I'm Watching What I Eat (2022)

[TastyReuben]

…and I just got my test results back, no diabetes meds for me, for the next six months, anyway. Let’s see if I can keep behaving myself and making somewhat sensible food choices.

Next up…the one doctor visit I fear…the urologist, next week. He’s ruled out cancer, but says my PSA is too high for a man my age. Maybe he just likes examining me, idk.

 

[Lullabelle]

Unfortunately I have lapsed lately due to various things happening but now back on track.
Laying off the bad stuff and exercising so going the right way

 

[garlichead]

…and I just got my test results back, no diabetes meds for me, for the next six months, anyway. Let’s see if I can keep behaving myself and making somewhat sensible food choices.

Next up…the one doctor visit I fear…the urologist, next week. He’s ruled out cancer, but says my PSA is too high for a man my age. Maybe he just likes examining me, idk.

Didn't know you had diabetes. Obviously your A1C was down to a respectable level for your Dr. to drop your meds. Weight loss and/or low/er carb consumption are the 2 most common mediations. What do you attribute to your result?

 

[TastyReuben]

Didn't know you had diabetes. Obviously your A1C was down to a respectable level for your Dr. to drop your meds. Weight loss and/or low/er carb consumption are the 2 most common mediations. What do you attribute to your result?

I’ll give you the whole story in a nutshell: in 2001, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and over the following year, I dropped 80 lbs or so. I never went on meds, just diet and exercise.

Over the next decade or so, I put maybe 35 lbs back on, and figured out pretty quickly that my break point was 200 lbs - anything under that, I could eat just about anything and glucose and A1C were fine, anything over that, they started to creep up, so being the person that I am, I decided 199.9 lbs was my ideal weight. I’m 5’9” and a bit.

Now, I’m finding that as I get older, the old 200 lb rule isn’t working so well, and I can be 185 lb, and if I’m making bad food choices, my A1C is going to show that. So now I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to be well under 200 lbs, and I have to eat a lot more sensibly.

Now, I still eat what I want, but just smaller portions, and I don’t drink sugared soft drinks, and maybe one diet one a week, and alcohol consumption is way down, which helps with keeping the pounds off.

But I still have something sweet with my tea at night, and I’ll definitely eat French fries and burgers - I just don’t eat a 1/2-lb burger and a pound of fries, like I did back in the fat old days. I also take a brisk 3-4 mile walk, Mon-Fri, and walk nearly as much on the weekends, just not in one go on a treadmill, like I do during the week.

My PCP is really itching to get me on meds, it seems, and I’m always fighting it. Probably when I hit 65, even eating right and exercising probably won’t be enough, but I’m fighting those meds for as long as possible.

 

[garlichead]

I’ll give you the whole story in a nutshell: in 2001, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and over the following year, I dropped 80 lbs or so. I never went on meds, just diet and exercise.

Over the next decade or so, I put maybe 35 lbs back on, and figured out pretty quickly that my break point was 200 lbs - anything under that, I could eat just about anything and glucose and A1C were fine, anything over that, they started to creep up, so being the person that I am, I decided 199.9 lbs was my ideal weight. I’m 5’9” and a bit.

Now, I’m finding that as I get older, the old 200 lb rule isn’t working so well, and I can be 185 lb, and if I’m making bad food choices, my A1C is going to show that. So now I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to be well under 200 lbs, and I have to eat a lot more sensibly.

Now, I still eat what I want, but just smaller portions, and I don’t drink sugared soft drinks, and maybe one diet one a week, and alcohol consumption is way down, which helps with keeping the pounds off.

But I still have something sweet with my tea at night, and I’ll definitely eat French fries and burgers - I just don’t eat a 1/2-lb burger and a pound of fries, like I did back in the fat old days. I also take a brisk 3-4 mile walk, Mon-Fri, and walk nearly as much on the weekends, just not in one go on a treadmill, like I do during the week.

My PCP is really itching to get me on meds, it seems, and I’m always fighting it. Probably when I hit 65, even eating right and exercising probably won’t be enough, but I’m fighting those meds for as long as possible.

