​A bit of patching up needed, but I got through my MOT - Kevin Buckle

Don’t get me wrong, you are doing well at a pre-op if you have no allergies and have had no adverse reaction to a general anaesthetic before and the fact that I have never smoked and rarely ever take a drink these days meant I was given the all clear having passed the usual blood and urine tests. However the medical didn’t go quite so well.

Weighing in I was immediately told I was several stone overweight and asked what I ate each day. I said I normally had a bacon roll for breakfast and a ham salad or tuna roll for lunch and was told immediately there was the problem – too many carbs!

Bacon rolls, it seems, should only be a treat and porridge should be my future breakfast choice, so I’ll be following my wife’s lead as she already uses the Quaker Oat So Simple pods that go in the microwave, though I certainly won’t be adding a banana as she does.

I knew it wouldn’t go well when I said that for my tea I might have steak pie and potatoes or fish and chips. Meat and chicken I was told was good but I should only have one potato. Chips were definitely a no-no. I was given a website to check out and I’m still working my way through all the advice.

I was asked about exercise and again I suspected the answer I would get when I said I ran a busy shop and was constantly on my feet walking around the shop. None of that counts, it seems, as only exercise that increases your heart rate helps.

I was told my ideal weight should be 13 stone but I have to say I was sceptical at that. When I was in my early twenties and skinny enough to be teased about it, especially as my younger brother was a far more muscular rugby player, I was thirteen and a half stone so I will settle for losing weight but not to that extent.

Other parts of my body are still holding up well and after a recent eye infection I had my first ever eye test and much to the amazement of the optician was deemed to not need glasses.

I was asked if I had problems reading but it seems struggling to read the very small writing on the back of food packets is normal and not a sign that glasses are needed.

I also recently had a dull ache in one ear and it turned out to be compacted hardened wax on my eardrum for which the solution was to soften it up with olive oil. I was amazed how many people then told me they too had done this as it is a common problem.

Otherwise my hearing too is OK. I’ll be taking the diet seriously but after being told to eat more meat I didn’t feel quite so bad having a Greggs steak bake.