HALF WAY!

So, it struck me the other day that I was almost half way to my goal. When I weighed myself and came in at 290 pounds I thought "only 2.5 pounds to go and I will be at the half way mark". I was down 65 pounds and in order to reach the half way mark I needed to be down 67.5 pounds.

Because half of 130 pounds is 67.5 pounds. Right?

Yeah, sometimes math is difficult. Apparently I was at the half way mark when I weighed myself as 65 pounds is the half way mark. In approximately 135 days I lost 65 pounds. Almost half a pound per day. Yeah, some people out there are going to hate me. Sorry. I started out quite large so it was actually easier for me to lose the weight than most people. As I get closer to my target weight it is going to take more time to losing the same weight than it has in the past.

Weight loss is still primarily the simple formula of calories in vs. calories out. Every 3500 calorie deficit equates to a pound. However, since I am losing weight the number of calories that I need to eat to sustain that weight decreases which lowers the calories out. To continue the weight loss what I would need to do is increase the calories burnt through exercise. I am slowly increasing this as well by increasing the speed of the treadmill when I walk, but there will come a point where I simply can't walk that fast, I will need to run.

I haven't really run for a couple of decades. Yes, decades. To be honest, I am a little scared of the running, just in case my knee decides to take a vacation in the middle of a run.

But, hey, half way to my initial target!!!

Treadmills are boring

Treadmills are boring. They are efficient, they are useful when the temperature dips to -20C, but they are boring as hell.

Knowing this in advance for my treadmill setup I added some entertainment capabilities. The treadmill itself has a set of speakers built into it so I can hook up the iPhone and listen to music or audiobooks or internet radio. The treadmill itself faces a bookshelf. Yes, a bookshelf. On the top of the bookshelf there is a small LED television, an Apple TV and a fan.

Fan? To keep me cool when walking. I generate a lot of heat when walking and the fan is necessary to cool me down.

LED Television? For visual stimulus when on the treadmill.

Apple TV? To connect to everything I need and surprisingly there is a lot to connect to. For example:

• Music. The Apple TV connects to my iTunes and can stream everything I have in my music collection.
• Movies. When I buy movies these days I try to make sure that there is a digital copy that I can load into iTunes. This doesn't mean that I need to keep the copy on my local machine - iTunes can stream it from their library - but it does mean that I have an even wider selection of things to watch.
• Netflix. There is a lot of stuff on Netflix. For example, over the past few weeks I was watching The Walking Dead. Now I have switched to Doctor Who (the 2005 reboot). With seven seasons to watch this will keep me busy for a while. After that I have Supernatural on tap. By the time all of that is done there will be at least one or two more series I need to watch and then I will need to catch up on all of the series that I started watching this way.
• Audiobooks. I keep complaining that I don't have time to read, but I do have time to listen.

There is a lot of stuff out there to watch/listen to and there is a lot of winter still left. Since I am trying to do two sessions a day (one when I wake up and one at lunch) I try to watch things in the morning, when I am close to the TV, and listen to audiobooks at lunch when I am walking.

 

Yeah, treadmills are boring and this is how I am keeping my sanity.

Fitness

OK, so I've lost a bunch of weight and I'm walking more, but am I becoming more fit?

I can unequivocably say "YES", I am more fit today than I was yesterday. For example, back in March I went to a course at the University of Alberta. I parked in the public parking lot and walked the miles and miles to the building I needed to be in. OK, it was only a few hundred yards, but it seemed like miles. In September, just two months into my new lifestyle, I went to another course, parked in the same spot and looked for ways to make the trip longer. I wasn't tired, I actually enjoyed the walk.

I used to find the closest parking spot to the door because that involved less walking. Now? I don't care. I find whatever parking spot is available and then park there. If it is close to the door or far from the door, it doesn't really matter. Now my pet peeve is how people park, not whether or not I get a parking spot near the door.

When I visited my doctor before the rather large flight of stairs from the ground floor to her office was, well, tiring to say the least. At one point my wife asked me if I wanted to wait for the elevator and use that. Now I climb the stairs and it barely impacts my breathing. Yes, it still impacts my breathing because I am still close to 300 pounds and moving that much mass does involve a lot of effort.

Am I more fit? Most definitely.

Can I become even more fit. Yes, that is where I want to go. A personal target is going to be going on a 5K Walk/Run. This may or may not happen due to the damage to the right knee (which really hasn't been hurting recently) but I want to keep that as a longer range target.

I am becoming more fit and I am loving it.

