My Journey With Weight Loss – Health Issues

Well, I survived 3 days of interval training again this week. My coach advised I should do 2 weeks at this level and then we will increase the number of intervals from 8 to 10. I’m pretty confident next week will go as well as this week except for that one day where I have a Zoom meeting literally in the middle of the night.

Back in October 2018 I was going through probably the darkest time in my life. Both my siblings were in the ICU (at different hospitals) and were in critical condition. A good friend insisted that I need to be checked out by my own doctor as he was worried the stress of it all was going to destroy me (ok really I think he thought I was about to have a nervous breakdown). I had a brand new doctor at the time but knew my previous doctor was working a couple days a week at a walk in clinic so off I went to see him. After hearing what I was going through he ordered every test imaginable and what came back was frightening as my health was in pretty rough shape. The biggest issue was I was diabetic. I shouldn’t have been really surprised at that as all of my immediate family has had diabetes (even one of my dogs was diabetic) but I looked at what the disease had done to my Dad and my siblings and thought, dammit, I don’t want this.

I was put on the typical diabetes medication to go along with the high blood pressure pills that I had been taking for close to 2 decades. Of course being newly diagnosed it took several months to get the medication right and by then I had already lost 20lbs though I had not quite put together how things would really change if I kept losing weight. My regular doctor didn’t really suggest weight loss, she just advised me to watch my carbs. By the end of that first year I had lost 37lbs and my quarterly A1C tests results kept improving (this is an important test for diabetics as it basically measures the average glucose levels). I should note, after being diagnosed diabetic it was only the A1C test after the diagnosis that had my A1C slightly elevated but that was also during the medication adjustment period. But once I decided on serious weight loss I realized that my regular testing of my glucose levels (done about 3 times per week) were almost always normal. As a matter of fact I got to the point that for about 4 months I did not once test out of range. When I hit the 60lbs mark my doctor reduced my diabetes and blood pressure medications to half of what they were. Much to my surprise my glucose levels remained in the normal range every test. In February I did my quarterly A1C and my doctor decided I met the criteria to be removed from the diabetes medication and she opted to take me off the blood pressure medication as well.

So what does this mean? If my upcoming A1C shows my glucose as normal without any medication then I will likely be described as being in diabetes remission. That would mean I have dodged a massive bullet but it does not allow me to stop doing what I am doing. I may end up back in the diabetes category at a future date but my goal is to stave that off for as long as I can. I am pretty sure if I stay on the path of healthy eating, avoiding sugar and processed carbs and of course doing lots of exercise I can be successful at this. The real trick to this is not letting myself be convinced that since I am now healthy it is an excuse to slide back to those old bad habits. Having seen the devastating toll that diabetes can take on your body that is all I need to think about to keep me on track. Well, that and being proud of my fit and toned body.

The bottom line is in 2 1/2 years I went having massive health issues to now doing my annual blood work and grinning at how healthy I have become. That alone is one of my big motivators.