On one chilly Sunday sometime last year, Bernard Akama, a reverend was delivering a summon to his congregants at the Sound of Abundance church in Nairobi when he suddenly lost his breath and collapsed.
Mr Akama was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and the first prognosis from the doctors was that he needed to lose weight as soon as possible.
“I weighed over 130 kilos when the incident happened. I had just clocked 40 minutes of my preaching when I began to pant for air. I was struggling to breathe, and that really scared me,” the 41-year-old recalls.
Losing 40 kilos in a year
He admits that up to the point he weighed 130 kilos, he ate everything that came his way without caution or much care.
“At the hospital, doctors also found out that I had also developed some underlying diseases. I had high cholesterol that was affecting my blood circulation in the body, causing me heart problems. This explained why, more times without a number, I would find myself short of breath, especially whenever I was preaching, which requires one to stand for long hours,” he says.
The doctor’s verdict was that he was very unfit and his health was at risk if he did not shed the excess body weight.
“I was out of shape; I really looked bad. I know people hate to use the word fat, but that’s exactly what I was at that time. My gut was so big to the extent that it made my suits look funny on me. There are several suits I had to stop wearing because the overweight stomach couldn’t allow,” he says.
Having no other choice, Mr Akama got into fitness.
Pastor Bernard Akama warms up on spinning bike machine at Uhuru Highway Mall gym on November 8, 2024.
Photo credit: Sinda Matiko | Nation Media Group
“I made it intentional that I needed to do better. I got into fitness and this time I made sure I was consistent. I have been exercising for a year now consistently lifting weights and doing a lot of cardio and in that one year I have dropped from 130 kilos to my current weight, which is 90 kilos. My goal is to shed more because I still have this gut that needs to go,” he says.
Diet the most hardest
For the pastor, the hardest change in his fitness journey has been undoing his bad eating habits.
“The gym didn’t worry me much because I used to play football until I got into the ministry work and kind of lost focus. I also come from a family of athletes so I knew I could do it. The hardest bit was the diet. Because of the nature of the work we do, pastors tend to overindulge in junk and fatty foods—cheese, burgers, you name it. I was a junky. Drinking a two-litre bottle of Coca-Cola in one sitting wasn’t an issue to me. I would consume three to four bottles of that in one sitting,” he says.
Because of their overindulgence lifestyle, he says he has seen a number of his colleagues in the ministry die so early. And so when it dawned on him that he too was living dangerously, he was scared for his life and his young family of three children and a wife.
“That is the sad reality. Many of the pastors have died of heart-related issues. Or those who are lucky, develop disease and can no longer preach,” he says.
Although he has managed to lose weight, he says he still struggles with eating clean.
“Having to do away with some foods hasn’t been easy. I still struggle. Nowadays I try so much to eat right but there are those days you can’t resist the temptation of having a cheat meal. The good thing is that I am now very intentional about how and what I eat. Discipline has been key on this,” he says.
For exercises, he says he works out three to four times a week.
“My physique has begun shaping up. My suits now look proper on me. The abdominal area has significantly shrunk. I feel much stronger and full of energy. All the underlying diseases I had contracted disappeared. These days I find myself preaching three sermons of two hours each without a problem. In the past, after 30 minutes I would be panting and sweating profusely,” he says.