Weight

My weight has changed a lot throughout this entire process.  Two weeks ago I was able to post on my Facebook page that I was below 300 pounds for the first time in a decade.  As I type this I am even lower, down to 295, and continuing to drop.  Losing sixty pounds is not hard, but difficult at the same time.  I guess I really need to explain that one.

Not hard.  Coming in at 355 pounds meant that I had a lot of excess baggage (in this case weight) that I needed to lose, so the potential was there for a lot of rapid weight loss and there has been.  I;ve been losing almost three pounds a week since I started this journey.  For many people just a few weeks of this would make them extremely happy.  Twenty pounds overweight?  Thirty pounds?  Forty?  Been there, done that.  I’ve lost sixty pounds, but I am still listed as being morbidly obese.  Not sure whether that is better sounding than the super obese that I was, but there it is.  I’m close to being simply severely obese but I am still a long way from being listed “normal” with regard to my weight.  Indeed, my initial goal, 225 pounds, still puts me in the overweight category, but it is a target that I desperately want to reach.  So, losing sixty pounds?  Not hard, but I have to lose another 75 to get to where I want to be.

Difficult.  I was at the ITM Christmas Lunch the other day.  A buffet with carved turkey, roast beef, stuffing, gravy and lots of dessert.  I had a single plate full of food before I went for dessert.  What did dessert consist of?  Fruit.  Melon, strawberries, and assorted other fruits.  I ate sensibly.  I controlled my portions.  But it was hard.  I really wanted to sample some of those desserts.  I really wanted to go back for seconds on the turkey and try some of that roast beef.  The buns?  They were fresh and I bet they would have tasted really good with a slab of butter on them.  But I didn’t go there. I refrained from pigging out even though I wanted to.  The most difficult part of this weight loss isn’t just saying “no” to the delicious food, but saying “no” knowing full well that I have already lost sixty pounds.  It would be so easy to say “just this once” and then eat to my hearts content, but I don’t want to slide backwards, I want to stay strong for me.  I want to know that I am doing my best and not throwing in cheat days because something comes up.

So, yeah, sixty pounds was easy because of where I started, but it is also difficult because of where I started.  If I slip up I have a long way to fall

It's been a while

It’s been a while since my last post and a lot has happened since then.  For instance, three days after my last post my mother passed away.  That kind of takes priority over other things, including writing blog entries.  She had been in the Extended Care Centre for a number of years and she decided that it was time to move on.  My father passed away four years ago and Mom missed him.  She missed him so much that when they told her she had a lump in her breast - cancer - she decided not to have it operated upon and removed.  At the end the nurse said that it was probably the cancer that killed her.

I think she would be proud of what I am doing.  She was always worried that I was getting too big and that I should lose weight.  I was in the process, but she never really got to see me change

I’ve also seen the doctor a number of times.  The first time was actually the day before my mother passed away.  I had been doing so well on my sugar levels and on my fitness levels in general that we decided to go ahead and drop the medication.  Like she said at the beginning, once you’re on you never get off and I so desperately wanted to stay off.  I think that was one of the reasons why I became so obsessed with getting healthy.  It literally was a “get fit or die” type of statement.  At that meeting we discussed a number of options and she gave me a form to get another blodd test done in early December to see what my numbers were.

I really wish I could figure out what she was requesting by looking at the form.  If I wanted to I could do some research and come up with the full names of the items she had checked off, but why did she check them off?
What else has changed?  New pants.  Twice.  I have gone from a pair of pants with a tight 52 inch waist to loose 44 inch pants.  I have, quite literally, lost around 10 inches from my waist.  I am now wearing pants that would have fit my ten years ago.  Maybe even twelve.

OK, now that we have established that a bunch of things have changed, let’s see what that really means.

Treadmill

OK, I bought a treadmill.

I took a look at the options (treadmill, The Mall, gym) and decided that, for me, a treadmill was the best choice. While my wife was gently nudging me towards The Mall as the lowest cost option, it was also the option with the most downsides.