Almost all PCP's have very little knowledge of nutrition in general and like to prescribe, prescribe, so not surprising there. Adipose tissue becomes dysfunctional promoting a pro-inflammatory, hyperlipidemic and an insulin resistant environment and it's evident and prevalent in waist circumference, the bigger your waist gets the more susceptible we are, no doubt about it. Yeah, weight loss it the big one. As we lose weight we become more insulin sensitive and lowers the risk of diabetes and thousands of people have gotten off their meds including statins and blood pressure from weight loss.

Lowering sugar and processed carbs in an isocaloric environment (no weight loss) works to lower A1C and increase insulin sensitivity, so both weight loss and lower carbs is a really good way to accelerate that process. My PCP is a friend and specializes in obesity and metabolic dysfunction and has a separate clinic for that and he's been getting people off meds for about 20 years. He was pretty instrumental in my obsession's with dietary nutrition. I'm low/er carb and I don't for diabetes per se but to help control my hunger through hormonal regulation and help get my weight under control effortlessly......less hunger you control your eating, a no brainer.

I put on about 30 lbs over the last while from not watching what I eat, because carbs are tasty lol and over the last 3 weeks I've gone from 223 to 201 right now and want to get back to 188-190. I have a glucose and blood pressure monitor that I use regularly and both have lowered quite a bit and it was the increasing that motivated me to lose weight and of course not having to buy more cloths is a bonus. Anyway good for you, hope your success continues.

 

[Rocklobster]

I've cut back a lot lately, also..Having a meat and fine food shop is a perilous predicament... my diet was pretty rich..I thought I was getting good nutrition because I eat a lot of vegetables, and I walk and/or cycle almost every day..but, I like my beer and purine rich foods so my uric acid creeped up on me and I had some gout..I've since got a monitor also and have started to check my UA, BG and Cholesterol..I'm still trying to decipher the results and am having a hard time converting moll/l (which is what my monitor measures and displays the results) to mg/dl.
So, no sugar, as little as possible anyway...meat about three times a week...I've lost 12 lbs in a few weeks and feel a lot better..But, I've read that it can take a few months to get these levels down

 

[garlichead]

I've cut back a lot lately, also..Having a meat and fine food shop is a perilous predicament... my diet was pretty rich..I thought I was getting good nutrition because I eat a lot of vegetables, and I walk and/or cycle almost every day..but, I like my beer and purine rich foods so my uric acid creeped up on me and I had some gout..I've since got a monitor also and have started to check my UA, BG and Cholesterol..I'm still trying to decipher the results and am having a hard time converting moll/l (which is what my monitor measures and displays the results) to mg/dl.
So, no sugar, as little as possible anyway...meat about three times a week...I've lost 12 lbs in a few weeks and feel a lot better..But, I've read that it can take a few months to get these levels down

Mmol/L to mg/dl Calculator - Calculator Academy

Basically you take the Mmol/l and multiply by 18 to get the mg/dl for blood glucose and cholesterol for example. Cholesterol is a red herring pretty much and triglycerides under 100 and HDL above 50 indicates that LDL's are of the right configuration, and that being, less atherogenic and considered protective.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Finally picked up the courage to weigh myself again this morning. Hate doing it because i used to be anorexic in my teenage years and the school skirt that fit me when I was 11, still fit me when I was 18!

7½ years ago my back gave up and due to various issues with the NHS (UK) I ended up with a partially paralysed right leg. Much physio was required in Australia too very me using it again... I also established at the same time that I have a spinal birth defect that I knew nothing of until I was 42. Needless to say going from cycling 1,500km a month to not being able to walk 10meters without 2 crutches and a lot of hard work didn't do much for my weight. I was 60kg at the time it failed. I had risen to 72kg by the final surgery on my back. I got my weight back down to 67kg through dieting before my neck failed.

4 years ago my neck gave up in 3 places, 2 disks and 1 vertebrae. I was told without a life saving operation I would be dead by the end of the year. Surgery was more than compmicated than expected and recovery harder as a result. The right leg paralysis and lower back problems plus a 4 month stay in rehab where I couldn't control my diet and they struggled to cater for me resulted in a massive weight gain. I was needles to say pretty depressed. I hadn't expected to be told to write up an advanced care directive at 45 years old.

My weight spiraled out of control and I refused to be weighed again once I reached 87kg.

It's taken a lot of hard work to recover, and I've needed major surgery again since then but I now have my weight down to 62.9kg. I can only claim 24kg lost though I do know I was well over 87kg because I was averaging 2kg a week weight gain and had gone 2 weeks without being weighed before I discharged myself.

