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DATE : 2020.02.08
TIME : 12:34
AUTHOR :
[email protected]
MOOD : CONTENT
TITLE : LONG BREAK LOOK-BACK
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Well it certainly has been a while since I have written a
phlog. This was not intentional I can assure you, rather an
unfortunate side effect of an overly busy life. So what have I
been up to? How have I been feeling? Let's get into it shall we.
We should start with health and fitness. Last year I found myself
in the precarious situation of having gone 9 months (3 x 3 month
fasting bloodwork sessions) with an A1C (average blood glucose for
90 days) of 9.4-9.5. For those that are not diabetic, let me just
say that its a terrible score, even more so for someone who was
already on multiple diabetes medicines.
I am fortunate that my doctor is a straight shooter who doesn't
pull any punches, I was looking at having to go to injectable
insulin, which was a hard "Fuck No" from me, and a wake up call
to make life changes which I did. I went on a low-carb keto diet
and started walking my dog. He was a big fan of this decision and
continues to be a great walking partner.
After three months on keto my A1C was down to 4.9 (really fucking
good) and my other bad cholesterol numbers were down as well. A
big win for sure. But one thing those first three months really
taught me, more than any other time I have gone on diets it
how important it is to change habits and mentally how I view
food. The brain is a highly elastic computer, but it is resistant
to change. My brain loves carbs, it adores pizza, basically if its
bad for me I love to eat it, I get pleasure from eating bad food,
and this can often be a challenge.
If I am stressed, depressed, run down etc. and am looking for some
comfort, food has always been my go to release. I realized then
that this really had to change or any results I would find now
would eventually get undone as they have so many other times over
the last few decades. I still stuggle with these old habits. When
I have a cheat moment, and I do occasionally have them, usually on
things like birthdays or holiday's I have to be especially aware
of how much I let myself eat. I am not to a point where I will
just stop, it's like those habits are still there just under lock
and chain. So that's definitely something I will be working on for
a while to come.
In November I was turning 50 and had a bunch of money I didn't
know what to spend it on, and my wife wanted to get me something
nice for the big decade birthday. I decided to pick up an Apple
Watch. At that point I think I was 50 lbs down and really was
interested in seeing if it would help me continue with my fitness
motivation.
I am happy to report that it has made a huge impact. In December
I missed out on having a perfect fitness month (closing all
the move/exercise/stand rings each week) by one day due to
travel. This sucked but I ended up getting it in January! I am
just a few days now away from hitting my 100 move ring close
award. For those not familiar with the Apple Watch it sets a
daily goal for you that is depicted by three concentric rings, the
idea is to close all three rings each day. The stand goal is to
stand and move around once every hour for one minute for 12 hours
(easy). The exercise ring is to get 30 minutes of active exercise
a day, either from actually working out or being active doing
other things where your heart rate is raised. The move ring is set
to a daily calore burn goal that you set each week. I started out
at 300 calories a day but quickly moved up to where I am now which
is 1000 calories a day.
I've been really surprised how motivated this has made me. I
recently had my second 3 month fasting bloodwork and I am happy to
report that my A1C went from 4.9 to 4.8 and my cholesterol is even
better. My doctor decided to take me off two of my prescriptions
which is great. I am really hoping that as I continue to
lose weight that I can eventually keep reducing the number of
prescriptions I need.
Speaking of weight, as of yesterday I have now lost 78 pounds. I
am roughly 40-50 pounds to my goal weight of 190-200. I could
not be happier. Activity wise I am now jogging 3 miles per day. I
think if I continue to do my diet and keep exercising that I might
be able to make my goal weight before next Christmas.
This is really motivating for me because losing weight is directly
tied to the goal I set for myself when this all started which was
to go for a solo backpacking trip once I got to my goal weight. I
have used a CPAP machine for the last 18 years because of my
weight. If I can get the weight off it is very likely that I will
no longer need the CPAP machine (or at least be at a point where
if I don't use it the number of episodes I have are minimal) which
is key to being able to go backpacking.
So we will see how it goes. All I can do is take it one day
at a time. That's all for now. I am anxiously awaiting an old
Thinkpad T60 to be delivered today. I snagged it off ebay for
$35.00! Looking forward to putting OpenBSD on it and learning
BSD. Talk to you soon!
-Snowcrash