• Strenuous workout. OK, if the workout is going to be strenuous (and based on my experience at my father-in-law's house last week it may very well be) I am going to be hot and sweaty. Do I want to wander around West Edmonton Mall with sweat pouring off me? No. Am I going to look suspicious? Yes. Am I going to feel extremely self-conscious and thus sabotage my workout? Probably. The only viable alternatives are the treadmill or the gym.
• Elapsed Time. If I am leaving the house I am adding time to the workout. Ten to fifteen minutes to get there and ten to fifteen minutes to get back. This can add twenty to thirty minutes of time to any workout effort. The best alternative is the treadmill with both the gym and West Edmonton Mall coming in second place.
• Privacy. I am not a very public person. Everything I do is very private. I don't sing in public. I don't draw attention to myself. I am very much an introvert. In the area of walking I can walk in public because people are not shoulder to shoulder with me looking at what I am doing. In this case the gym is the least comfortable solution due to my own insecurities.
• Increased Performance. What if I decide that running is actually what I want to do. Both the treadmill and the gym provide options for me to increase the tempo of my workout without looking out of place. West Edmonton Mall? Imagine a fat man running through the mall with sweat pouring off his head. I'd arrest him.
• Winter clothes. In the middle of winter I would be going to the mall in my winter coat. Where do I put the coat while I am doing my walk? A $3.50 locker? Wear it? While the mall works for summer days when the weather is not perfect, the idea of walking around the mall with a 10 pund winter coat is just not an acceptable approach.

For my personal use the treadmill made more sense with the Gym in second place. If we refer to cost than a Gym membership for the six winter months ($350 - $700) would pay for the treadmill in 2 - 4 years. The more "features" we want in a gym the faster the payback. For example, a dedicated locker or even towel service adds quickly to the cost and makes the treadmill pay for itself much faster.

 

So, there we go, my reasons for a treadmil..

... or a Gym

So, a treadmill is the way to go. Or is it? What about a gym? You know, those sweaty rooms where testosterone laden men are hitting punching bags.

It appears that gyms have changed since I was a kid. Gyms are now "fitness centres" and those testosterone laden men are now being replaced by women in yoga pants. Base on some recommendations I thought I would Che k out a number of options.

Grant Macewan. A local university has opened up their fitness centre to students, staff and the general public. The facilities seem to contain what I am looking for, a treadmill, and they have a variety of options available and they are relatively close to work.

City of Edmonton Recreation Centres. City owned facilities provide a varied level of support for what I want. Some smaller centres contain few options available for what I want while other facilities seem more than adequate. The nearest facility is very small with the odds of the correct machine being available when I want it available akin to being struck by lightning.

Gold's Gym. I am quite leery of Gold's Gym, at least the one closest to my house, because of the numerous complaints I have heard about their business practices, both online and in person. And to be honest, their web site sucks. (Once again, the local branch not the main web site.)

World Health Club. Much better reviews and the locations seem well equipped. There is even one on the direct route to work. They appear to be the one to beat.

Spin Fitness. Small locations open 24 hours a day. Located one block from where I work. Costs less than a gym or rec centre. Not only that, I can get the first month for only $8.95.

West Edmonton Mall. Yeah, I know, it's not a gym or a rec centre but it is big and would allow me to get a good walk in when it was snowing outside. But what about all of the electronics in the car? Wouldn't they freeze in the car?

Lot's of option, but with winter swiftly approaching there is a need to come up with an answer soon.

Treadmills

I have to face it, the weather is going to turn bad and I am going to need to find someplace to do my walking. There are a number of choices:

• Take a walking tour of the floor at work 20 times a day
• Wander through the parkade in the building from the bottom level to the top level 7 times a day
• Go to West Edmonton Mall and walk from one end to the other, and back, twice.
• Walk through the barely shovelled sidewalks and gamble that I am going to be able to make the neighbourhood circle without twisting an ankle.

I don't particularly like any of those options. Oh, some work on certain days while some work better on others, but there is no "perfect" solution. Or is there?

What about a treadmill? I can stay at home, nice and warm, and walk to my hearts content. There are some things that I do need to take into account, however:

• As I am still over 300 pounds I need a treadmill that can handle my weight. This eliminates many of the less expensive treadmills as they are designed for skinny waifs who don't need to lose weight.
• I have a rather wide walk. Wide hips, chunky thighs rubbing together, whatever the cause I need a wider tread to walk on. It used to be that 18" was the standard. That's way too small. 20"? Better. So now I have eliminated another swath of treadmills.
• I plan on using this on a daily basis (up to an hour per day) and I fully expect other people in the house to use it as well. That means a more powerful motor to handle the higher usage pattern and the fact that I am still over 300 pounds. 3 CHP (Continuous Horse Power) or higher is what I am targetting.

So there we go. I think a treadmill will work, but I'm not sure. I know that walking outside won't work for me in winter, but I'm not sure that I can find a treadmill that I want either. (A treadmill that won't cost a fortune.) Let's see what's out there.

Stress

I never really knew how much stress was affecting until just recently.

