For the last 60 years, I have always pretty much done what I wanted. Some things worked out and some things totally backfired. One thing that I have always enjoyed doing was eating. I love to eat as I’m sure a lot of people do. I never really cared about the nutritional value of food as long as it tasted good. What did that get me? I’ve got what? That can’t be.
Donuts, pizza, and dirty water dogs all were good eating to me. One thing that topped the list was always ice cream. Ask anyone who has ever ridden on a motorcycle ride that I have led. Every one of my rides always had an ice cream stop on it.
All good things must come to an end. Have you ever heard this? Your body takes care of you for the first 40 years and then it’s time for you to take care of your body for the next 40. Well, I think I might have passed that 40 number without switching over.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried. I have tried Weight Watchers multiple times. It never worked out because every day I ran out of points, I would just stop tracking…lol. I used to always joke around and say every food that I ate was 2pts. It got to the point where my friends actually nicknamed me 2 points!!! Although Weight Watchers works for millions of people it clearly was not for me.
The South Beach Diet
I have also tried the South Beach Diet. I must say when I was following it I lost a lot of weight. At the same time that I was following it, I also started a home fitness program called P90X. The combo of South Beach Diet and P90X brought some awesome results. I was dropping weight and getting fit. I felt great. I was also much younger than I am now.
The point of all this is even though my weight has fluctuated up and down through the years whenever I went for my yearly bloodwork my numbers were always relatively good. Yeah, cholesterol was usually a little high but never really through the roof. I did notice the last few times that my A1C was heading north. Still never concerned me. After all, I figured when you enter your 60s, everything goes up a little.
Well, when I went for this year’s bloodwork, guess what, yup A1C through the roof. As my Dr with his very concerned look on his face explained that this meant I was a full-blown diabetic, I still wasn’t taking it very seriously. As he started getting ready to put me on meds I told him to stop right there. I will not go on meds. I will deal with this on my own. Since he can’t technically force me he wrote me another script for bloodwork in 3 months.
When I left there I wasn’t as shocked as I should have been. I went home, told my wife, and we came up with a plan to get my numbers down. I already had a gym membership, maybe it was time to start using it. Maybe it was also time to switch to a sugar-free diet. I got this.
We all know what happened with the gym. Yup, it started well. I was getting there 3-5 times a week. As time went on it became a chore and 3-5 times a week quickly became 1 or 2 times a week. Then 0 times a week…lol.
Sugar-Free Foods
As far as the diet was going, unfortunately, it consisted of a lot of sugar-free items. Seemed like a good plan at the beginning but it turned out to backfire. All these sugar-free foods had sucralose or some other sugar substitute in it. Well, it turns out that the substitute was destroying my stomach. It was causing bloating and frequent trips to the bathroom.
Things were not working as planned. I started replacing the sugar-free stuff with regular foods so my stomach would not feel bloated all the time and I would not be doing the 100-yard dash to the bathroom. I needed to make a change. This clearly was not working.
350-450 Grams of Carbs a Day
Since I went back to regular foods I figured it would be a good idea to start tracking what I ate. I started using a food tracking app called “Carb Manager” and saw that I was taking in 350-450 grams of net carbs a day. A little side note here. As far as tracking apps go, I chose Carb Manager because it’s free and has a good barcode scanner for food. Years ago I used My Fitness Pal which was also a good app but now in order to get their scanner for food you must pay for the premium service. Ummm, no
After 3 months went by I don’t think I have to tell you what happened. My A1C went from 10.6 to 10. Not a very significant drop. My next doctor’s appointment did not go well. He was extremely concerned and almost begged me to go on medication. I reluctantly agreed. He prescribed Metformin. Even though I did pick up the medication, as of now I have still not taken it. Have you ever read the side effects of medication?
As I get older I realize my body is going to get more and more out of wack. That means more medication. Some things I will not be able to control. Some I will. I feel like I can control this. After researching diabetes type 2 I feel like I can reverse this on my own without medications. It’s time to get serious. Really serious.
My first step was to apologize to my body for being late to the party. I was supposed to take over at 40 years old. Remember the saying earlier in this article? Now it’s time to show this old-ass body that I’m serious. It’s time for me to start taking care of my body once and for all. After all, I love to travel and I still have many places I want to go and see.
Part-Time Job
Since I retired from my long-time job and traveled the country for a few years, I have settled into the Winter Haven area of Florida. I also found myself a part-time job as an office manager/tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt to keep my mind sharp. It’s a seasonal job which works out great for me. I work 4 months in the winter and I’m off all summer. This summer was a little different as I worked a couple of days a week. I did take 2 months off to relax and travel…lol.
So, What’s The Plan?
OK, What now? Well, it’s not what you would have guessed. I canceled my gym membership. What? What kind of sense does that make? Let me tell you. What good is a gym membership if you don’t go? I realized that I was not going to get my butt into the car and drive to the gym a few times a week. As tax season approaches, my schedule is going to get pretty busy. I am even teaching a basic tax course in a few weeks!!!
I Started Walking
So instead of the gym (which I was mostly doing on the treadmill anyway), I started getting up early in the morning and walking. I have never read a bad thing about walking. Eventually, I will add strength training. Maybe even start walking with a weighted vest and arm and ankle weights.
Probably the most drastic move I made was cutting my carbs to 50 grams a day. I started KETO. Whether you are a fan of Keto or not It has worked for me in the past. I originally tried KETO when we were at a KOA in Colorado. The owners were doing KETO and gave me some great resources to read and learn about it. I did it for about three-quarters of a year. I lost about 50lbs and multiple inches and felt great.
Pizza!!!
Why did I stop if it was working so well? Simple answer. I decided to cheat one day and have pizza. From that point on I slowly increased my carb intake eating all sorts of crap again. Just as fast as the weight came off on KETO, it went back on even faster. Before I knew it KETO was out completely.
This brings me to now. Back on KETO, losing weight (down about 7lbs in a little over a month), and starting to feel good again. The only remaining piece of the puzzle is whether it will bring down my A1C enough so I will not need to start taking those meds. I’ll let you know in a couple of months from now.
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