Page 8 - How to stay healthy in an unhealthy world

In 1971 we arrived in Australia. It was like heaven. Warm climate, sunny skies, beaches and more fresh fruit and vegetables, something we never had a lot of back in communist Europe. It also had Coca-Cola, the holy grail of soft drinks I could only dream about in communist Czechoslovakia. It was not available unless you had special currency reserved for the elites and was REALLY expensive.
But now, I could drink as much as I like . . . And I did. Sometimes 2 litres or more of Coca Cola a DAY. To wash down the delicious greasy deep fried fish and chips with lashings of Barbeque sauce.
Potato scallops, Dagwood dogs, hot dogs, Dim Sims and ooooh, those delicious Big Macs, apple pies and Coca Cola . . . more Coca Cola, and then some more Coca Cola. With a little bit of Fanta thrown in for good measure. I loved the taste of this kind of rubbish food and lived exclusively on it one whole summer spent surfing down at Maroubra Beach with my school friends.
Those were the days I blissfully stuffed my face with basically everything that I could never have back in the old communist home country. In fact, as I grew older
I became known as “Garbage Guts” because I would finish everyone else’s leftover food at meal times. Obviously, but unknown to me, this was taking a toll on my health and energy. But more on that later.
My decision to NEVER get overweight.
I remember one day lying near the clubhouse at Tamarama beach in Sydney with my friends when I was about 18 watching all the older “Clubbies” thinking . . . I will NEVER look like that when I get older. With their beer bellies and not so hot bodies after the age of 25, 30, and worse, as most people got older and started to look out of shape and overweight.
But, the kilos did start to creep on slowly and surely. The most weight I hit was around the 96 kilos. Which for a 194cm tall bloke was not FAT but most standards, but still I was starting to develop a bit of a tummy. I also had those sinus problems, lots of coughs and flus and was always getting sick with one thing or another.
My favourite lunch. Fish and chips washed down with a litre or TWO of Coke. What was I thinking? Oh, that’s right . . . I wasn’t thinking!!!
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