Up until about two or three weeks ago I was living a stressful but not stressful life. Yes, I had the stress of Diabetes and weight loss, but I was coping with it and everything else seemed a little inconsequential. Then things started to pile up at work and the stress started multiplying. Earlier this week I could almost feel the stress in my body grabbing on to anything it could. The tremendous weight loss this month? Weight gain the past few days. I have been drinking the same amount of water, but it definitely hasn't been leaving my system!

This has been affecting me in other ways. I recently pulled a muscle in my back, one of the only injuries I have had since I started walking more. I was short on steps and decided to go for a longer walk on Wednesday, right before dinner. I came back, had some scrambled eggs and then watched a couple of shows with the family. (Bones and Castle). When I got up I felt a twinge in my back. I went to the washroom and when I turned to leave ... BAM.

My back felt like the Hulk was trying to squeeze the last drops out of an orange. Two Robax later and after a full night of sleep my back is still bothering me. To be honest, I blame it on the stress of the past few days. I need to get bak my zen state of peacefulness that I had last week.

I need to get back to the good stress: counting calories and wondering if it is going to be too cold for my nightly walk.

Too Much Weight Too Fast

So, I'm thinking that I may be hitting the "water loss" stage of the overall weight loss experience.  Normally the water loss stage, where your body purges itself of excess water, occurs early on in the overall weight loss program.  I'm not sure that I experienced that weight loss back in August.  When I started to lose weight I started losing weight at almost the precise number expected from my calorie deficit.

Then I plateaued which I explained as being a defective weigh scale due to batteries.

Then I plummeted in terms of weight loss.  As of this writing it has been over 11 pounds in 8 days.

11 pounds.

To be honest I am almost scared of the wight loss.  I'm almost thinking that it is too fast, but what is causing it?  I am still drinking 8+ cups of water a day.  I am walking over 8000 steps a day.  I am eating a 2000 calorie a day diet (up in the past few weeks to be honest).

I know that a number of people are kind of peeved with me right now in that they would love 11 pounds in 8 days, but I'm trying to make sure that I am not screwing up my metabolism.  I'm trying to make sure that my weight loss is stable, repeatable and foremost, safe.

Let's see if this continues.

Eating Out

One of the most difficult things when dieting, whether you are avoiding carbohydrates, salt, sugar, or whatever, is the ability to determine what is in the dish that you just ordered.  How much cheese is in that cheese burger?  How much salt is in that chilli?  Cajun chicken?

There are so many variables as to what to is in a dish that it is sometimes a crap shoot as to what nutrients are in a dish.  Should you go with just a salad?  But what about the salad dressing?  Grilled chicken?  Seems safe, but what about the rest of the plate?  What can you do?

Well, if you have a mobile device with you scan the internet for nutrition information.  Many chains have nutritional information published or someone has gone through the effort to determine the nutrients.  If you can't find it, the odds are that you can find the individual components of the dish and add those up to create the dish.  Yes, it is a lot of work, but sometimes you can't do anything else.

This isn't to say that you can't eat out.  I've done it dozens of times since I started my diet and have been fairly successful in finding the menu item already identified and nutritionally broken down somewhere on the Internet.  Sometimes, however, I have had to wing it and live with the consequences.

One bad choice does not completely kill your diet. It might be a hiccup.  It might actually turn out to be a good choice.  The important thing to remember is that the end goal requires a marathon effort and a single meal out of the 3000 meals that I will be eating to reach my goal will not have that adverse an impact on the total effort.  Whether I eat 1,000,000 calories or 1,000,400 calories will not make that big a difference, particularly if you are exercising at the same time.

You don't need to avoid eating out, you need to be smart about it.

You do have a choice.

 Status for October 5th

• Weight - 326.2 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

A Walking Demon

Holy crap am I walking a lot.

When I started wearing the FitBit I was kind of happy that I was hitting between 2500 and 3000 steps a day.  Considering what I was probably doing early (too scary to think about) I was positivly a walking demon.

Then I talked to my doctor.  She wanted me to increase my steps by 500 a week until I hit 10,000 steps.  Was she nuts?  I mean, seriously, how do I fit that many steps into my day?  I was busy.  I had meals to eat, television shows to watch, reports to write, etc.  I just didn't have the time to add 500 steps per week.

Or so I thought.

