300!

This isn't about the Spartans, and I'm not about to confess to being Spartacus. At least not yet. No, this is a health post. It's been some time since I've done that.

It's been nearly two years now since I felt my body change. It was in February when I suddenly just felt I shouldn't be drinking pop. Then, during an annual check-up (that I usually get around to every 5-10 years), I was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. That's the fancy new word for insulin intolerance. My body was still producing insulin, actually a rather lot of it, but the insulin wasn't processing the sugars in my blood (which is its main purpose). This is the beginning of diabetes. So my doctor put me on metformin, which helps the insulin work, and referred me to an endocrinologist/nutritionist to start on a highly restrictive diet. Weight hinders the performance of insulin, and everybody feels once I drop these pounds I'll be able to go off metformin.

Let me explain the highly restrictive diet. Take Atkins and turn the knobs up to 11. It's such a diet that every other week I would have to have blood drawn to make sure everything was keeping in "balance" (read, I'm not dying soon). Balance, here, is subjective as Atkins seriously alters your blood chemistry. Now, I had already started to drop pop from my diet and I had lost a few pounds between seeing my primary care doctor and the specialist. So I was able to convince the specialist to keep going in the current direction, without the highly restrictive diet. I should also say here, once you're on a diet, you're on a diet for life. After you've lost the weight you can change the diet to a maintenance diet. You can never go back to your old eating habits without regaining the weight. This is called "the yo-yo effect."

I work on what is actually the third floor. We have no elevator for people (riding on the material elevator is grounds for immediate dismissal), so I walk up and down the stairs several times per day, sometimes with loads of 50lbs or so (polyester plates maybe lighter than metal, but not that much). Yard work for me involves chain-saws and heavy loads. I don't have a snowblower for my 50 foot, two car wide driveway. So even though I was over weight I wasn't exactly out of shape.

Then last year about this time I realized I was back to struggling with the big D (as compared to little temporary depressions). My October and December checkup showed no change in weight (before, every quarter I was dropping 9lbs, like clockwork). I was under a great deal of stress (still am) and not dealing with it well, even through I thought I was. So last summer I started on Wellbutrin.

My early January check in saw me dropping 10lbs (I had gained one pound in October, so this was a net 9lb drop). This is especially good since most people gain 5-8lbs over the holidays. The big D has only shown the fringes of itself for the past half year. I brought home the last 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper I had stashed at work back in October. Since July I've only had pop at work if we have lunch catered. I've been pretty good on unsweetened black tea. At night and on weekends I still drink pop, but not nearly as much as I used to (instead of 10 bottles every two weeks, three bottles will last me the month). So I think at my appointment at the end of March, if everything is the same, I'll start a discussion on getting off Wellbutrin.

But all that doesn't explain the headline. When I started this two years ago, I weighed nearly 340 pounds. Some of you won't believe that, but I'm fortunate to carry weight evenly over my body. Or at least I did (now with losing weight, it's coming off in sections, first my ass disappeared, now it's my upper torso on the sides above the hips). So there was no bulging gut. But that weight ain't good for me. Well, this morning I weighed myself (as I normally do). This was the first reading below 300. I had been flirting with 303 for two weeks now. The scale read 299.6 pounds. Yippie!

Then I reweighed myself after my shower. I was 300.3. Stupid showers. Actually, that was probably do to rehydration of the skin.

So what are my targets? Well, the main target is to get my insulin working normally, without the boost of drugs. As for raw numbers, I would be happy to be back at 250. I'd be overjoyed at 230. I'd be ecstatic with 200. At 180 I think I'd faint. Although I don't think below 200 will be possible without going on a diet.

So the short version, back on track with losing weight. Big D pushed to the background. No need to go to the restrictive diet.