it was 15 August 2009 when I got a
letter of offer for employment by an
international organization and it was
after a long way because I did my
interview in 2000 in 2008 in the offer
came in 2000 and mine I was excited in
fact I just read the heading and three
lines and then I took off to share the
news with my wife my six-year-old
daughter and my friends and when that
excitement kind of died down I came back
and I read the rest of the letter and my
heart escaped a bit I was shocked
because that offer was subject to
medical check-up raise your hand if you
have done a medical check-up before
you’re doing pretty good my my first
medical checkup was when I was 42 years
old in fact that was the first so when
the tests were done the results were out
and the doctor went through the list
spleen normal liver pancreas normal
gallbladder excellent blood pressure
good heart rate good weight fine height
good relationships fine fact I was doing
pretty good but he said this one problem
your cholesterol levels you see there is
good and bad cholesterol right and he
said your cholesterol level is quite
high in fact he told me that it’s on the
borderline you see when when you’re just
about to fall off the cliff that’s where
I was but I told him doctor how is this
possible
look at my size I was just like this
look at my size I told him I just came
down from Mount from hiking on Kenya the
other day I don’t even
how’s that cold it’s called a balcony I
told him I don’t even have a balcony how
can you say that my cholesterol czar
elevated and what he told me shocked me
because he told me that you can be as
thin and as slim as a spaghetti noodle
and still suffer from high cholesterol
levels and when I did a bit of research
I actually came to realize that for
every three people and these are
statistics from the World Health
Organization for every three people one
is suffering from high levels of
cholesterol now are we encouraged you
look at your neighbor on the right and
look at your other neighbor on the left
according to the World Health
Organization statistics one of you asked
your neighbor is it you
so my levels were elevated but
fortunately for me I was cleared because
it was not as bad although he told me
that you need to start looking at your
diet you need to test to start
exercising so I was at least hired so
that was 20 2009 2010 I did another test
and my levels were not doing any better
you could see here don’t know if you can
see and then 2011 it was still higher
2012-2013 it was still the same now that
is what we call a reference level you
can see that is 2.9 to 5.2 and there was
always above 5.1 so that’s what the
doctor was talking about that I was on
the borderline then in 2014 January I
moved to
I was living and working in Tunisia then
I moved to Kenya and they did my next
test in September and when I got into
the doctor’s office the look on her face
have you ever seen a shocked doctor the
look on our faces and chills down my
spine It was as if she was saying a view
do you have your fee neural insurance It
was as if she was saying have you
started digging Your Grave It was as if
she was saying
have you written your will because she
told me that your cholesterol is so high
it nearly broke the testing machine so
you can see that the reference level is
2.9 to 5.2 I was on 6.4 so if you had
the weighing scale that can only weigh
100 kilos I was on 120 as an example
that bad and they told him you know
doctor I’ve been hearing about these
stories of high levels he just explained
to me in simple layman’s language what
is the problem with having high levels
of cholesterol is it that my wife and I
would not be able to make more babies is
it that I will not live long enough to
see my grandchildren she said no that’s
actually not the case and she went on
and explained to me that imagine that
you have a galvanized water pipe that
has been transporting water for
centuries and after that sometime that
pipe will develop rust like what you see
on the right it will start getting
clogged it can break it can bust and it
will start leaking water and she went on
and explain that and no more utter is
what you see on the left side and the
mild is what you see in the middle but
the one ending on the far right
where I was and she went on and
explained that your blood vessels become
smaller and smaller and smaller and she
went on and said you will end up
probably with her stroke or win heart
attack or with chest pain and she went
on and said you might also end up with
importance men in the room did you hear
that and when I heard that I said excuse
me a doctor please help I’ll do anything
please help me she went on and said okay
I will help you and she wrote this
prescription of medicine that I had to
collect and I went to the pharmacy and
picked them but she said you also need
to look at your diet you also need to
look at your exercises and I said fine
but she told me that for you before you
start your diet and exercise program you
need to go see a dietician and I went
and met the dietician her name is Doris
and I told her okay been asked to come
see you and she said before we start oh
I say anything you need to go and bring
you a wife you know when they start
calling your spouse it’s kind of serious
so okay get my wife and then we came and
then we sat and she asked she asked my
wife so what does your husband eat or
likes and she said first of all my
husband loves fried mails you know when
someone fry orders have neighbors frying
and you can feel I just love it and he
also actually also explained that I live
creamy chicken soup with buttered bread
rolls coconut rice with fried chicken
fried eggs
you give me fried eggs you know I will
trade for anything
white bread layered with jam and butter
and when I’m talking about a layer it’s