6 months ago I was back in the wheelchair crippled by osteoarthritis in both hip, along with the lower back issues, right leg paralysis. Thankfully the surgery to be neck has been 100% successful and other than the scar there is no evidence there was ever a problem.

I've still got a way to go. At 63kg I am still in size 10 trousers and size 14 tops. Last time I was this weight I was in size 6 & size 10 respectively, so I know I'm still carrying too much fat and it's around my middle, not my hips. The aim is to get to 55kg but anything under 60kg I'll be more than happy with.

As for walking, I used to be able to walk 27 miles in a day. Hubby and I walked everywhere. I didn't bat an eyelid over walking 5 miles to work and home again, plus swimming at lunchtime, when I wasn't cycling to work the long way... yeah, that was a decade ago and this last decade has been really hard on me but with the assistance of a new hip, several new joints in my spine and neck, and 2 crutches I can now cover 12km 2 days in a row (I just sleep well the subsequent day! ). My aim is to get that back up to 16km minimum. I'll be 50 at the end of the year and I want to get to Tasmania on holiday and actually be able to get out and explore.

So from +87kg (+192lb) I'm down to 62.9kg (138½lb) over a period of 4 years and returning to the wheelchair plus another major surgery.
The aim is 55kg (121lb). I'm 167cm or 5'5½".

 

[Backbay]

Finally picked up the courage to weigh myself again this morning. Hate doing it because i used to be anorexic in my teenage years and the school skirt that fit me when I was 11, still fit me when I was 18!

7½ years ago my back gave up and due to various issues with the NHS (UK) I ended up with a partially paralysed right leg. Much physio was required in Australia too very me using it again... I also established at the same time that I have a spinal birth defect that I knew nothing of until I was 42. Needless to say going from cycling 1,500km a month to not being able to walk 10meters without 2 crutches and a lot of hard work didn't do much for my weight. I was 60kg at the time it failed. I had risen to 72kg by the final surgery on my back. I got my weight back down to 67kg through dieting before my neck failed.

4 years ago my neck gave up in 3 places, 2 disks and 1 vertebrae. I was told without a life saving operation I would be dead by the end of the year. Surgery was more than compmicated than expected and recovery harder as a result. The right leg paralysis and lower back problems plus a 4 month stay in rehab where I couldn't control my diet and they struggled to cater for me resulted in a massive weight gain. I was needles to say pretty depressed. I hadn't expected to be told to write up an advanced care directive at 45 years old.

My weight spiraled out of control and I refused to be weighed again once I reached 87kg.

It's taken a lot of hard work to recover, and I've needed major surgery again since then but I now have my weight down to 62.9kg. I can only claim 24kg lost though I do know I was well over 87kg because I was averaging 2kg a week weight gain and had gone 2 weeks without being weighed before I discharged myself.

6 months ago I was back in the wheelchair crippled by osteoarthritis in both hip, along with the lower back issues, right leg paralysis. Thankfully the surgery to be neck has been 100% successful and other than the scar there is no evidence there was ever a problem.

I've still got a way to go. At 63kg I am still in size 10 trousers and size 14 tops. Last time I was this weight I was in size 6 & size 10 respectively, so I know I'm still carrying too much fat and it's around my middle, not my hips. The aim is to get to 55kg but anything under 60kg I'll be more than happy with.

As for walking, I used to be able to walk 27 miles in a day. Hubby and I walked everywhere. I didn't bat an eyelid over walking 5 miles to work and home again, plus swimming at lunchtime, when I wasn't cycling to work the long way... yeah, that was a decade ago and this last decade has been really hard on me but with the assistance of a new hip, several new joints in my spine and neck, and 2 crutches I can now cover 12km 2 days in a row (I just sleep well the subsequent day! ). My aim is to get that back up to 16km minimum. I'll be 50 at the end of the year and I want to get to Tasmania on holiday and actually be able to get out and explore.

So from +87kg (+192lb) I'm down to 62.9kg (138½lb) over a period of 4 years and returning to the wheelchair plus another major surgery.
The aim is 55kg (121lb). I'm 167cm or 5'5½".

Kudos to you SatNav, for your perseverance and accomplishing all you have despite the obstacles thrown in your path!

