The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

If any one follows my Blog, they will notice that Looooooong stretches between posts is not usually a good sign. Since my last post, more than 2 months ago, things have gone down hill some. I have not gone totally off the deep end, but I have slacked off  more than I should have.

I had a week to myself while my wife and daughter were visiting family. I had planned to go to the gym almost every day, and get lots of exercise since I didn't have to rush home to spend time with the family. As usually happens, work got in the way a lot and I used that excuse to avoid the gym. To make maters even worse, I ate out a lot, and made unhealthy food for myself at home. 

All of the slacking and poor eating started to catch up with me.  I noticed that my new smaller belt notches were no longer fitting comfortably (The BAD.)   I went back up one, then two notches, so I knew I was packing on the pounds again. I went back to the ENT for a sinus check up, and when they weighed my I had gained 7 pounds !! (The UGLY.) 

While it wasn't a "shock" that I had gained weight, I saw all the signs, it was shocking to my how much and how fast I gained it back. I used that gain as a motivator to get back on track (for the um-teenth time.)  I have been eating somewhat better, although I am still eating more fast food than I should. I have been much better about going to the gym and walking around the neighborhood. I am going to try and stock up on more healthy foods, and have things prepared, so I can avoid the drive through.

What about the good ?? How can there be any good news in all this bad news ? Well I have still not have had a drop of soda !! I have not had any in more than three months !! I have not been with out soda for this long since I was weaned off the bottle when I was a baby. It has been one of the biggest challenges I have yet faced, but the cold turkey method is working well. So that is The Good. 

5 more pounds and another notch on my belt

I was back at a Doctor's office again today with my seemingly never ending sinus infection. It was an ENT office.  When I got there they weighed me in, which I thought was a bit unusual since they were only looking at my nose.

It turned out that I had lost another 5 pounds !!  That was after eating a large lunch and 64 ounces of water. I am now down to 373lbs, which is 28 pounds lost since May. Other than my stupid sinus infection and a few gym related aches and pains, I have been feeling great ! I had to punch another notch in my belt this week too, pretty soon I can go "shopping" in my closet for clothes that didn't used to fit.

I didn't think a trip to the nose doctor would bring about a lot of weight related revelations, but there were several.  When ever you go to a new doctor's office you have to answer a ton of questions like "have you ever had this, or are you that ?" and today was no exception. Having all my health maladies laid out before you is kind of depressing (I am morbidly obese, diabetic, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a family history of cancer and heart disease, etc.) 

After my exam, the Doctor looked very confused (not a good sign from a Dr. !)  It turns out that he was REALLY struggling with how best to treat me due to my size.  It probably didn't help when I told him I was 737 pounds and not 373 (who knew there were verbal typos.)  After a lot of internal debate, he decided he had to up my dosage and length of time of my steroids and antibiotics because to my weight. Also the Prednisone was going to really jack up my blood sugar, so it was going to effect my Diabetes.

I am going to keep the momentum going and hope that the steroids don't mess with my weight and blood sugar too much, wish me luck !

Back in the saddle again (of an excercise bike)

Well I signed up with Snap Fitness today. http://www.snapfitness.com/concordnc/home  It is open 24/7 which works out perfectly for me and my after work workouts. It has nice new, modern equipment, and I will be able to get a great workout there.

I was sad to cancel my Peak/ ZX membership, but they were not meeting my needs, and fueling lots of excuses for me. The clubs were older, but I liked them, but only staying open until 10pm just wouldn't work for me. They tried to change my mind (I had already signed up at Snap) but I didn't like the 24 hour club they were trying to send me to. Then they tried to lay a guilt trip on me, why does the fitness industry have to be so sleazy sometimes ? I had a similar experience at Golds Gym back in Georgia.

The trip to the Dr went OK, I didn't gain any weight (but I hadn't lost any either :-(  With the way my health has been lately, I was happy with staying the same.  I just hope the new medicine will kick this stupid sinus infection.

My plan is to go to the gym after work tomorrow, stay tuned to my twitter feed (@billmdee) for updates.  Wish me luck !! 

It's official, I have not had any soda for one week (has the stock price of Coke started to fall ?)

After my post last week, I did a lot of thinking and soul searching.Upon reflection, I determined that I have not made a serious enough attempt to control what I put in my body. My previous efforts were a first good step, but not enough to make a large impact.

