The last resort (part 1)

It would be fair to say that, prior to the birth of our sons Isaac and Toby, Butlins would have been pretty much our last resort in terms of holiday destinations. But, as they say, having children is a life-changing experience, and if there is one thing that demonstrates just how much my life has changed over the past two years, holiday choices are as good a discriminator as any.

Pre-kids, Butlins would not have even registered on our radar for manifold reasons, including:

1. What's the point of staying in one place when there's a big wide world out there to explore?

2. It brings to mind images of the 80s sitcom Hi-de-Hi.

3. It's full of chavs.

But here we are at Butlins in Minehead - halfway through our five-day stay as I type this (on my iPhone, a painfully slow experience) - and I have to admit it's been pretty good so far.

Sure, it's much more crowded and downmarket than the distinctly middle-class experience that is Center Parcs. And, yes, it is overflowing with chavs, and the Welsh, and even Welsh chavs. But before I come across all snobbish (OK, OK, too late), it's absolutely fine for what it is - which is about half the price of Center Parcs. Fair enough, the accommodation isn't a patch on Center Parcs, the range of activities more limited, and you could never pretend that you were in a little isolated bubble far from the madding crowd (there's a Tesco five minutes' walk from our front door). But when you have an excitable toddler and a young infant, there's a lot to be said for having all the facilities you want a short stroll away, and for having entertainments and activities which are slanted towards pre-schoolers and pre-teens, rather than catering for older kids and adults.

So far, Zac has worn himself out in the soft play area, on the rides in the funfair for smaller kids, swimming in the pool, playing on the old-style amusement arcade machines and generally running around everywhere at top speed.

Never mind that there's nothing in particular for Heather and I to do - with the boys, it's not as if we have the opportunity to do anything anyway - but then it's satisfaction enough watching your toddler having so much fun that he doesn't know what to do next. And that's kind of the point, isn't it?

Hi-de-Hi

I've written previously about our first experience with the family-friendly world of Center Parcs, which we visited a year and a half ago. Tomorrow all four of us will be squeezing into the car to head down to Butlins in Minehead - or 'Center Parcs for chavs', as I may have uncharitably referred to it on more than one occasion.

Actually, I am really looking forward to it. It will be lovely to have a few days of proper family time, away from the stresses and responsibilities of the real world. Minehead came recommended to us by some local friends, with the added bonus of being right by the beach, Zac's favourite place in the whole wide world.

Mind you, I still can't quite get the mental image of the fictional Maplins holiday camp from the 80s sitcom Hi-de-Hi out of my head, which was supposedly based on Butlins. As long as Su Pollard isn't cleaning our room, I'll be okay with that.

I'll report back upon our return.

A man with a plan

I had my first appointment at the diabetes clinic this morning. The nurse wanted to put me on medication straight away, but I asked to defer for a couple of months to see if I can control my symptoms with a combination of diet and lifestyle changes. (She said the probability was "at least 99%" I will have no choice but to use medication, but if there's even a 1% chance I can avoid it - once you are on tablets, there is no going back - I want to give myself that opportunity.)

As a result, I am now formulating a firm plan for dealing with my diabetes. My next blood test will be in 12 weeks or so, and if things don't improve significantly I will probably have no choice but to start popping pills - so the clock is ticking.)

To be fair, I already had a pretty good idea of the key things I needed to focus on, having already gathered some initial advice from my GP and by scanning the wealth of online resources, such as the Diabetes UK website.

The three key things for me - all, obviously, interlinked - are as follows:

1. Diet: This is easy, at least in principle; a bit trickier in reality. Given my somewhat less than healthy diet recently, a dietician would have a field day with me. At least that means there's a huge upside, as there are a number of obvious quick wins I can focus on which will improve my diet enormously. In truth, a diabetic's diet is little different to what you would tell someone to do if they needed to lose weight: cut down on fat, cholesterol and portion sizes; try to avoid 'empty' calories (e.g. chocolate) which give you sugar but little else; grains, oily fish, fruit and vegetables are good, as are reasonable portions of starchy carbs.

Basically, less pie and chips - more pasta and salads. I've already started doing a lot of this over the past two weeks. Obviously, sustaining it is a trickier deal, but so far so good.

2. Weight loss: In addition to controlling my glucose levels, one of the obvious benefits of managing my diet more sensibly is, of course, weight loss. The less overweight I am, the more efficient my body should be at processing glucose, and the less likely I am to keel over from a heart attack. (Diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart disease.) Having already lost over a stone in the past two months (largely as a result of my diabetes), I'm already off to a good start, but I've been trying to work out what my ideal weight should be, or at the very least set a pragmatic target.

