Tony: 'Did men's health weight day save my life?'

When I heard they were organising a Men's Health Day at our office, I thought it would be crap. But our Health and Safety Officer said that as I was a manager, if I went, it might encourage others to go along so under duress I went.

overweight man The woman asked me the sort of questions that I expected about my medical history and then weighed me and took my blood pressure which I assumed would be fine. But the nurse told me it was 180 over 115 which I realised was quite high. She took it again and it had gone up to 192 over 115.

She suggested that I should make an appointment to see my doctor. This was on a Friday and as I could not go to the doctors until the Monday, I had an absolutely dreadful weekend. I thought I might die at any time.

The visit to the doctors confirmed that I did have a problem with my blood pressure. The doctor told me to lose some weight as this would help. He also said he would monitor my blood pressure for a few weeks which he did with a number of appointments. He then prescribed some medication to help control it.

New holes in my belt!

I started eating more fruit and healthy stuff — if I need an energy boost mid morning instead of chocolate or sweets I have a banana or an orange. I have changed to brown bread, stopped having sugar on my cereals and stopped adding salt to my food.

The upshot of all this is that without really dieting I have lost almost a stone and had to put new holes in all my belts as there has been a reduction in my waste size.

I feel much better in myself and realise that I was not really as fit as I thought I was. There is still a way to go but the Men's Health Day may have saved my life — it certainly caused me to review my situation.