For as long as I can remember I have been obese, actually not just obese but morbidly obese, despite a couple of health scares, warnings from medical personnel, sarcastic comments from “friends”, being excluded by people socially etc. I still did not do anything about my weight. Well not until 2012, I had been complaining of serious knee problems, I could barely stand for more than 5 minutes without looking for something to lean over (something that would actually take off the weight from my upper body that was crippling my knees), kneeling down at the altar for communion became problematic so I stopped going forward for communion.
Being a, medical personnel, the need to perform CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) is inevitable which means regular training to update techniques is required. Now for those who don’t know, CPR has to be performed with the patient lying flat on their back on the ground and the person performing it on their knees, this was a major problem for me and I could not comply.
I then summoned up the courage to visit my doctor I use the phrase “summoning up courage” because over here in the UK, whenever you fall within the category of being slightly overweight any ailment you present the doctor with, will be attributed to your weight. The doctor decided to refer me to the surgical orthopaedic consultant (Thilagarajah).
Before I even saw the doctor I was sent for an x-ray by the nurse. I knew this would be the case so I went well prepared by wearing; clean knickers (not that I don’t normally) just that these ones were brand new out of the packet, I also wore a skirt which is kind of rare to see me wearing nowadays, I decided to go for the skirt option as I did not want them to tell me to pull down my trousers or put on a hospital gown that most likely would not fit me let alone covering all the bits of my body that I would like to hide.
I then looked at the two radiographers waiting for them to tell me I could go back to the waiting room but one of them pointed to a little ladder and asked me to climb to the second rung as they wanted to do further x-rays to determine “weight bearing”, I looked at this ladder and thought to myself “surely they cannot be serious”, one of them came over to me as if to hurry me up, I said a quick silent prayer calling all the saints and angels to come and hold me and protect me from falling, my greatest fear of falling is not the humiliation or embarrassment no far from it, my greatest fear is the fear of not being able to get up from the ground.. (Okay you can all stop laughing now).
After looking at my x ray, he told me that my knees looked like the knees of an 82 year old woman and I am a candidate for knee replacement surgery in the next 5-10 years and concluded; “I doubt if you will live that long”. He requested to see me in a year’s time. I looked at him nodding my head like an “agama lizard”, he finally told me to step on the scales and I told him that I didn’t want to (haha thank God for freedom of choice), he then said he would like to see me in a year’s time and I replied “God willing”.
As I left the hospital that day, I vowed that I was going to change my eating habits and try and become more active, I promised myself that I would never give anyone any reason to look at me and just see “fat” and not see “the person within”, I made a decision that I was going do whatever I can (within reason) to make sure that the shield of fat that has been covering “me” for years would disappear.
I wrote down the reasons why I wanted to lose weight and came up with the following;
• I am tired of people not looking deeper and beyond the “layers of fat”, to see the real me;
• I am tired of only being able to buy my clothes from certain shops;
• I am tired of having every medical condition I complain of being linked to my weight;
• I am tired of having to ask for an extension belt each time I board a flight;
• I am tired of not being able to ride a motorbike aka Okada;
• I am tired of not being able to ride a horse;
• I am tired of not being able to dance all night long;
• I am tired of huffing and puffing each time I climb
the stairs;
• I am tired of not being able to run for a bus or train;
• I am tired of being described as the fat lady!!!!
Slim with Ease, a healthy weight loss plan has been inspired by the remarkable weight loss program I have been following, that has enabled me to lose over 54kg in less than 2 years. I will be in Lagos, on the November 8 at Nouveau Centre, Victoria Island Lagos to share my story in the hope that others will be inspired to join me on this healthy journey.
Nina Ndubuisi
