Rob’s Story
In this video, Rob shares his journey with Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) or ‘fatty liver disease’, from diagnosis to recovery, and the changes that made the biggest difference.
Through changes to his diet, regular exercise, and a commitment to improving his health, Rob was able to reverse his fatty liver and get the all clear from his doctor. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, there is hope and the right support can make all the difference.
Liver Foundation’s Fatty Liver Diet provides practical tools, guidance, and resources to help you take control of your liver health. From meal ideas to exercise guidance, it’s designed to support people living with fatty liver disease every step of the way.
Transcript
I was a little bit in shock and a little bit scared. I didn’t really understand how I was living my life and I didn’t realise that the things I was doing were so dangerous to my health.
I’ve been working as a mechanic for probably the last 25 years. It wasn’t really something I ever wanted to do, but kind of fell into it and loved the kind of environment that I found myself in with the people, the kind of workshop vibe.
Growing up in western suburbs, of course, soccer was my number one. I’m a big A.S. Roma fan. Dedicated most of my time to watching games at four in the morning.
I remember the day I was diagnosed with fatty liver. My local GP gave me a call, told me to come in and he showed me that my liver numbers were a little bit too high.
So GP sent me for a couple of other tests and we sat down. I didn’t really know what fatty liver was or how serious it was. He helped me understand that this was actually good news. It was reversible with a couple of simple changes to my lifestyle.
I worked in the music industry, performing live since the early 2000s, where it was an industry that we smoked and we drank a lot. And I thought quitting smoking, replacing that with eating sweets, was a healthier option. And it just gave me a different type of health concern which could potentially be even more dangerous.
I needed to change and I’d had a severe back injury which kept me off work for a year and a half. And at its worst point, I was ordering a lot of fast food.
I decided to change my diet, get to real foods, preparing my meals at home, simplified it. Lots of veggies, lots of good lean proteins, lots of healthy fish, olive oils. I decided to exercise, a lot of resistance training and I focused on healthy relationships in my life and I just took care of myself a little more than I had for the past few years.
With the right support at work, all my workmates, we’ve made some changes, we prepare real foods, lean proteins, healthy vegetables and we enjoy it all together.
So after three months, I went back and did the next round of blood tests with the doctor and he gave me a high five. And he said that the numbers were right within the regular zone that he liked and he was really, really happy and he couldn’t believe that I’d done it so easily.
I was pretty lucky, I found it pretty early. I got really strict, I cut out refined carbs and cut out sugars completely and I felt like the exercise and the training helped me more than anything.
The advice I’d give to anybody who’s been diagnosed with fatty liver is don’t be embarrassed. Like one in three Australians struggle with some form of liver disease.
It’s really normal, it’s not your fault.
Make changes, do it for yourself. Do it for you. You’ll enjoy the changes you make and you’ll be really proud of yourself.
And this time in a week, I’m going to be standing in the middle of the Stadio Olimpico, cheering on Roma instead of being in the hospital somewhere.
