About Me

Hey there, I’m Roland

Who?
I am Roland. I am a Process Manager at a large IT company.

What?
What I want to do with this website is blog about my ongoing struggle with obesitas.

Where?
Mostly around my waistline… I have the beginnings of a small belly…

When?
Being obese is something that happens to you 24 hours a day. Basically you drag along excess weight all the time…

Why?
The story began about 3.5 years ago as I was driving to my parents. I was at a junction and my light was green, so I drove off. I was hit by a Turkish or Moroccan lady that drove her car into ours. I remember the moment of impact clearly, as I turned my head left as I saw her coming from the corner of my eye. I slammed with my head into the window on my left, knocking me out for a few minutes. I was extremely lucky that the police were on the opposite site of the road, waiting for their light to turn green. She immediately started to call for help, which arrived a few minutes later. She did not care about me at all, not once did she come to me to ask if I was alright or not… I am sure it was an accident, but her way of doing was plain rude. It could have been much worse, but our car was a total loss…

In the aftermath of the accident the police called an ambulance for me to have them check me out. The male nurse started by taking my blood pressure. He did his thing, but then looked a bit amazed at the apparatus used to take my blood pressure, turned it off and on again, started checking all connections and finally did his measurements again. Than he carefully looked at me and said: “Sir do you know you have a dangerous and extremely high blood pressure?” The device reported 232 over 148, again… They did not want to let me go, and wanted to take me to hospital immediately, but as my parents lived 500 meters away from there they agreed to let me go, but made me promise to come to the hospital later that day. I did so, and promptly had to stay there for the night as I was not allowed to leave (again).

The obese thing I knew… I had the beginnings of small belly… The high blood pressure thing was totally new to me. The combination of having both is not very appealing as it is one with potentially very dangerous health problems. I went to my fiancée in Bangkok to spend some time with her. In Bangkok I wrote a document trying to find answers to the following questions: “Who? What? Where? When?Why? How?” (known as the 5W1H principle) as I wanted to look at the problem from different perspectives, trying to find answers and come to a solution. The accident was a very loud wake-up-call to a fight that I am going to win. I just see no alternative…

How?
Lucky for me, my manager pointed me out to the Health Coach Program, which the company I work for organizes, and I enlisted. Now Corona has ended more of less, and I am fired up to restart the fight with a their help. With their help I already lost 5.5 kg, compared to 3.5 years ago, but that’s not enough. One thing I will do is get more exercise.

About 3 years ago I married my sweet and lovely wife and she came over to live with me. Now we are one happy family, which is good, but my problems are not gone… Little did I know that Corona was about to stick up it’s head. That totally ruined all my plans for action. The first goal is reaching 100 kg. Which will not be enough, but is a marker to aim for. After that the second goal will be reaching 85 kg.

This website is going to tell the story of my struggle, with it I also hope to help and/or inspire others. As part of my struggle I am starting to walk and try Nordic Walking. See our sister website for more information about this.