I took myself off of all of my meds earlier this year (except for the thyroid meds, that one is for life). None of my illnesses were terribly dire, so I wanted to see what I could do with diet and exercise alone, with no meds in my body. In 4 1/2 months, this is what I've accomplished with healthier eating and regular exercise:
I was on 2 diabetes meds (thank God it was never bad enough to need insulin). My A1C # should not be above a 6. When I got it checked in January, it was an 8.4. Today it was a 6.7. This is still a little over, but the doctor said that I've made such great strides, and he knows I'm continuing to do so, that I do not need to take any more meds for the diabetes!!
I was on a high blood pressure med. But the last 4x I was at the doctor, it was a normal reading, so I was okay with taking myself off of that one. My visit last Wed gave me another normal reading of 120/80, so he said no more blood pressure med!!
My bad cholesterol (LDL) shouldn't be over 130. Mine is 114! No more bad cholesterol med!!
My good cholesterol (HDL) should be at least a 45. Mine is a 25, so it's too low. They want to put me on a med for this when I go in for a follow-up appt in a month. I'm disappointed about that. I asked what kind of food I should be eating to improve it. My doctor said you don't improve good cholesterol with food...only bad cholesterol is improved with food. He said you improve the good cholesterol with exercise. I explained that I've progressed from walking less than a mile all the way to walking/jogging 4 miles a day/6 days a week! He was shocked and said that I'm doing plenty of exercise then, and that unfortunately it's heredity that's causing it. I emailed Sean and Pam to see if they knew anything about this. Both of them said that their dr's said it CAN be improved with food.....good stuff like fish, walnuts, almonds, etc. So...I'm planning on incorporating more of these into my diet and see what I can do on my own.
My thyroid nearly killed me in 1999. I went to bed one night and woke up in a hospital 4-5 days later. I had been on life support for 4 days and nobody knew what was wrong. It was finally determined that I had hypothyroidism, meaning an overactive thyroid. My doctor told me today that your thyroid should run between a .34 and a 5.6. When I got out of the hospital, mine was at a 67. No wonder I damn near died!
It has been super high for many years and my meds have steadily increased. I don't understand the thyroid at all...I do not know if diet and exercise affect it, or if there's any way to improve it on your own. All I know is that when I went and had labs done in January, all of a sudden I had gone from HYPO to HYPER, meaning now my thyroid was too low. He lowered my dose from 2 pills a day to 1 1/2. My labs today said that my thyroid is still too low, and in fact, lower than it was in January. No idea why. It shouldn't be lower than a .34. It was a .30 in January, and today it's a .22. He told me to drop down to 1 pill a day. So although I'll be on this one for life, at least the dose is decreasing, and that makes me happy. :)
I was so excited to get this news today...I said when I started this blog that I wanted to lose weight, but most importantly, I wanted to get healthy. I didn't want to die an early death and leave my family behind and that's exactly where I was headed. In less than 5 months, I've turned it all around. Almost all of the meds are out of my life, and I hope they're gone forever. This proves what you can do when you make The Decision, set your goal, and go after it. The trick is not to never fall....it's to get up EVERY TIME you fall....never quit. Ever. Life is too important. If I can do it, so can you. Without question. :)
My calories are at 1650 today. I was shooting for 1600 because my exercise is limited, but I just couldn't seem to stop munching on that dang turkey breast I baked today! I took the skin off, covered it in spices, and then sprayed it with some olive oil cooking spray to hold in some of the juices. It came out very moist and flavorful. I'll use it to make some turkey pitas w/ lettuce and tomato for the next couple of days. I made a great breakfast and it was under 200 calories. It was an egg white scramble with fresh mushrooms, onions and 1 oz of Boar's Head 47% lower sodium ham, with some tomato diced on top. It was delicious! This afternoon I made a Greek chicken wrap. It was sauteed chicken tenders with fresh spinach and artichoke hearts. I used a low-carb wheat tortilla, and added some shredded lettuce and 1 tbsp. of reduced fat sour cream. Yum! I took some pics:
On the exercise front...it was 40 degrees this morning with thick, heavy fog. A good day to stay in cuddled up on the sofa with a warm cup of coffee, lol. But I headed to the park anyway, and did an easy 2 mile walk. My knee felt okay...not totally right yet, but not hurting. Again, I didn't want to push it, so I left the trail after 2 miles, ran some errands, and went back home. Josh at "A Personal Journey of Fitness and Fat Loss" was kind enough to give me some links to some more bat wing exercises (triceps), so I tried out a new one today.
Skullcrushers (triceps) - 20 reps on each arm with 5 lb. weight. I tried it with a 10 lb. weight and couldn't even lift it 2 inches, lol.
My normal tricep exericse (dropping 10 lb. weight behind my head with both hands, bending at the elbow, then extending over my head fully). 50 - 2 reps of 25 with a 10 lb weight.
Wall push-ups - 50 - 2 reps of 25
Crunches - 100 - 2 reps of 50
Leg Lifts - 20 - 2 reps of 10 (my stomach is still so big that these are the hardest exercise for me right now).
So all in all, today has been great...especially with the news on the lab results. I'm a little worried about whether or not I'll lose this week, because of my lack of cardio....but I'm not freaking too much. If I don't lose this week, I'll do my best to lose some the next. :)
Also, I want to give Josh a shout out. If you haven't seen his blog yet, it would behoove you to do so. This guy inspires me each and every day. Since he's posted his weight on his own blog, I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning a ballpark figure here. Josh started his journey at over 300 lbs. He's had some consistent, fantastic losses. He is an absolute machine in the gym...always giving it all he's got.....he swims, lift weights, plays basketball and the list goes on and on. He does things now at his weight that I only dream of at my current weight of 230. I'm so glad I found his blog....he's a true inspiration and he inspires me to want to try and do more than I think I can. Josh, this quote is for you tonight. :)
Quote For the Day:
"Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can." -Henry Drummond