Fairly organically, I stopped drinking all soda.  I just made the decision not to drink one Coke with lunch, then didn't drink one with dinner. After realizing how (relatively) easy it was to give up, I just decided to not drink any at all. It was very rough for the first three or four days, I was in full caffeine and sugar withdrawal.  I had headaches, a lack of energy, and cravings. After they all passed it has been much easier.

I also made several other changes too.  I have reduced the amount of carbs I have been eating, no chips, less bread, no sweets, fewer french frys, etc.   I have also stopped eating late at night when ever possible, no desert or snacks after 8:00.  If I have not had dinner at work on nights I work late, I have a small mini meal, with the healthiest food we have ion the house (Salads, etc.) I did have a Sub from Harris Teeter last night, but it was loaded with veggies. We made a run to BJ's Wholesale Club to stock up on healthier eating options.  

I go back to the Doctor tomorrow (stupid sinus infection won't go away) so I will have an "official" weigh in, and see what he says about every thing, so look for another update tomorrow.

Happy and Sad at the same time

I have been to the Doctor several times over the last two months. I don't usually go that often, but First I needed some blood work to check my Meds (cholesterol, Blood pressure and Diabetes.) Then I was having horrible gagging episodes every morning for a week (Dee thought I was having morning sickness ;-) Finally I had stuffed sinuses for two weeks, and I found out that I had a sinus infection (I am still getting through that one :-(

The Happy Part; On each visit I found out that I had lost weight (see my May 29th Blog Post) 15, 5 and 3 pounds respectively. I was really surprised at each loss, and how they have continued. I have made some decent changes to my lifestyle, but there is sooooo much more I could be doing.

The Sad Part; Now that I seem to making progress on my weight loss, other health indicators seem to be going in the opposite direction.

My A1C has gone up quite a bit (it measures your average blood sugar for the past 2 or 3 months.) It has historically been in the good range, even if my daily blood sugar readings were a bit high. During the past 3 or 4 months I have reduced the amount of soda I drink drastically. I used to drink multiple servings a day (64 ounces or even more.) Lately I have been drinking one or two servings a day (12-24 ounces.) I always thought of my soda drinking as my ace up my sleeve, something I could cut out and have a dramatic impact on my diabetes quickly. Despite those reductions my A1C still went up, and they upped my oral diabetes medicine dosage.

On top of that my blood pressure has been very inconstant. Some days it is OK, then others it is high again. From what I understand I am at the maximum odsage for my current Meds, so we would have to look at more serious medicine if I can't get it under control.

To make matters even worse, it seems my gym has cut back on their hours AGAIN, and now they close at 10pm during the week (they used to be open 24 hours, then close at midnight, then 11:00.) This means that I can't go to the gym work when I am closing, I don't leave the store until 9:30 or so, and it's a 25 minute drive to get there. I love working out after work, I can get all my stress worked out, and Dee and Bailey will already be asleep so I won't be sacrificing any family time. I have a great rate at the gym,. but it isn't so great when you can't get there while it is open (I am NOT a morning person, so working out in the morning before work is not really an option.) I am going to go talk to them later this week and see what can be done, I am not to happy with about going to a more expensive gym that is farther away.

I have started making some changes already. I ordered a new high tech BP monitor (thank you @mrxinu !!) to keep close tabs on my blood pressure. I have also started monitoring my blood sugar more closely. My Doctor didn't want me constantly monitoring my sugar, he says it just makes people depressed about having diabetes, and doesn't have much of an impact on most people sugar levels. I am going to work even harder at cutting out soda (I can't do diet, yuck !) Wish me luck, and if you have any advice or words of encouragement please send them my way (billmdee at gmail dot com or @billmdee on twitter, plus I am on Facebook)

Walt Disney World on a Diet ?

We went to Walt Disney World a month or so ago, and I really surprised myself by how I acted around the food there.

A little background first, food has always made very vivid memories for me. I often can remember what I ate some where I have been more than what I did there. Disney World is no exception, it is my favorite place in the World, and I have countless memories there. I also had certain things I always ate there and restaurants we would always go to. In fact, making dining reservations is the second thing I do after picking the dates of our vacation.

When we went to Disney World in April, I fully expected the same thing to happen again. We had purchased the Dining Plan, so we had a sit down meal, fast food meal, and a snack every day we were there pre-paid.

