The new year has been rather productive with my health. I have a long, long way to go but I think I may have finally got the permanent change I’ve wanted to happen rolling. I was doing really great in 2011…until my treadmill crapped out within a few miles of Jose’s house (this is virtual traveling). All my momentum evaporated as I was jumping through the hoops to have it repaired. Mind you, the ProForm people were great, the problem was the regional repair person who dragged it out. The dude who actually fixed, he was awesome. Then I had my blood screened after about a month of the semi-inactivity which resulted in a rotten picture. I think everything was a wreck, namely the Triglycerides. The remaining indicators retained slight improvements. I can only imagine what the numbers were in mid-July!
A couple celebratory months at the end of 2011 didn’t help: White Castle, beaucoup sugar, some booze, continuous snacking, etc.
I did get cracking with the treadmill on January 2 to spearhead the year and in anticipation of my upcoming annual screening. Too bad I was doing it in a half-assed fashion figuring mid-February would give me the opportunity to kick off with better numbers than 2011.
HA!
They ended up being close to the same so even more was “undone.” Yet I didn’t fret, I tend to start in a redeemable spot. It will only grow harder to control because I can’t stop aging. I know this already firsthand through my frustrations with weight loss. Dropping a few pounds in my twenties, relatively easy, running and salad lunches; it was my successful plan around 1997-98. By the time I was over 35, the previous stuff was a bust. Maybe fat has a cumulative stubbornness?
Besides the march of time, the doctor decided to throw in a new wrinkle, some blood test to detect diabetes. My score was marginal and I wasn’t too worried, even the doc’s literature put the odds at 5:1 against having the life-altering condition. To me, contracting diabetes is the apocalypse if I had to give up pasta.
I took her advice (the doctor was a lady) to get a more thorough blood test. Thankfully, I found a place open on Saturday mornings to undertake the two-hour process. I don’t recommend doing this unless you have no choice.
What was involved? First you have to fast at least eight hours before the first blood draw. With the starting benchmark established, you must drink a rather gross sugary soda; it tasted like an unpleasant generic-brand. Blood is drawn again 30 minutes later followed by another 30 minutes and a final time after an hour. The objective is to measure how well your pancreas and/or liver process the sugar. I rarely drink non-diet stuff plus I’ve managed to keep my major resolution of drinking unsweetened tea, thus I felt pretty ill until I ate. My left arm was pretty bruised afterwards, why mess up both, I had to drive!
I’ll cut to the chase. The verdict came in before I took some time to enjoy SXSW…I don’t have diabetes but I need to keep pushing on the running, fruits, vegetables and liquids.
How’s it going? Running is solid. I am up to two miles/session, five days a week. I plan to raise my speed. When I can maintain 6 mph, the distance will climb back to my record 2.3 miles/session. I hope to make 2.5 miles/session the regular routine. Eating (or snacking) on fruits/vegetables, close to five servings a day, has been harder. The junk food/garbage has been scaled back too, I keep being distracted by other concerns when I really want to eat the berries I scored at HEB. Liquids are a huge success. I already scaled back the sweet elements in my Starbucks poison of choice and HEB carries this fantastic brand of unsweetened iced tea at a good price.
I hope to have a blood screening by my birthday to re-assess the strategy, treadmill willing, it’s the foundation to me succeeding since dietary changes aren’t enough. Ergo, I will never go with all the implausible diets I keep hearing about, people need to get with the program on exercise, it cannot be avoided. The diet I love to ridicule the most involves the no-carb/heavy protein schtick. Of course it works, the key element is called diarrhea! Crudeness aside, I am getting somewhere as the BMI indicator on my site shows I am now under 31.
On to being under 30 and the doctor saying I’m now only overweight, not obese!