I beat my type 2 diabetes into submision.

I used to be the archetypal western couch potato. I worked hard but ate all of the wrong stuff, drank way too much alcohol and never did any exercise at all, other than walking from my car to the counter in KFC. A couple of years ago I ended up in hospital for 29 days and was diagnosed with congenital heart failure. They also diagnosed sleep apnoea, type 2 diabetes, gout and a whole host of niggly little ailments basically all caused through bad lifestyle choices.

After being released from hospital weighing 276lb I was told I needed open heart surgery but that they couldn't risk operating whilst I was that weight, they suggested they would not even consider surgery until I got my self down below 210lb.

I completely disregarded what I was told for a further couple of years and finally got to 329lb. At this point I was warned I probably wouldn't last another 5 years. I have 2 beautiful daughters and a wonderful grandson and they seemed to be quite fond of me so I realised I had to do something serious to sort my life out.

On July 13 2012, I quit both smoking and drinking (which I did both heavily). Other than a few celebratory glasses of Champagne I have never touched alcohol since and never even fancied a cigarette.

On May 31st I went to my local slimming world group meeting. There was only one other male (my father) and around 50 females. It felt intimidating but they all made me feel very welcome. I have stuck by their slimming plan for the past 11 months and I have started swimming. When I was 329lb it used to take me about two and a half hours to complete 50 lengths of the pool in my local gym as I could only manage 4-5 lengths then I needed a 4-5 minute break. Over time I have managed to get that up to 80-85 lengths in 60 minutes. I can now do an hour without stopping and not even get out of breathe. I only do a kind of freestyle breast stroke but can manage around 1400 meters in an hour now.

Things I quit:

Smoking
Alcohol
Pop (soda) that has sugar in it
Fast food
Sitting up till 3am looking at rubbish on the internet or playing on-line games
Anything with sugar in it (other than in it's natural form)
No Chocolate
No Potato chips
No Pizza, chicken or burgers I didn't make myself

I also learned how to cook for myself. I have a photobucket site of some of my meals. I am definitely no Chef de cuisine and I am an even worse photographer, but I share my ideas with my slimming world friends and nowadays they do not pull so many contorted faces whilst browsing my meals lol.

I have a slimming group meeting tonight and fingers crossed I am hoping to get my 147lb (10½ stone) loss certificate.

I shall keep dieting and training until I hit 154lb, I figure as I am only 5"6 and I have a dodgy heart the closer I get to my BMI the healthier I will be.

Thanks for all of your wonderful words of encouragement, they really help.