sometimes a layer of jam and butter is
thicker than the bread itself fatty
juicy barbecue you know amasai so I can
do before breakfast lunch and dinner
without a problem
pork chops with mashed potatoes
cheesecake and donuts actually I could
have those as my main meal so those are
the kind of things that I was taking and
and the dietitian said all that has to
stop all you need to put it to a minimum
and then so she went on and recommended
something else so she said your creamy
cheek first of all she said you’re Mills
normal fried Mills you need to poach in
it to steam you need to boil or grilled
no more fried stuff and she also said
the creamy chicken soup with buttered
bread replace that with brown rice brown
garlic brown spaghetti grilled chicken
and then fried eggs she said you replace
that with poached eggs and she went on
and said is not just posted as port you
need to remove that the yellow one and
thus the sweetest part can you imagine
for a tgc barbecue beef replaced that
with grilled fish you know I started
eating fish when I was 21 that was tough
to win a messiah from me to grill fish
anyway
pork chops with fish and boiled potatoes
and cheesecake and donut with fruit
salad and she continued and said I know
that the doctor has prescribed some
medication to you so you need to stick
you need to use you need to eat that
medication they were supposed to eat
that for three months but I say don’t
cuss you know I believe that he can
exercise I can follow the program for
meals and everything so why do I need
the medication and I was trying to
reason that if I can do the exercise and
it properly for three months I think
that’s good enough for me too
going but I also told her that if I get
back how would I know if it is the
medication or if it is the lifestyle
that has improved and she actually kind
of reasoned with me and she said fine
and we left and when I got home the
first thing I get was an email from
Dorcas and this is what she said after
consultation with the doctor we felt
that it is necessary to continue with
the medication as prescribed and I
consulted my wife do I really need to
take the medication if I survived all
these years I think I can survive three
months right she said this is your
problem
so actually chose not to take the
medication and let me just put a
disclaimer here I’m not advocating to
disobeying the prescription of a doctor
but that’s what I felt I should do so
I started planning for my exercise
program and I looked at my calendar I
realized that I would not be able to
exercise in the morning because I lived
the house at half-past five in the
morning to catch up with the traffic
lunch I have crazy working days that was
out of question and then for evening’s
it was next to impossible because I
would have worked hard the whole day I
would come home tired and also I needed
to have a bit of time with the family
so that was not possible so the only
time that was available for me was 4:00
a.m. in the morning so actually if you’d
come at 4:00 a.m. in the morning you
would find me doing my push-ups
you’ll find me lifting weights you’d
find me jogging and they did that for
three months day-in day-out now coming
back to Mills my way also had her plans
she started filling me with brown rice
brown spaghetti tea with brown sugar
brown bread and brown maize meal and
this that was not enough she even put me
on a brown suit and brown shoes and
brown socks and brown I think we can end
it there right and that went on for
three months and then after three months
we went back to see the doctor and my
heart was beating waiting for the
results is like we were just waiting for
the interview results and I could see
her smiling when you see a doctor
smiling that does good news and she said
congratulations you can now stop taking
the medication and they said thank you
doctor but I did not take any medication
anyway I was back actually I was back to
normal now this has been a journey of
five years 2009 to 2014 and I want to
share with you three lessons that I take
away and these lessons you can apply
them in any challenges that you might be
going through in any areas that you want
to improve and let me say that this is
just my experience I’m not a medical
doctor
but I’m just sharing your experience and
see how it can probably help you number
one is consistency now you all
have alarm clocks and sometimes when an
alarm clock rings you reach out for that
button what is it called
yes you know what I’m talking about so
when I started before I used to use
snooze buttons a lot but today I can
tell you that first of all what I had to
do is to move my my phone or my Allen
away from next to my bed I normally put
it in the bathroom so that I don’t use
that smells but it helped me with
consistency and I do remember that most
times when it is raining it is windy it
is cold I’ll just wake up and kick that
blanket and dress up and show up for my
daily exercise
the other one is sacrifice for me I can
tell you running and eating next keeping
beef it was a big deal for me but I did
sacrifice because I think my health was
more important than just satisfying my
past but the other one was to you know
was the support you know all these five
years my family was not really involved
but when my wife was called in to see
how she can help me it actually changed
everything and that’s my daughter Anya
you know helping me with you know the
exercise so support is very very
important
now as I finish this is what I would
like to encourage all of you that your
health is your wealth your health is is
your gold mine your health is your echo
of diamond and your and and and you have
to protect it like it’s your treasure
Isle and I look forward to seeing all of
you at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning
[Applause]
