggle over the top and drop down the other side. I carefully made my way down the slippery stones and picked up my hat. By the time I scrambled back to the dam wall I was breathing very heavily. The wall on this side, because of the slope of the dam construction, was now nearer to six feet in height.

I needed four attempts to get on the top of the wall and then literally collapsed down the other side on to the grass with head pounding, eyes swimming and lungs pumping. It took me nearly half an hour to walk less than a hundred yards to the car.

The next day I saw my doctor. I was far overweight, cholesterol sky high, blood pressure in the danger zone and a blood test showed up liver problems. His verdict - do something about it now or die quite soon! He stated that I had been near a heart attack on the dam wall.

About me
I will be sixty five next March. I've always been active since a small child. I had a countryside upbringing and walked and ran miles every day because buses were rarely available. I was very sports orientated; boxing, soccer, judo, cricket, swimming, athletics and wrestling - some of them to professional and/or representative level. I regarded myself as fit but I was living on past glories.

In recent years I've slowed down and become much more sedentary; my work for the last ten years has been definitely desk bound. I began to notice I had problems breathing properly when tying shoe laces. I had to kneel down rather than bend to unhook trout. My feet and legs ached after a day out fishing. My trousers and shirts were often too tight and so on.

The regime
I planned a regime of activity that included walking briskly for an hour at least three time each week. I converted a spare room at home into a gym with an exercise bike, an abdominal frame, an exercise bench and a couple of exercise mats. I dusted off the weights from the shed and brought them inside. Then I devised a weight training programme with quite light weights that would firm and tone, increase my strength little by little and shift the excess body fat.

My wife collaborated with me in a nutritional programme which means that I rarely eat red meat or fatty/processed foods. I used to love nothing better than a couple of pork pies for my fisherman's lunch. Most meals at home are vegetarian, or have chicken or fish. Marie buys incredibly cheap fish from the fish market in Bury and it is of excellent quality - haddock, monk fish, bass, halibut, herring. I always made fun of 'veggies' but the food tastes good and does you good, too.

I have perhaps one bacon buttie in a month; I don't miss them. I eat yoghurt, mixed nuts and fruit for breakfast every day and I take supplements of Vitamin B complex, Milk Thistle, Omega Three and zinc.

I eat fractionally less but what I do eat is less fatty and more healthy. I exercise much more but in moderation. I exercise at least once a day for up to an hour and occasionally walk for four or five hours over the hills.

The difference
I've lost a stone in weight. My waist size has come down from 44 to 38 and few of my trousers fit because they are too big now. I do not get out of breath even on steep hills. I can jog for 30 minutes non-stop whenever I want to (which is not that often to be honest). I've re-discovered muscles I'd forgotten about and I feel much better. Zinc and pumpkin seeds do wonders for your libido; the difference in both desire and performance is amazing. My blood pressure and cholesterol are both well within normal limits. Now I feel fit for fishing and enjoy it even more.

Tight Lines!

Eddie Caldwell