When Radio DJ Lee Weir went to a new doctor, he was surprised he’d never had routine blood tests.
Lee, his wife Nikita, and their children Lucy and Albie.
My doctor sent me off for a complete set of bloods: liver, kidneys, HbA1c, everything, ” says Lee.
“I got a call on a Friday afternoon from the nurse. She said the doctor wanted a chat, and could I come in on Monday. I asked if everything was okay. She said, ‘Everything's fine. Just looks like you've got diabetes, love.’
“So that was great news to head into the weekend with.
“I was completely ignorant of the disease, so I spent most of the weekend researching. I always thought type 2 diabetes meant you’d had too much sugar. That was my wealth of knowledge on the subject! I thought, I don’t have a sweet tooth at all, so what’s this about?
“The more research I did, the more I realised that not being very active and making bad diet choices had finally caught up with me. A lot of it for me was the portions side.”
He’d always enjoyed large, carb-rich meals, and had been brought up never to waste food. He cleaned up his plate, and if his kids left food, he cleaned that up too. Then there was erratic, late-night eating. “In the year leading up to my diagnosis, I did a lot of night work on the radio. I worked about 180 night shifts, which is almost half the year.”
He says the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes made him feel “deflated, like I’d let myself down”.
His doctor was encouraging, though. “He said, ‘Lee this isn't the worst thing in the world. A change in your diet, and some daily exercise should see you turn this around.”
“I told myself, I've got these two beautiful children that need a dad, and if I don't do better, they won’t have that.
“I stopped snacking, I stopped eating after 6 o’clock in the evening. I’d take my dog for a walk every day, whereas before I’d left that to the rest of the family.” He made sure every walk involved some hills.
“I knew the first month would suck, because I needed to train my body to eat less. So I chewed gum. I drank water. Those hunger pains do go away. I made my own trail mix for snacks, like a scroggin, but because I don’t have a sweet tooth it was sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and diced up bacon.”
He replaced a lot of carbs with greens and other nutrient-dense vegetables. “My wife Nikita was incredibly supportive.”
After a few weeks, he began to enjoy the change in habits. “I was amazed at how much more energy I had.” For one thing, he could keep up with his kids at the park.
When Lee checked back in with the doctor three months later, his HbA1c had dropped from 82 to 43.
“That was a good day. I got really emotional on the call. The doctor said, ‘Have you been starving yourself?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve just been doing what you told me to do. Eating healthier and exercising every day.’
He reflects that in the early days of his diagnosis he was angry at himself. ‘But I think for me, it was one of those things where I needed to be beating myself up a bit. It was a kind of motivation for me. I needed to push myself. That's how I got through.” It might not work for everyone, but, “I think that if I hadn’t have been so tough on myself I wouldn’t have seen such a substantial drop.”
He’s continued to increase his exercise and lose weight: “Nikita can get her arms all the way around me now, which is nice.”
He owns a Fitbit, and says, “It's amazing where you can find steps. You know, carrying the shopping inside in more than one go, even though that goes against every man code known.”
Nikita also wears a Fitbit, and that’s another motivator. “I’m not going to let her get a higher step count than me! She’s an early childhood teacher, so she's always on her feet. We have little battles. They're pointless because no one wins anything, except bragging rights. But bragging rights are huge in a marriage. It’s good fun.”
Lee shared his story in the Spring 2019 issue of Diabetes Wellness magazine.