letter of offer for employment by an
international organization and it was
after a long way because I did my
interview in 2000 in 2008 in the offer
came in 2000 and mine I was excited in
fact I just read the heading and three
lines and then I took off to share the
news with my wife my six-year-old
daughter and my friends and when that
excitement kind of died down I came back
and I read the rest of the letter and my
heart escaped a bit I was shocked
because that offer was subject to
medical check-up raise your hand if you
have done a medical check-up before
you’re doing pretty good my my first
medical checkup was when I was 42 years
old in fact that was the first so when
the tests were done the results were out
and the doctor went through the list
spleen normal liver pancreas normal
gallbladder excellent blood pressure
good heart rate good weight fine height
good relationships fine fact I was doing
pretty good but he said this one problem
your cholesterol levels you see there is
good and bad cholesterol right and he
said your cholesterol level is quite
high in fact he told me that it’s on the
borderline you see when when you’re just
about to fall off the cliff that’s where
I was but I told him doctor how is this
possible
look at my size I was just like this
look at my size I told him I just came
down from Mount from hiking on Kenya the
other day I don’t even
how’s that cold it’s called a balcony I
told him I don’t even have a balcony how
can you say that my cholesterol czar
elevated and what he told me shocked me
because he told me that you can be as
thin and as slim as a spaghetti noodle
and still suffer from high cholesterol
levels and when I did a bit of research
I actually came to realize that for
every three people and these are
statistics from the World Health
Organization for every three people one
is suffering from high levels of
cholesterol now are we encouraged you
look at your neighbor on the right and
look at your other neighbor on the left
according to the World Health
Organization statistics one of you asked
your neighbor is it you
so my levels were elevated but
fortunately for me I was cleared because
it was not as bad although he told me
that you need to start looking at your
diet you need to test to start
exercising so I was at least hired so
that was 20 2009 2010 I did another test
and my levels were not doing any better
you could see here don’t know if you can
see and then 2011 it was still higher
2012-2013 it was still the same now that
is what we call a reference level you
can see that is 2.9 to 5.2 and there was
always above 5.1 so that’s what the
doctor was talking about that I was on
the borderline then in 2014 January I
moved to
I was living and working in Tunisia then
I moved to Kenya and they did my next
test in September and when I got into
the doctor’s office the look on her face
have you ever seen a shocked doctor the
look on our faces and chills down my
spine It was as if she was saying a view
do you have your fee neural insurance It
was as if she was saying have you
started digging Your Grave It was as if
she was saying
have you written your will because she
told me that your cholesterol is so high
it nearly broke the testing machine so
you can see that the reference level is
2.9 to 5.2 I was on 6.4 so if you had
the weighing scale that can only weigh
100 kilos I was on 120 as an example
that bad and they told him you know
doctor I’ve been hearing about these
stories of high levels he just explained
to me in simple layman’s language what
is the problem with having high levels
of cholesterol is it that my wife and I
would not be able to make more babies is
it that I will not live long enough to
see my grandchildren she said no that’s
actually not the case and she went on
and explained to me that imagine that
you have a galvanized water pipe that
has been transporting water for
centuries and after that sometime that
pipe will develop rust like what you see
on the right it will start getting
clogged it can break it can bust and it
will start leaking water and she went on
and explain that and no more utter is
what you see on the left side and the
mild is what you see in the middle but
the one ending on the far right
where I was and she went on and
explained that your blood vessels become
smaller and smaller and smaller and she
went on and said you will end up
probably with her stroke or win heart
attack or with chest pain and she went
on and said you might also end up with
importance men in the room did you hear
that and when I heard that I said excuse
me a doctor please help I’ll do anything
please help me she went on and said okay
I will help you and she wrote this
prescription of medicine that I had to
collect and I went to the pharmacy and
picked them but she said you also need
to look at your diet you also need to
look at your exercises and I said fine
but she told me that for you before you
start your diet and exercise program you
need to go see a dietician and I went
and met the dietician her name is Doris
and I told her okay been asked to come
see you and she said before we start oh
I say anything you need to go and bring
you a wife you know when they start
calling your spouse it’s kind of serious
so okay get my wife and then we came and
then we sat and she asked she asked my
wife so what does your husband eat or
likes and she said first of all my
husband loves fried mails you know when
someone fry orders have neighbors frying
and you can feel I just love it and he
also actually also explained that I live
creamy chicken soup with buttered bread
rolls coconut rice with fried chicken
fried eggs
you give me fried eggs you know I will
trade for anything
white bread layered with jam and butter
and when I’m talking about a layer it’s
sometimes a layer of jam and butter is