I discovered that walking from my house to the end of the "neighbourhood" and return (yes, I needed to get back to the house) was a 2K walk.  So I started walking.  Considering that this was probably the longest trek that I had been on in years, surpassing the uninterrupted walking that I did at DisneyWorld.  I did it.  I was in pain.  My shins hurt and I was panting like a dog in heat.  It was not a pretty site.  I did this a few times and hurt every time.  I wasn't panting as much but I was successful.  That was when I bought the new walking shoes.  (See previous entry)

I've added the walking at work.  I've changed my lunch pattern to walk to Grant Macewan at lunch time (2.2 K) and a 2K neighbourhood walk at night.  My internal target was to do 7000 steps a day, an increase of 4000 steps per day in 4 weeks (1000 per week instead of 500).  One day I was a little short.  I was only at 2200 steps and it was late at night.  I went to Plan B:  the 3.5K neighbourhood walk.

5000 steps later and I felt pretty good.  In fact, my min/km was actually lower than a normal 2K walk.  I was enjoying this.  I liked walking.  Wow.

My average daily steps are now 8300 steps, up from 2750 only four short weeks ago.  An average of 10,000 steps is not out of the realm of possibility within the next few weeks.  I am stoked to hit it.  

Batteries

You may not think that batteries are important for weight loss, but in my world they are.  I know, I'm confused as well, but let me explain.

Ever week, on Saturday morning I wake up, go to the bathroom and then meet the monster of the day:  the weigh scale.  Since starting my weight loss drive I have been dreading/anticipating the moment that I step on the sale and view my progress.  I dread it because I am scared that I will see little to no progress.  I anticipate it because I want to see the progress I have made.  Imagine what happens to your self esteem and commitment if you don't see any progress for one or two weeks or even longer.  That was the problem that I faced.  

No progress. 

None.

Even worse, it appeared as if I had actually gained half a pound.  I was eating only 2000 calories a day, over 1000 calroeis below TDEE.  I should have lost four pounds.  I was depressed.  I was feeling that all of my effort was going to waste.  I was confused as to why the numbers on the weigh scale were flickering.  Flickering?  What the heck?  Yes, I have a weigh scale which is digital.  A weigh scale that requires batteries.

Batteries.

I went downstairs, get some fresh batteries, installed them in the weigh scale and BAM, instant weight loss.  I was happy.  I was relieved.  I was amazed at how such a simple thing, replacing the batteries in the weigh scale, could have such a huge impact on my self esteem.  Remember, check the batteries if you have a digital weigh scale.  It is so important.

 Status for September 28th

• Weight - 331.5 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

Compression Stockings

Oh, did I mention that I am wearing compression stockings?  I guess I forgot that part, didn't I?

You see, when I went to visit my doctor at the end of July, it wasn't because I was going for a regular visit, it was because I had injured my shin at the beginning of July and it wasn't healing properly.  Heck, when I went to the doctor she thought that I might have Necrotizing fasciitis.  The wound was, well messy is a good word with a bunch of dead flesh and all sorts of other interesting things.  I also learned a new term:  surgical debridement.  Anyway, this led to the blood test which led to the diabetes diagnosis.

It also led to something called a "lower limb assessment" where they check your legs to see good the circulation is as well as the level of water retention in the legs.  At this point the person doing my testing decided that I needed compression stockings at the 20 - 30 mmHg level.  In addition, due to the diabetes diagnosis I needed the "open toe" variety.  Unfortunately, due to the combination of items the only open toed stockings at the 20 - 40 mmHg level are in one style and one colour:  Crispa.

They really look like stockings, not socks.  I try to convince myself they are socks, but it doesn't work.  So, ever since I'd had the compression stockings I have been wearing pants when I go out, no matter how warm it is.

However, there is a bright side.  My calf on my right leg has shrunk over an inch in size.  My left?  About half an inch.  As a result the compression stockings are almost too big for me to wear as I was just into the Xtra large size stockings.  My feet are also better.  So, with all of this information and the continued shrinkage of the rest of me, when I need to go back to get new stockings (early December) I will be asking for closed toed in a smaller size.  This also allows me to pick different colors!!  Maybe even sports socks.

Seriously, that's the most important piece for me right now, fitting in.

 Status for September 21st

• Weight - 331 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

Shoes

Maybe it's just me, but I never really thought that much about my shoes while I was doing my walking.  I had purchased a pair of "hiking shoes" and those were what I wore on a daily basis.  They were comfortable.

And then I started reading articles about walking and how important it was to buy a good pair of walking shoes if I was going to do some serious walking.  10,000 steps a day?  To me that is serious walking so I thought I would do some more investigating.  And more.  And more.  Until it finally got to the point where I now have a personal goal to compete in a 5K walk next year.

Yeah, that came out of the blue didn't it.

