Clive's Story of Recovery- From Heart Attack to Healthy: 20kg Lost, 42" To A 34" Waist, Re-invigorated Marriage and Thriving Global Head.

“After the mild heart attack, I realised I had to sort my shit out! I do NOT want to have a full-blown heart attack!”

Clive sat across from me in a meeting room visibly shaken whilst retelling his story.

We’d only been speaking for 5 minutes before he’d began telling me about the heart attack he’d had only 6 months ago.

It was clear that this event had had a huge impact on his sense of who he was, his identity.

Professionally, Clive was the Global Head at one of the largest investment banks in the world. He was a powerful and successful guy with 20 years in finance behind him. He had been in his current role for a little over a year before the heart attack had happened.

Now he was worried he’d lose his dream job because his failing health meant he couldn’t keep up and he’d had to take a lot of time off after the attack.

The new role had thrust a lot of new responsibilities onto Clive’s shoulders and his already limited time had become even more limited.

The deadly cocktail of chronically high stress levels, no real exercise for over 20 years, years of late nights and early mornings, and regular fine dining and drinking had resulted in Clive’s waistline reaching 42” and his weight ballooning to 105kg (he was 5’ 8”).

On top of the stats, he felt like shit!

He was permanently tired which meant he spent his weekends trying to recover and catch up on lost sleep. This left little time to spend with his unhappy wife and he couldn’t remember the last time he had the physical or mental energy to be intimate with her.

He had two teenage kids too. The heart attack had them scared as much as he was.

He felt he was failing the three of them.

He then proceeded to tell me how he’d tried a lot of diets over the years.

A LOT of diets.

Some had helped him lose a tiny bit of weight, 10lbs was the best he’d managed, but they were so restrictive and un-sustainable that he would “fall off the wagon” eventually and gain it all back and then some. Each time he got more demoralised.

“I always said I’d sort my health out later on, after I got the next promotion…”

He shook his head as he slumped forwards in his chair.

“Hindsight’s a bitch.”

I then described the 5-Pillars of my customised coaching programme, ‘The Executive Evolution Framework’ and how I knew it could help him shed the excess weight, reduce the strain on his heart and get him feeling 10 years younger so he could finally start showing up as the best husband, father and business leader that he truly was.

That day he signed on to the programme.

Fast forward a few months and Clive was a very different husband, father and Global Head.

When Friday’s came around Clive no longer dragged his feet into the weekend.

He had the energy to take his wife out for dinner and make her feel special again, like when they’d first gotten married, 15 years earlier. Intimacy was no longer a problem.

He’d also started going to his kids’ sports games on the weekend for the first time ever. He no longer needed to nap in the afternoons so he could go and watch his son play rugby and his daughter play field hockey.

He couldn’t believe he’d been missing out on being an active member of his family for so long.

Clive had lost 20kg and gone from a 42” to a 34” waist and decided to treat himself to some new bespoke suits and shirts. For the first time in over a decade he felt comfortable taking his jacket off in the office and standing in front of his division and speaking to hundreds of people.

When we had a catch-up coffee a few months after finishing working together one thing Clive said really stood out.

“I can’t believe I put off sorting my health out for so many years!” he laughed as he said it.

“If I’d felt this good for the last 20 years I could have achieved so much more and not felt so shit the whole time. What a waste.”

He said it best when we first met…

Hindsight’s a bitch.

If you’re reading this and it’s made you uncomfortable, if it’s made you say “that’s me!” then please don’t make the same mistakes as Clive did.

STOP putting your health on the back burner.

Don’t spend 20 years abusing your health to only have a heart attack or stroke before you wake up to what you’ve lost.

Clive may have gotten his health back, but he won’t ever get back those 20 years.

Invest in YOU.

It’s time to Evolve.