Eliminating sugar from your diet is not easy. Sugar and simple carbohydrates are the real culprits in driving diabetes and obesity, but not many have managed to cut them out completely.
For Ajuth Deng, an advocate of the High Court, it took the weighing scale to tip at 96 kilogrammes for her to quit sugar, follow a meal plan and start working out.
After seeing a clinical nutritionist who helped her develop a meal plan, she started by tapering down her carbohydrate intake and watching her food portions. She also stopped drinking soft drinks and whatnot.
Sticking to a new diet is not easy. Her first goal was to push three months sugar-free and if that did not work, resign to fate and let nature take its course.
“At first, I gained an extra kilo, and just before I could give up, it realised that I looked smaller, my breathing was better, and I felt less tired,”she says.
This convinced her to work on herself more. She later started walking 10,000 steps a day and the results shocked her.
"I reduced from 96 kilos to 60 kilos which is my ideal body weight as recommended by Body Mass Index (BMI),” she says.
Cutting out sugar is easier than it sounds, and it starts with evaluating basic habits and Denis Leli, who works in a bank in Mombasa, knows this too well.
Two years ago, he noticed a spike in his weight. He moved from 95 kilos to 123 kilos.
Regional Manager for Asset Finance at NCBA Bank, Dennis Edwin Leli at the Gym in Nyali, Mombasa in this photo taken on July 16, 2024.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
“I used to frequent restaurants and bars a lot for networking purposes. While at it, alcohol and high-carb foods formed a central part of my diet. This led to a sharp spike in my blood sugar level. At 32, my metabolic age was of a 50-year-old. The weight caused me weak knees, backaches, loss of sleep, blurry vision, continuous body malaise, laboured breathing, and dipping mental health,” he says.
For Denis, the situation was exacerbated by the steroid medicines he was taking while recovering from surgery. His doctor and friend advised him to see a specialist as he exhibited signs of a health scare. At the other end of the test, the results showed he had diabetes.
5,000 steps
“It was enough not to feel good about how I looked then, but diabetes, at my age? Something had to change,” he tells the Lifestyle.
Denis sought the services of Philip Lundu, a clinical nutritionist at MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi, who had been his family’s nutritionist.
“We came up with a diet and fitness regimen to right the wrongs,” Denis says.
“I started by cutting down on my alcohol and carbohydrate consumption, significantly replacing them with leafy vegetables and protein-rich foods. I incorporated walking into the regimen and started seeing the results almost immediately.”
Denis set two end goals, a healthier body and a possible reversal of his diabetes. The latter was founded on research Philip had done earlier in his career about the reversal of Type II diabetes through lifestyle and diet change. At the start of these changes, his sugars read 15.3 mmol/L. [A blood sugar level should be less than 7.8 mmol/L).
The two made it their goal to reverse this by taking the levels below 7.8 mmol/L.
In May 2022, he transitioned to running from walking. By this time, his gut and pulmonary health had significantly improved, and he could take a five-kilometre run three times a week without a struggle.
“Walking 5,000 steps daily seemed difficult at first, both physically and mentally. I worried about how people would perceive a grown man like me walking on the road panting and sweating,” he says.
Great improvement
By December, he weighed 89 kilos and his sugar level was reading at 4.6mmol/L. Beyond physiological and physical gains, Denis and Ajuth both concur that their self-confidence has greatly improved.
“I am more focused on my goals, working better in a high-pressure job, I have a better swing at the golf course, and best of all, I sleep better. All these can be attributed to how I feel about myself after my body transformation.” Denis says.
“I fit better into dresses I couldn’t before, and my esteem is at an all-time high,” says Ajuth.
Philip says sedentary lifestyles and diets high in sugar and fat are the main contributors to not just weight gain but also some non-communicable diseases.
MP Shah Hospital Clinical Nutritionist Philip Lundu during the interview on June 20, 2024.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
The clinical nutritionist who has attended to hundreds of patients for more than 12 years, adds, “Other factors like age, gender, and health status are also determinants of one’s body weight. It is important to say that a leaner body is not a sure indicator of good health. The excess storage of unutilised fats leads to weight gain, which people describe as fat. It is common to be concerned about an increase in your body weight.
It is prudent, however, that, before one embarks on a weight loss journey and/or a change in diet, they need a full nutritional assessment to first establish if they need to lose weight and secondly to create the best arrangement that suits them. Many people pick on a habit because they see it in other people. However, healthy living is never linear and what works for one person might not work for another.”
Goal-setting
Goal-setting at the start of one’s journey helps in mapping out key indicators to look out for as well as tracking progress.
Understanding the motivation behind the efforts one is employing can be one’s true north as Philip explains.
“One has to know if they are doing it to solve an existing issue or to avert a possible one. After that reconciliation, one can embark on targeted results upon the advice of a professional,” he says.
These successes, however, have not been easy to achieve.
“I have had cheat weeks when I just want to eat cake. Now that I am wiser, I know how to control my cravings and how to pay for them when I fall,” says Ajuth. For Denis, he has had to abandon a lifestyle he once was so fond of.