 

[Morning Glory]

So from +87kg (+192lb) I'm down to 62.9kg (138½lb) over a period of 4 years and returning to the wheelchair plus another major surgery.
The aim is 55kg (121lb). I'm 167cm or 5'5½".

That is brilliant. I don't have scales to weigh myself. I'm 5 ft 8 (ish) and if I was 62.5kg I'd be really skinny. My best weight is probably around 67 kg. I've no idea what I am now but I think its more like 76kg or more.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

That is brilliant. I don't have scales to weigh myself. I'm 5 ft 8 (ish) and if I was 62.5kg I'd be really skinny. My best weight is probably around 67 kg. I've no idea what I am now but I think its more like 76kg or more.

Thank you.

At my height, a BMI of 25 (which is technically the start of being overweight) kicks in at 67kg. (The normal range is 50-67kg.) But I've really slim hips and pelvis, same size waist as hips and slightly larger chest (my lung capacity is huge with my peak flow still above 550ml even approaching 50). Even at 62.9kg I'm still a size 10 waist, hips are size 6-8, but chest is still size 14. Because of the wheelchair, and a muscle retention medical issue, I don't have much muscle at all now. So whilst I'm slim not skinny, I'm still carrying an unhealthy amount of fat in exactly the wrong area, around my middle/heart. Pretty much all of my family have died from heart failure except for my Grannie who died from a series of strokes. I need to watch that fat level carefully. I'm the only one in my immediate family with an even vaguely normal weight and that has been the case most of my memory. My Grannie was slim but my memories of my mother, ex-step-father, both brothers & my sister are one of them always being very overweight with my mother being the worst, so I guess I know where my eating disorder came from.

 

[madebyyouandi]

At the start of the pandemic I was 95kg, 5kg over where I wanted to be (mind you, I'm 192cm/6'4" and carried it well). Because I could work at home, I lost all the little bits of exercise I got during the week plus I had unimpeded access to the kitchen 24/7 and swelled to 105 by the end of the first year. Then I started the YouTube channel and stopped weighing in at 115kg... I started a diet about 5 or 6 weeks ago. As of this week I'm down to 104kg and dropping.

How's your weight been during these two pandemic years?

(BTW, when I say I'm dieting, I'm calorie counting [with myfitnesspal] and eating 500 calories below what my body needs. Calorie counting has put perspective back into portion sizes which has made all the difference.)

 

[JAS_OH1]

At the start of the pandemic I was 95kg, 5kg over where I wanted to be (mind you, I'm 192cm/6'4" and carried it well). Because I could work at home, I lost all the little bits of exercise I got during the week plus I had unimpeded access to the kitchen 24/7 and swelled to 105 by the end of the first year. Then I started the YouTube channel and stopped weighing in at 115kg... I started a diet about 5 or 6 weeks ago. As of this week I'm down to 104kg and dropping.

How's your weight been during these two pandemic years?

(BTW, when I say I'm dieting, I'm calorie counting [with myfitnesspal] and eating 500 calories below what my body needs. Calorie counting has put perspective back into portion sizes which has made all the difference.)

Interestingly, I actually lost weight during the pandemic. I was working less but just eating differently, and it was unintentional. I lost 20 pounds over the past 2 years without trying. I could probably lose another 15 and it would put me at my ideal weight (in my mind the ideal weight for my age). You are so right about portion sizes! I think some of my success happened because of a health reason: I had a gall bladder issue and I didn't know it for awhile, just didn't know what was wrong with me (until emergency surgery for removal), but it did cause me to start eating smaller portions because food made me sick. Now it's become a habit to eat smaller portions.

Kudos to you for mindful eating and your weight loss! I know it's hard when you are tall for it to make a significant difference in appearance. I am 5'1 inches tall so 5 pounds looks like I lost a lot of weight compared to someone your height. I have a sister who is nearly 6'0" tall and she has to work hard to show any results when she loses weight.

 

[TastyReuben]

How's your weight been during these two pandemic years?

I lost about 40 lbs/18 kg, I’d like to lose another 10 lbs.

 

[garlichead]

Yeah, I've lost about 20 pandemic lbs with another 12 to go. I don't count calories just make adjustments for blood sugar with carbs which constitutes higher protein and fat and keep my eating within a 6 hour window which is totally satiating and controls all the food cravings I had before getting back to this regimen. Cheers.