Spaun getting type 2 diabetes 'under control' pays off

J.J. Spaun chalked it up to the long season that had ended with the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs. Last year’s BMW Championship was his 27th start of the season, after all, and he had a right to be tired.

The weight loss? Well, maybe that was due to the grind, too. Plus, he had packed on a few pounds during the year -- carrying 219 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame at his heaviest -- so seeing the drop on the scales didn’t exactly bother him.

“I probably lost 15 pounds in a month without even trying,” Spaun recalls. “I was like, oh, my pants are fitting looser. And I liked it. I was like, oh, this is great. I'm losing some weight, you know. But then once I started noticing it was affecting my golf, then I knew something was up.”

Between the fatigue and the unexplained weight loss, Spaun realized that his swing speed and corresponding distance was decreasing. Unable to build on the momentum of a tie for third at the Barracuda Championship, he didn’t finish higher than 35th in his final four events last year.

Finally, Spaun’s fiancée, Melody Means, convinced him to go to the doctor. Maybe it was his thyroid, he thought. At any rate, those tests he had before he went to Asia to play in the CIMB Classic and the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges would surely offer an explanation.

More than three weeks passed before the doctor’s office called, though, telling him to come back in. But Spaun was in Las Vegas to play in the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, the first of a three-week stretch, so a physician’s assistant delivered the news. His blood sugar was extremely high.

Finally, Spaun had a diagnosis. At least, he did after sending his test results to Dr. Saleem Malik, who had hosted him during his time playing PGA TOUR Canada and remains a good friend. Spaun had type 2 diabetes.

“So, he was like, yeah, don't worry, everything is going to be fine,” Spaun remembers. “… It's more of like having an allergy versus a disease. Like you’ve just got to watch what you eat, exercise and you'll be fine.

“It was good to hear that, that peace of mind, you know, especially when on the road.”

Once the 28-year-old got back to his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, he went back to see the doctor. He needed to start eating healthier and exercise more – and as an added bonus, he ended up losing 35 pounds, the right way, this time.

So, don’t expect to find Spaun hitting the drive-through at Taco Bell, which he calls his “soft spot,” anymore. That’s where he usually headed after a bad round or a double-bogey on the 18th hole left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“I was like, oh, like let me just go eat a burrito,” Spaun says. “I mean, some people, you know, lean towards like alcohol or something, but I like to eat food. So unfortunately, I can't do that. So, I’ve got to find other ways to kind of balance things out when I'm not having a good day.”

As much as possible, Spaun has cut out processed sugars – saying goodbye to candy and ice cream, among other delights – and carbohydrates, giving up French fries or other starches. He keeps a special protein bar in his golf bag that gives him energy but has a low glycemic index. A plant-based protein shake is another go-to.

“It's difficult, but it's great finding new alternatives to what I'm used to eating in the past,” Spaun said. “So, thank God for Whole Foods. … I'm accustomed to it now. It's definitely a lifestyle change and my body's feeling great.”

The lab reports he got in early May bear out Spaun’s words. He’s no longer on medication, and his A1c, which measures how well the body controls the sugar in the blood, had dropped from 11.2 percent when he was first diagnosed to 5.9. The normal level is between 4-5.6 percent.

“So, I think the dieting and the exercise has really paid off,” Spaun said. “… It's all about having it under control. I'll always be on that edge of, you know, going over or having those symptoms again. So, I’ve just got to really pay close attention to it.”

Spaun hit the gym with a trainer three or four times a week last winter. His hour-long workouts would consist of weight training, agility drills and aerobics to keep the heart rate up. No breaks. Just one set after another.

“I got stronger. I got my speed back,” Spaun recalls. “So, I'm still doing a little bit of both, but it's more about more about diet and stuff because I'm already doing so much walking around in the course.

“So, it's important to not get my sugar too low, too, because that's the other thing, you know, if you're out there burning, you know, 5,000 calories a day playing golf and you can't eat carbohydrates and you can't eat sugar. It's like, how do I find this perfect balance?”

With all the changes going on in his body over the past eight months or so, Spaun admits that he has struggled to fine-tune the mechanics of his swing again. Even so, the Californian is a solid 86th in the FedExCup and has already topped the $1 million mark in earnings for the third straight year.

While he calls his diagnosis a “rude awakening in a way,” the most important part is that Spaun feels better now.

“I was getting so fatigued when I had uncontrolled diabetes,” he says. “I didn't even know, and I was getting agitated on the course. I didn't know why I was hitting it shorter. It was just, you know, it was just a big, like slippery slope of just things in it, and it mentally, it was tough, too.”

Now he knows how to handle it – on and off the golf course.