Well, now that I have this goal I guess I better get serious about walking.  In order to get serious it looked like I was going to need some new shoes.  I did my research, discovered that everyone liked different things because different shoes offered different capabilities.  I picked out my top two or three and then went shopping at the Running Room?  Why the Running Room?  Well, to be honest, I liked their approach to running / walking and I liked the way they supported the communities they were in.  They had a single focus and they wanted to be as good as they could doing what they love.

So, I walked in the door, went to the walking shoes, found my top pick and said "I'd like to try on these."  No go.  They didn't have my size.  Pick number two?  Right size, but too narrow.  Pick three?  Larger size, but too narrow.  Feeling a little frustrated and ready to go on to the next Running Room store to see if they had what I wanted, the girl (anyone my daughters age is called a girl, no offence intended, just my old age kicking in) brought out a pair of New Balance M840V2 shoes.  Who new that shoes had such fancy names?

Well, I tried on the shoes and I fell in love.  The shoes weigh about the same as my naked iPad and they were so comfortable.  They were wide (apparently my feet really are like flippers) and my toes felt very comfortable in these lightweight monstrosities.  Needless to say, I paid for them and walked out the door, promising myself that I would test them that very night.

And I did.  And I was still in love.  They were very comfortable on my 2K walk and I got to experience the feeling of wind on my toes as a small breeze came up.  After finishing the 2K walk in one of my best times this year (OK, it was only the third or fourth time I had walked this route in my life so it's not hard to set a record) my legs did not feel cramped nor was I suffering from any shin splints.

New shoes for walking?  Priceless

 Status for September 14th

• Weight - 333 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

Walking

Holy crap walking hurts.

OK, so I've been using the FitBit One and coming up with 3000 steps a day, sometimes 4000 steps.  Considering my physical shape previously I was kind of happy.  Then my doctor told me that she wanted me to add about 500 steps a week until I came closer to the 10,000 steps a day that everyone seems to recommend (including FitBit themselves).

Kind of short aren't I?  So, I thought about creating a "route" in my neighbourhood that was about 2 kilometers long.  Not a really long route but enough to challenge me.  It worked out that if I went to the end of the subdivision, turned around and walked back it was almost exactly 2 kilometers long.  So, armed with my FitBit I took my walk.

By the time I got home I was exhausted.  Sweat was poring out of every pore in my body.  My legs felt like they were on fire.  I was freaking exhausted.  Utterly spent.

3000 steps.  

That's what it added to my total.  And people are trying to do 10,000 steps a day?  Seriously?  That's doing this trip at least twice a day (three times on slow days).  I almost broke down and cried at that point.  

There needed to be another way.  So, in the afternoons at work I would leave the office and instead of turning left to go to the drugstore to pick up a liter of water I would turn right, walk around the block and get to the drugstore from the other direction.  OK, that's another 1000 steps.  Next?

Every hour or couple of hours (depending upon meetings) I would get up and walk around the floor.  I work in a big building and a circle of the floor is actually 300 steps.  3% closer to my goal.

Shopping?  Picking a spot farther from the store front.  Groceries?  Wander around the store looking for new items that meet your dietary needs.  Go up and down every single row in an effort to get some extra steps in. 

Status for September 7th

• Weight - 337.3 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.3 mmol/L

Salt

Salt is my enemy.

After a number of weeks I discovered that carbs (both simple and complex) aren't as big an impact on my blood sugar as I thought.  The bigger impact is salt.  If I have the same combination of macronutrients, but one meal contains a higher salt content, my blood sugar seems to go up.  I'm not sure why.

Salt also seems to slow down my weight loss.  If I have a high sodium day (or two) then I seem to actually gain weight.  I burn more calories than I eat, but I end up gaining weight.  This is most definitely water and not "fat" as even the weight of the food doesn't add up to what I gained in weight.

As a result, I have needed to very carefully watch the sodium intake and, when I am close to the limit for the day (2500 mg) I start drinking water.  Lots of water.  I know, this sounds counter intuitive, to prevent water weight gain drink more water, but the act of drinking water seems to draw the salt out of my body and that prevents me from gaining water weight.  Or at least as much weight as I would otherwise.

So, how much water to drink?  The 8 cups of water per day is a myth.  There is no evidence to state that 8 cups of water is a magic number.  It's a target, but I believe that there is a better target:  the colour of your urine.  Yup, I said that.  If your urine is pale yellow to colourless then that is the correct amount of water.  I have found, through drinking lots of water, that the amount of water I need to drink varies on a day by day basis.  I am personally closer to 10 cups of water being the correct amount, indeed on some days it is even higher while on other days it is lower, but at least I have a starting point and that is important.

