On a cold Sunday sometime last year, Pastor Bernard Akama was delivering a summons to his congregation at Voice of Plenty Church in Nairobi when he suddenly lost his breath and collapsed.
Mr Akama was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and the first diagnosis from the doctors was that he needed to lose weight as quickly as possible.
“I weighed more than 130 kilograms when the accident happened. I had just completed 40 minutes of preaching when I started gasping for air. I was having difficulty breathing, and that really scared me,” the 41-year-old recalls.
Losing 40 kilos in a year
He admits that until his weight reached 130 kilograms, he ate everything that came his way without much caution or attention.
“At the hospital, the doctors also discovered that I had some underlying diseases. I was suffering from high blood cholesterol which affected the blood circulation in the body, causing me heart problems. This explains why I find myself, more than once without a number, feeling I felt short of breath, especially when I was preaching, which required standing for long hours.”
The doctor’s judgment was that he was completely unfit and that his health was at risk if he did not lose excess body weight.
I was out of shape. It looked really bad. I know people hate to use the word fat, but that’s exactly what I was at the time. My intestines were so big that they made my suits look funny on me. “There are many suits that I have had to stop wearing because my extra weight does not allow it,” he says.
Having no other choice, Mr. Akama entered the fitness industry.
Pastor Bernard Akama warms up on a bicycle machine at the Uhuru Highway Mall gym on November 8, 2024.
Image credit: They are Matthew | Nation Media Group
“I made it clear that I needed to do better. I started getting into fitness and this time I made sure I was consistent. I’ve been exercising for a year, constantly lifting weights and doing a lot of cardio, and in that year my weight dropped from 130kg to my current weight “My goal is to get rid of more because I still have this gut that needs to go away,” he says.
Diet is the hardest
For the pastor, the hardest change in his fitness journey was kicking back his bad eating habits.
“The gym didn’t worry me much because I was playing football until I joined the ministry and I kind of lost focus. I also come from a family of athletes so I knew I could do it. The hardest thing was the diet. Because of the nature of the work we do “Priests tend to binge on fast, fatty foods – cheese, burgers, you name it. I was addicted,” he says. “Drinking a two-litre bottle of Coca-Cola in one sitting was no problem for me,” he says in One session.”
Because of their lavish lifestyle, he says he saw a number of his ministry colleagues die too early. So when it became clear to him that he was also living a dangerous life, he felt afraid for his life and for his small family of three children and a wife.
“This is the sad truth. Many priests have died of heart problems. Or those who are unlucky fall ill and are no longer able to preach.”
Although he has managed to lose weight, he says he still struggles with eating clean.
“Cutting out certain foods hasn’t been easy. I’m still struggling. These days, I try a lot to eat right, but there are days when you can’t resist the temptation to eat a cheat meal. The good thing is that I’m now very intentional about how I eat And what to eat “Discipline has been key in this,” he says.
As for exercise, he says he exercises three to four times a week.
“My body is starting to take shape. My suits now seem to fit me. My abdominal area has noticeably shrunk. I feel much stronger and full of energy. All my underlying ailments have disappeared. These days I find myself preaching three two-hour sermons without a problem.” Last, 30 minutes later I was panting and sweating profusely.