Some of my new eating habits (not eating as much fast food, etc.) carried over to our trip. I won't go as far as to say I went out of my way to avoid junk food, or ate salads all the time, but the choices I made were much different than before.

There used to be certain things I would eat at WDW every day, or almost every day I was there. They are things you can't get outside the "World" like Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars, Mickey Rice Crispy treats, in Park Popcorn, and my beloved Dole Whip (pineapple soft serve.) In the course of a week long trip, I would have each of these things 4 or 5 times. It was one of my traditions.

This trip I still had each of those things, but I have them only one time. I didn't plan it this way it just happened all on it's own, and I am happy that it did. If it had not happened spontaneously, I would have felt like I was depriving myself the entire time.

I also made other smart choices with out realizing it. Now I fully admit that I am a 100% soda junkie, I will drink almost anything that has sugar and carbonation. I also rebel at paying the same price for a bottle of Desani as a bottle of Coke, if there is no syrup in it should it be cheaper ?? So when I bought multiple bottles of water every day, instead of soda, to quench my thirst and stay hydrated, I again surprised myself.

We also did a lot of walking (and I mean A LOT !!) We averaged 11.1 miles per day of walking over 8 days at WDW. Two days we made it over 13 miles. My fitbit (http://www.fitbit.com/) was an invaluable tool while on vacation for helping my track my walking, and calories burned.

If I can go from using vacation as an excuse to eat anything and everything in sight, to eating sensibly, making good choices with the occasional treat, just imagine what I can do when I apply the same thing to the rest of my life. Those choices I made in WDW had a direct impact on me loosing 15 pounds. Now to make good choices all (well most) of the time !! Wish me luck !!

Wow I suck as a Blogger (again) but I lost weight !!

Like many things in my life, I have broken yet another promise to myself, and my readers (if there are any of you out there.) I couldn't believe I had not posted since February.

My life has been yet another series of roller coaster ups and downs, and that has given me reasons not to do things I said I would do (go to the gym, eat better, spend more time with my family, post to my blog, etc. etc.)

I have been trying to make some small changes in my routine that would be manageable and easy to maintain. The most important change I have made was to drastically cut back on the number if times I eat fast food, especially at drive throughs. I would love to say I did this primarily to improve my diet and health, but that would not be the whole truth. The main reason I have cut back on fast food has been due to poverty ;-)

I used to eat fast food drive through meals 5 times a week on my way to work, either breakfast or lunch. Sometimes I would also eat fast food at work or on my way home making it even worse. All of these meals started to add up, dollar wise and calorie wise. When my bonuses and commissions started to slow down, and my paychecks were smaller, I decided that eating out on this scale was a luxury I couldn't afford.

It started one week before payday, and money was tight, so I didn't have the $7 or $8 to get lunch, so I made a couple of peanut butter sandwiches to eat in the car on my way to work. Well one day turned into two, then three, and the next thing you know I have broken a bad habit and started a new one. I have kept this going for almost a month, and I have really noticed a difference. I have had to add another (smaller) notch to my belt.

I went to the Doctor today and when I weighed in I had lost 15 POUNDS !! I am out of the 400's again !! I still have a long way to go, but I am really psyched about the loss, and I want to keep that momentum going. I am not going to say I will never eat fast food again, but it will be a once in a while special treat and not a habit.

3 times per week.

Well I said I would post successes, so I guess going to the gym three times in the past week or so counts as a success.

Tonight was especially hard, I was in full excuse/ rationalization mode tonight. I had a rough ending to my work day, and I was looking for ANY excuse not to go to the gym.

I am very good at rationalizing bad decisions, and making it seem logical to do stupid things (at the time anyway, later you I can see I was being a dummy.) I made myself change into my gym clothes before leaving work, so that excuse was out. Thank you Dee, for telling me to go to the gym, my "We can talk, if I come straight home" rationalization didn't cut it.

Once I decided to put aside all of my excuses, and stop being a slacker, I am proud that I went to the gym. I had a good workout, and prevented me from not going to the gym in the last 1/2 of the week.

I hope I can continue making good choices, now I have to make better food choices more often too !!

Back Soon

I know I have been MIA for two month (again) but I will be back soon, and doing the right stuff. I won't list all my usual excuses again (working a lot, blah blah blah...) I am going to post successes. Stay tuned.