Salt = bad

Water = good

Simple words but they seem to be true.  For me at least.

Status for August 30th

• Weight - 342.1 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 7.4 mmol/L

Macronutrients

I've got the tools (calorie counting, activity monitoring, glucose monitoring) and now I need to take action.  I started by putting into MyFitnessPal exactly what I was eating for every meal.  Everything.  At the end of a couple of days I took a look at the numbers that MyFitnessPal thought I should be targetting and where I actually ended up.

Wow, my food intake sucks.

I had too many carbs (keeping blood sugar too high), too much fat (look at my weight) and not nearly enough protein.  I mean, seriously not enough protein.  Time to become a part time nutritionist.  My exposure to nutrition over the past 50 years has been quite minimal.  I knew about carbs, fats and proteins, but not really what they were used for and how much of each I should have.  The information was out there, I just never paid attention to it.  Well, now was the time.

It appears that there actually is a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein.  The Institute of Medicine reviewed a lot of studies and came up with a simple formula for the RDA:

0.37 grams per pound of body weight

Simple as that.  So, I took my weight, multiplied by 0.37 and then compared the result to what was in MyFitnessPal and here is where I encountered a difference of opinion.  MyFitnessPal said that 15% of my calories should come from protein.  The Institute of Medicine said that number was closer to 22% of my calories.  Which one to pick?  I chose the Institute of Medicine and moved my protein count up to 25%.

Now, if you go to body builder sites they will up that 0.37 grams to 1 gram or even higher.  That would mean that 60% or more of my calories came from protein.  Heck, I was having a difficult time hitting the lower limit of 15%, moving to 60%?  Not ready for that step yet.

Fats?  Well, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of consensus about fat.  I moved it to 30% to try to minimize the impact of fat since each gram of fat accounts for 9 calories compared to 4 for either carbs or proteins.

Carbs?  Well, carbs end up going into my blood stream pretty quick so I needed to try to smooth out the sugar spikes in my blood by keeping my carbs to no more than 45% of my calories. The Institute of Medicine said to consume at least 100 grams of carbs per day, so I was in no danger there.

So what did I end up with?

• Protein - 25% (or more)
• Fat - 30% (or less)
• Carbs - 45%

Time to see what I can do with these numbers.

Status for August 23rd

• Weight - 343.5 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 7.8 mmol/L

Blood Sugar Monitoring

My first meeting with the nurse involved some information about Diabetes and an introduction to a glucose monitor.  In my case the Bayer Contour Next EZ.  A very simple monitor that had only a few functions.  Yes, there was an advanced menu function but there wasn't a lot in terms of reporting.  After all, if's a tiny device with a simplistic display.

I looked all over the place for blood sugar monitoring software.  Bayer has some, but it isn't available to Canadians.  There are other companies that manufacture the software but it is either expensive or limited to just a few manufacturers devices.  

And then came Glooko.

Glooko is a both a cable and an application.  The cable connects your glucose monitor to your iPhone.  The app on your iPhone uploads the information to the Glooko website.  The cable is compatible with a variety of different monitors and does a very nice job of grabbing all of the statistics on the monitor and uploading them.  The website provides a variety of different graphs and gives you a very good idea of where you are in terms of blood sugar, both the highs and the lows.

It doesn't link with either FitBit or MyFItnessPal, but I don't mind.  The graphs showing where I am, where I am trending, more than make up for the missing connectivity.

OK, I've got all the tools.  Now what?

Status for August 16th

• Weight - 349 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 8.3 mmol/L

I Have To Be Fit

Sure, not only is diabetes a factor, but I need to lose weight in order to help keep the diabetes under control.  Losing weight and becoming fit.  Seriously?

OK, so after picking myself up I decided that I would make an effort to become more fit.  But what does that really mean?  What do I have to do in order to become fit?  Well, here is where a lot of research goes on, reading articles on fitness, reading information on different types of exercise and taking a look at what I have been doing, or rather not doing, for the past 5/10/20/30 years.

At the beginning I decided that walking was probably the thing for me that was probably most likely to be followed with regard to an exercise pattern.  Why walking as opposed to running?  Less impact on the knees, my right knee in particular.  Considering the "accident" at Universal Studios in 1999 my right knee has been weaker than my left and tends to become inflamed and very sore under stress.  Running would put a lot of stress on the knees and, to be honest, I would feel ridiculous running for, oh, 50 feet and then walking for 500 feet.

