Health scare prompts weight loss

DON SCOTT/The Press

HEALTHY ROAD: Daily beach walks have helped South Brighton man Frits Verdonk lose 11kg.

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South Brighton man Frits Verdonk, 64, weighed 160kg at his peak.

After his first heart attack, he was told he had angina.

When he woke in hospital after his second heart attack, he saw a sign hanging above his head. It read: "diabetes".

Doctors told him he was too fat for cardiac surgery and surgeons refused to replace his arthritic hip joints because his weight made the procedure too risky.

"I've always been a big guy," he says. "But I suppose it happened when I got married 35 years ago. Bringing up kids and having a wife who made nice meals makes you beef up a bit."

However, Verdonk continued eating large amounts when he and his wife divorced.

"I just ate too much. It wasn't all the wrong food, and I didn't have a sweet tooth, but I loved the savoury stuff.

"All the time, I kept saying I was going to lose weight, but it never happened. You stand in front of the mirror and you just say `God-all-bloody-mighty, this time it has to come off'."

The nurse at his general practitioner's surgery encouraged him to start losing weight and directed him to a programme of 10 free sessions with a dietician.

Daily beach walks and swimming have helped him lose 11kg since January and he plans to reach 98kg.

Obesity, Type 2 diabetes and other health complications mean Verdonk must inject himself with insulin twice a day. He walks with two canes and stops frequently to spray medication to open his arteries.

He sleeps with an apnoea machine to keep him breathing through the night and twice a day he takes "a handful" of pills, some of which inhibit weight loss but are necessary nonetheless.

His morning routine takes longer than most people, because he must move slowly and hold on to railings while his limbs warm up.

"It's very difficult doing things that other people don't have to think about, like getting trousers off or putting socks on. You're knackered by the end of it and you feel embarrassed being so big."

Verdonk's tips include cutting out the sweet stuff, eating larger portions in the morning than in the evening, reducing portion sizes, and fighting hunger pangs by occupying the mind with loud music.

"Mentally, it gets you down, because you worry about sitting on a chair and making it squeak, so you just stay home.

"I'm getting older and I'd like to live to be 120. You just start thinking.

"I'm optimistic, though. I want to go out dancing on my 65th birthday."

- © Fairfax NZ News