2015 Health overview

Three years ago Chef Teri and I decided we would be more active in a lifestyle change we wanted and was necessitated by medical issues.

The first was diet. 99 percent of the sugar was gone, most additional salt as well however the most painful was the drastic reduction in carbohydrate consumption. Potatoes are far and away the most versatile vegetable and far and away my personal favorite, Chef Teri's too. In addition breads of all sorts and sizes (ie flours, pre-made rolls, etc) were done away with. Ouch.

Three years in we have managed to stay with this diet and actually for those number freaks we pretty consistently maintain a 2000 cal a day regime. Yes we vary from that on occasion but not with any frequency to be concerned with.

Eight moths ago after having seen that what we were doing was not moving us toward the results we wanted we choose to participate in an Insurance sponsored weight lose program. This give us access to a local health and fitness centers equipment as well as the advice of a fitness trainer, dietitian and life coach all at cut rates. The coach and dietitian have not been overly helpful as we were honestly beyond the point in our journey of needing substantially their assistance you not already having the knowledge at hand that those two brought to the table. The trainer on the other hand has been the single most hated person in both Chef Teri's and my life, honestly.

We started of three days a week and quickly scheduled five, with weekends off. At this point we have probably averaged just over four a week with vacations, life and what not.

Recently we (I) have grown tired of the weights/cardio monotony and have added twice a week an aerobic Les Mills Body Combat class to the rotation. That along with 5-6 defined routines keeps us constantly wondering what we are going to do on that particular day at the gym.

I started this at my heaviest 335 pounds. As of this writing I have lost 83 pounds and kept all but 2 of it off. I tip the scales at 270. For those astute in the audience those numbers don't 'add up' because I was sick at one point and lost a bit but then rebounded when I was healthy again. Weight lose is weight lose so there you go.

Got the final blood results back for the year, not much change from three months ago which is disappointing but still very good considering what they were three years ago.

Ha1C 5.8 below 6.0is the target.
Total cholesterol 190 target below 199.
Triglycerides 185 target below 149.
HDL 44 target above 40.
LDL 109 target below 99.
Microalbumin acceptable.

One blood sugar medication of three gone, two more to go this year.

Upwards and onward more update next year.