To this end, I calculated my Body Mass Index (BMI) over the weekend, which told me I need to be under 210lbs (15st) to be merely 'overweight' (as opposed to obese) and no more than 175 lbs (12st 7) to be 'normal weight'. Having started out only just the right side of 18st after Christmas, that immediately had the theme tune from Mission Impossible playing in my head. Although I got down to 15st 3lbs five years ago - when I was walking 15-20 miles and going to the gym three times every week - the last time I weighed less than 210lbs was when I got married in 1997, and I have no idea when I was last as low as my maximum 'normal weight' of 175lbs. (13? 14? Certainly before I was fully grown.)

Now I don't realistically think I could ever be as low as 175lbs - I'm way too thick-set for that - but I suspect that somewhere around 195lbs (just under 14st) would be my theoretical target weight. For now, I think my medium-term objective has to be to get from my current weight of 16st 12lbs down towards 16st - I don't doubt that will require considerable and sustained effort on my part - because otherwise I'm beaten before I've even started. Losing - and then keeping off - the best part of 30lbs in nine months would be a pretty decent effort, wouldn't it?

3. Exercise: Along with diet, this is the other big lifestyle change for me. During school, university and my twenties, I did sports regularly and still struggled to control my weight, but over the past three or four years exercise has become increasingly sporadic - and correspondingly my weight has ballooned - to the point where I have never been this unfit, and I realistically know that even a gentle half mile jog will leave me puffing, beetroot-faced and with a host of muscle twinges (assuming I can still actually run that far). So my starting point is, let's face it, poor.

This is definitely the biggest challenge of the lot for me. Focussing on diet and weight does not require a significant investment in time; exercise does. The literature recommends I should be doing 30 minutes of moderately vigorous exercise three to five times a week. This is quite easy in theory, trickier in practice. But I need to find a way to make the time in my week to aim for a brisk walk on average every other day, just to start building some base fitness. I've bought myself a heart rate monitor - well, it's a gadget, isn't it? - to help me get the most out of whatever I do without overdoing it. The biggest single problem I have is constant and severe cramping in my calves - a symptom of my high sugar levels - which is really most unhelpful. It's frustrating, but somehow I need to break the cycle and get myself out there.

Which is why I'll be leaving work early this afternoon to make the time to go for a walk, even though my calves are still as tight as an overstretched drum skin.

So, overall I have two new, stretching targets for the end of June (that's 11 weeks today):

Weight: Start point 16st 12lbs, target 16st 5 lbs - i.e. lose half a stone

Exercise: 33 sessions (i.e. three per week), starting at a minimum of 800 and rising to 1,000+ calories per week. Calorie expenditure target for the 11 weeks: 10,000 (about 900 pw).

As the cliche says: no pain, no gain. Off we go.

Day 1 of the rest of my life

I'd been aiming to be 17st 2lbs by Easter, and so I should have been pleased when the scales flashed back 16st 13lbs - fully three pounds better than my target - this morning, meaning that I have shed 14 pounds in just eight weeks.

Of course, I now know that there is a medical reason for my dramatically successful weight loss, which came with my diagnosis of diabetes earlier this week. Unexpected and significant weight loss is often a symptom shown by people developing the condition. (As the body does not convert glucose effectively, it starts to burn its reserves of glycogen instead, leading to weight loss and fatigue.) So I can't really take the credit for the noticeable improvement to my waistline - call it a disqualified success, if you will.

In my last post on Tuesday, written a couple of hours after my initial diagnosis, I was quite upbeat. Since then, I had my blood tests done on Thursday, which showed a fasting glucose level of 16.3 - more than double what it should be - and confirmed the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes (type 2 being less serious than type 1).

In truth, my outlook hasn't changed: I'm still feeling positive. I know I need to manage my diet more carefully, and it's now even more important that I get my weight down. An appointment with the diabetes clinic next week is my first step in determining my plan for the coming months and getting my glucose level down to something like 7 or 8.

This is the easy bit. I have had the sudden jolt of the bad news, and the wave of determination and even enthusiasm that comes with it. I'm already taking little steps to make my diet healthier, and with the days growing longer and warmer it will be easier for me to ensure I take brisk walks into town or around the estate on a regular basis.

The hard bit will come once that initial wave subsides and I have to face up to the fact that this is not a brief phase or a crash diet to drop a few pounds pre-holiday. This needs to be a permanent lifestyle change to maximise my chances of a full life and minimise the prospect of my children having to deal with their father's early demise.

I've always known I needed to be lighter and fitter, but lacked the willpower to turn good intentions into actual outcomes. Now the choice is a little more stark. In truth, there is no real choice.

So, for now it's the first baby steps on a long journey. Step one is to get to the end of April, be doing at least three lots of moderately vigorous exercise a week, and aim to get my weight down to 16st 9lbs - that's a pound a week. We'll worry about step two and onwards when we get there.

It starts right here, right now: the rest of my life. Off I go.