Yet Another Catch-Up Post, With a Catch

 Been a minute, huh? 

My legions of dedicated fans have been battering me with emails and phone calls and texts begging me to bring them up to speed on my journey. There have been some developments, most good, a few bad. So now seems a good time to bring The Internet up to date. 

First, the good:

• As of last blood check in July, my A1c is 5.6, which is considered "Normal."
  
  
• I've lost almost 75lbs since starting this in December of 2022. I'm moving easier, and exercise isn't nearly as arduous as it used to be. (More on that little factoid in a bit.)
  
  
• My daily FBS (Fasting Blood Sugar) reminds in the sub-120 range.
  
  
• I've discontinued ALL insulin.
  
  
• I've discontinued one of my two BP medicines, and as of my last check my BP was 125/83, perfectly normal as all things should be. 

The Bad News: 

• After a low of around 306, my weight has started to creep up again. I'm currently at 311lbs. I thought it was 299, but later discovered that the rear edge of the scale had gotten hindered by the edge of the bath mat in front of the vanity, and had given me a false reading.
  
  
• My eating choices have slackened a little. Annie and I discussed it this morning in bed and I realized a few things about my thought process and how I need to stop the slow slippery slope back into bad eating habits, and what's underpinning them, and the unconscious psychological tricks I've been playing on myself. More on that in a bit.
  
  
• While my FBS is remaining sub-120, it was sub-100 for weeks at a time. Codicil: I was still using between 10U and 5U of insulin once a day back then, but still. The highest FBS I've seen since stopping insulin about three weeks ago was 113, but I'd made particularly bad food choices the day before (hamburger WITH the bun at a restaurant) so that makes sense.

Now onto the details.

When I went to see my endo in July, he was gob-smacked that my A1c had gone from 9.2 in December to 5.6 in July. Seven short months to "normal." My weight had also dropped to take me out of morbidly obese to just obese. I'll take it -- for now.  He asked me my target weight and I said I wanted to get to 250 by December, effectively losing 125lbs in 12 months. He cautioned me against this, warning me that such rapid weight loss could bring with it some unwelcome and unwanted side effects. 

My wife's best friend's husband is a doctor who recently decided to re-specialized in what I like to call Longevity Medicine. Helping people live longer, healthier lives with new, evidence-based techniques, tools and even drugs. For example, the new literature says basically everyone should be on Metformin, not just diabetics. They were incensed that my doctor seemed to insinuate that I should slow my efforts at weight loss. They pointed out, correctly, that it wasn't like I was using a fad diet or something unhealthy to lose weight. I was using calories-in-calories-out methodology and eating very healthy food. Just breathing burned enough calories for me to lose weight. 

The unconscious effect this had on me is "I can take a break. I don't have to eat like a Spartan Monk anymore." Well, that led to some bad food choices. No McDonalds or fast food or anything like that. Maybe a small bag of Sun Chips with my lunch. Maybe, as I said above, ordering a full-on-hamburger and fries at a local restaurant -- still not the best thing to eat, but better than a McDeath Burger from the Clown. My jobs buys the lunch for everyone when an employee has a birthday, and the employee gets to pick the restaurant. Well, the last 2 or 3 of those I didn't choose the salad. It wasn't "bad" food, but I could have made healthier choices. 

This has a snowball effect. Each time I gave a little on the hard lines I'd drawn in December, it made it that much easier to keep moving the line. And that stops today.

It also led me to lessening my exercise regimen. "I don't have to try so hard anymore. Look what I've already accomplished!" Yeah, that's the slippery slope I was talking about. I am re-dedicating myself to this goal of getting healthy. And I need to have some deep talks with my wife's best friend (she herself recently becoming a certified health something that deals with nutrition and exercise; not sure of the exact title) and her husband about what 250 -- and maintaining that -- is going to look like. I'm 57 years old. Realistically I probably have 20-25 years left (men in my family die young) and I want to enjoy those years. I want to attend my granddaughter's weddings. 

So, this is the update. I've made tremendous progress; no one can take that away from me... except myself. I am back on the Spartan Monk wagon. It's going to be harder this time because of a medication shortage: I can't get my large paws on Mounjaro in any concentration right now. That really helped with appetite suppression, and it's going to be tough but, hey, I kicked nicotine in 2005 cold turkey. I know I have the willpower. I also know I have the support system.

I'll try and update more often in the future.