My Journey With Weight Loss – My Health Just Keeps Getting Better

Another training day. I have to admit the change up from last week has (dare I say) been pretty easy. Dropping the walking intervals from 2 minutes to 1.5 minutes doesn’t really feel that much different. One more set to go this week and then we’ll see what the new instructions are from my coach.

Yesterday I had my quarterly blood work done. Now this was quite the episode because the lab was a zoo. Even though I had pre-booked an appointment that didn’t seem to matter. Moreover, I overheard that 3 of the 4 techs were ‘new’ and of course I got one of those. She had significant difficulties finding a viable vein (that is normal for me) and then insisted she use a regular needle instead of a pediatric butterfly (baby needle) to draw the blood. This resulted in her digging around for the vein and in doing so I believe that is why one of my tests shows hemolyzed cells (potentially skewing the results) and making it so she could barely get enough blood for the tests to be run. Sigh, I get they are under pressure too but I wish they would consult with someone with experience when they have a difficult case like mine.

As always when I have my blood work done I spend the afternoon obsessively checking my lab account to view the results. Once I have them I then spend sometimes hours analyzing and researching their meaning. This might be ok when a test shows out of range but that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday but I still had to check into everything. I have decided going forward that I need to stop doing this when the tests are normal because it simply feeds into my neurotic traits.

So what did the tests show? First my A1C. As a reminder this is a measure of how glucose is being held in your blood and is an indication of your average glucose levels over the past 3 months. Normal is an A1C of 4.5-5.9%, (5.7-5.9% is considered pre-diabetic) and 6% and above is diabetic. My last A1C was 5.4% and at that time I was still on medication. Yesterday it was 5.2% which is absolutely normal!!! I had hoped I would still be in the normal range but this is an excellent number and I was thrilled.

The other tests I have done quarterly is for cholesterol/triglycerides as they want diabetics to monitor this closely. The target levels for diabetics is actually different from non-diabetics because of an increased risk factor. Well, I have exceeded all the targets my doctor has set for me. LDL (bad) cholesterol is low, HDL (good) cholesterol is way above the target and my risk ration is now in the ‘ideal’ range. My lab account lets me go back and compare all of my blood tests and it has just been amazing to see how these numbers have morphed especially over the last year. The end result is that they show me as being healthy.

So what does this mean in terms of my exercise and eating plan? Absolutely nothing! What I have done over the past couple years is obviously working so now is not the time to slack off. To be honest when I saw that A1C number it just motivated me even more to keep doing what I am doing and getting into the best shape I have ever been. Moreover, it makes me want to spend the rest of my life being healthy.