About Richard

When I first got my diagnosis I was told I’d probably be on the pills for the rest of my life – so what was the point of doing anything about it?

My local diabetes clinic told me (quite rightly) that I had to improve my lifestyle, get some exercise, quit smoking, eat less sugar and take the pills. My weight and blood tests did improve a little as I was on medication in the early years but never to the point where I could be classed as diabetes-free.  My blood scores remained stubbornly high and for several years I resigned myself to a lifetime of medication.

Type 2 diabetes comes about because the body’s ability to control and regulate blood sugar has malfunctioned.

In my case it was because the internal body fat I was carrying had affected my natural insulin function – the same is true for many other people with type 2 diabetes. Emerging science tells us that instead of being a lifelong condition a type 2 diabetes diagnosis can now be reversed – and the earlier you try it after your diagnosis the greater the chance of success.  It won’t work for everyone but the odds of it working within the first 6 years of diagnosis are good if you can drop enough weight and keep it off in the long-term.

When I discovered that there was a genuine prospect of diabetic remission I became my own lab-rat. Over 5 months I dropped 31 kg (a quarter of my body weight) and restarted my natural insulin function by eradicating the internal fat that was making me ill – and I did it by completely ignoring the public health dietary advice that encourages us to eat plenty of starchy carbohydrates.

The five principles that dominated my approach to dealing with my diagnosis were to:

Conquer Type 2 Diabetes is the story of my journey to recovery, to learn more join the mailing list or for help with planning your own weight loss regime to try and overcome type 2 diabetes schedule a consultation.

Richard Shaw

Richard Shaw has worked in senior management roles in marketing and communications in some of the UK’s leading arts organisations including the National Theatre, English National Ballet, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the British Film Institute. He is a former factual television producer, Head of Development at Lion Television and an Executive Producer of award-winning documentary features.

He was trained at one of London’s leading cookery schools, produced food programmes for TV in the UK and the USA and has even appeared on Masterchef.

When he decided to do something about his own type 2 diagnosis he was a 54-year old, sedentary, fat man within 5 years of his diagnosis and he weighed over 117kg (260lbs).

Today he is diabetes-free.

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