thicker than the bread itself fatty
juicy barbecue you know amasai so I can
do before breakfast lunch and dinner
without a problem
pork chops with mashed potatoes
cheesecake and donuts actually I could
have those as my main meal so those are
the kind of things that I was taking and
and the dietitian said all that has to
stop all you need to put it to a minimum
and then so she went on and recommended
something else so she said your creamy
cheek first of all she said you’re Mills
normal fried Mills you need to poach in
it to steam you need to boil or grilled
no more fried stuff and she also said
the creamy chicken soup with buttered
bread replace that with brown rice brown
garlic brown spaghetti grilled chicken
and then fried eggs she said you replace
that with poached eggs and she went on
and said is not just posted as port you
need to remove that the yellow one and
thus the sweetest part can you imagine
for a tgc barbecue beef replaced that
with grilled fish you know I started
eating fish when I was 21 that was tough
to win a messiah from me to grill fish
anyway
pork chops with fish and boiled potatoes
and cheesecake and donut with fruit
salad and she continued and said I know
that the doctor has prescribed some
medication to you so you need to stick
you need to use you need to eat that
medication they were supposed to eat
that for three months but I say don’t
cuss you know I believe that he can
exercise I can follow the program for
meals and everything so why do I need
the medication and I was trying to
reason that if I can do the exercise and
it properly for three months I think
that’s good enough for me too
going but I also told her that if I get
back how would I know if it is the
medication or if it is the lifestyle
that has improved and she actually kind
of reasoned with me and she said fine
and we left and when I got home the
first thing I get was an email from
Dorcas and this is what she said after
consultation with the doctor we felt
that it is necessary to continue with
the medication as prescribed and I
consulted my wife do I really need to
take the medication if I survived all
these years I think I can survive three
months right she said this is your
problem
so actually chose not to take the
medication and let me just put a
disclaimer here I’m not advocating to
disobeying the prescription of a doctor
but that’s what I felt I should do so
I started planning for my exercise
program and I looked at my calendar I
realized that I would not be able to
exercise in the morning because I lived
the house at half-past five in the
morning to catch up with the traffic
lunch I have crazy working days that was
out of question and then for evening’s
it was next to impossible because I
would have worked hard the whole day I
would come home tired and also I needed
to have a bit of time with the family
so that was not possible so the only
time that was available for me was 4:00
a.m. in the morning so actually if you’d
come at 4:00 a.m. in the morning you
would find me doing my push-ups
you’ll find me lifting weights you’d
find me jogging and they did that for
three months day-in day-out now coming
back to Mills my way also had her plans
she started filling me with brown rice
brown spaghetti tea with brown sugar
brown bread and brown maize meal and
this that was not enough she even put me
on a brown suit and brown shoes and
brown socks and brown I think we can end
it there right and that went on for
three months and then after three months
we went back to see the doctor and my
heart was beating waiting for the
results is like we were just waiting for
the interview results and I could see
her smiling when you see a doctor
smiling that does good news and she said
congratulations you can now stop taking
the medication and they said thank you
doctor but I did not take any medication
anyway I was back actually I was back to
normal now this has been a journey of
five years 2009 to 2014 and I want to
share with you three lessons that I take
away and these lessons you can apply
them in any challenges that you might be
going through in any areas that you want
to improve and let me say that this is
just my experience I’m not a medical
doctor
but I’m just sharing your experience and
see how it can probably help you number
one is consistency now you all
have alarm clocks and sometimes when an
alarm clock rings you reach out for that
button what is it called
yes you know what I’m talking about so
when I started before I used to use
snooze buttons a lot but today I can
tell you that first of all what I had to
do is to move my my phone or my Allen
away from next to my bed I normally put
it in the bathroom so that I don’t use
that smells but it helped me with
consistency and I do remember that most
times when it is raining it is windy it
is cold I’ll just wake up and kick that
blanket and dress up and show up for my
daily exercise
the other one is sacrifice for me I can
tell you running and eating next keeping
beef it was a big deal for me but I did
sacrifice because I think my health was
more important than just satisfying my
past but the other one was to you know
was the support you know all these five
years my family was not really involved
but when my wife was called in to see
how she can help me it actually changed
everything and that’s my daughter Anya
you know helping me with you know the
exercise so support is very very
important
now as I finish this is what I would
like to encourage all of you that your
health is your wealth your health is is
your gold mine your health is your echo
of diamond and your and and and you have
to protect it like it’s your treasure
Isle and I look forward to seeing all of
you at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning
[Applause]
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