But how do I track the walking?  Do I count every step I take during the day and put it into a spreadsheet at night?  Or, considering how techie I seem to seem to be leaning with everything, do I go for a pedometer?  A high tech pedometer?  So I took a look at some of the more popular items:  FitBit, Nike and Jawbone.  Why these three?  Because there are apps associated with all of them.  My criteria were rather simple, but very effective in narrowing down the list:

• if it is to be worn on the wrist, it needs to fit my big wrists
• it needs to have a mobile app associated with it

Simple, but it tossed out the Fitbit Flex and the Nike+ FuelBand and the Jawbone Up as they all rely on being attached to your wrist.  I checked out the maximum size of the various bands and none of them were large enough to fit around my wrist.  All of them were too small by at least half an inch.  So, what did that leave me with?  The Fitbit One  It fit my simplistic criteria and, as an added bonus, it interacts with MyFitnessPal so that my calorie burn throughout the day is transmitted to MyFitnessPal and it tells me if I should be eating more calories or not.

Status for August 9th

• Weight - 353.5 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 9.4 mmol/L

Counting Calories

OK, so we've established that I've got diabetes, what do I do next?

The most obvious answer is to watch what sugars I eat.  Since this is the age of the Internet I immediately went to Google, looked up calorie tracking tools and decided to use MyFitnessPal.  Why MyFitnessPal?  A number of reasons:

1. A website/mobile app combination.  For me it was important that there was both a website that I could go to and a mobile app that I could use.  My family eats out a lot and being able to see where I am with regard to following my diet was extremely important to me.  MyFitnessPal has both a smartphone app and a web site that sync with each other.  While the reporting out of MyFitnessPal is limited depending upon the platform, I have high hopes that there is a mechanism whereby I can pull the data out and do my own reporting.  What reports I need I'm not sure, but I'm confident that I will find something I want that MyFitnessPal doesn't provide.
2. A large database of foods.  MyFitnessPal says that they have over 2 million items in their food database.  I believe them.  However, in many cases the foods are duplicated because someone couldn't find the other entry that was in the database.  In some cases, because the information is entered by users, not all of the nutritional information is valid/correct.  I wish there was some way to weight the information and if it is wrong get it removed from the database.  Or, maybe there is and I just haven't seen it.  (I am getting old you know.)
3. A suggested guideline that I could modify.  I wanted to have the ability to change the ratio of carbs/fats/proteins without having to following someone else's prescribed percentages.  Everyone is different.  Everyone has different requirements.  Something that wasn't flexible enough for me to change to meet my criteria was not going to suitable for me in the long term.
4. An enthusiastic community.  The community boards on MyFitnessPal are filled with people who are having issues and need help and they are getting that help by other MyFitnessPal users.  Whether it is just someone to talk to, compare notes with or help with issues, someone is always there to provide assistance.  While I have never been a "social" person, I find myself contributing to the conversation even if it is just to submit a "Proud of you, keep up the good work" type of comment.  Seeing those comments actually helps more than I had originally thought.

So, I had a tool.  Now all I needed to do was use it.

Having Choices

We all have choices.  Making the right choices is the difficult part.

Back on July 30th my doctor told me (and I am paraphrasing her here) "Don, we're all dying, but you're dying a little bit faster than the rest of us."  Essentially she told me that I have Type 2 Diabetes and that it was borderline as to whether or not to treat with drugs/diet or with Insulin.  In conjunction with this I was overweight and that losing weight would also be a good thing for my diabetes.

Was it a surprise being diagnosed with diabetes?  Both yes and no.  No in the sense that I was overweight and I drank a lot of pop (soda for you Americans).  But, yes, because I guess I was always under the delusion that it would never happen to me.  Well, I guess it did happen.

I had a choice.  I knew for a long time that I was overweight.  I chose not to do anything about it.  It was easy to just continue my normal lifestyle, a not very good lifestyle, and continue eating my way to an early grave.  The discussion with the doctor was figuratively a slap in the face.  It suddenly clicked in my brain that I was killing myself and I was letting myself do it.  Suicide by food.

So, I made a new choice.  I actually made a number of choices:  lose weight; lower my blood sugar; get more fit.  That what this blog is about.  The choices I am making and what impact that is having on my life.  Since I started this late, not on July 30th but in September, the first few posts are going to have some retroactive stats in them so that people understand the full scope of changes.  Stick with me and you'll see the changes, for better or for worse, that are occurring in my life.

Stats as of August 2:

• Weight - 355 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 10.1 mmol/L (via blood test)