For me the first tell tale signs that my heart was having some difficulty was when I was getting out of breath just walking up a hill of about fifty meters.

I am one of those people who always considered themselves immune to heart disease because I had always been so active in sports in my younger years. My activities included running, rugby football, swimming, karate and horse riding.

I cut down on my sports after I developed no less than three hernias more or less at the same time. I took it as a sign that my body was telling me to slow down. Needless to say, as happens in so many cases, I found it extremely hard to adjust my eating habbits accordingly. When I was active I ate like a horse and paid little attention to the ammount I ate.

Food for me was not just fuel for my numerous activities, I also found, and still do find comfort in food. I suppose that the causes for this are somewhere deeply embedded in my unconcious mind. I have some ideas where the origins of these fears come from and I hope someday soon to resolve them once and for all.

I am boarderline obese, weighing in at 115 kilograms. I cannot stand to see myself in store mirrors because what I see isn't me. It's not the person who people used to compliment for having such a nice physique.

A few weeks ago I was having a few dizy spells and so I went to speak to the doctor about them. She sent me to do a series of checks including a consultation with a cardiologist. He listened to my heart and wrote a quite encouraging report. I was sent to do a heart echo and a heart stress test.

The echo revealed that I have a slightly thickened aortic valve, all other perameters were fine. I am still waiting to do the other test.

I consider this episode to be a first wake up call telling to take matters into hand. I have cut down on all sweet things considerably and I am eating a lot less bread and a lot more fresh vegetabels. I almost never eat lunch and I have managed to control a the dreadfull habit of night time binges.

I am walking at least an hour a day and I have started to take omega3 fish oil and garlic oil.

I am glad to report that the dizzy spells have passed, for now at least and I have started to loose weight. Hopefully, I'll get this thing under control. After all, I am still not fifty and I have plans for many good years to come.

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