Weekly Update - Week ending 03/31/2013

I wanted to provide a daily update after my first post, note down my daily successes and failures, but that would have been an overkill. My first week didn't go too well on the diet and excercise fronts. Had a few (quite a few, in fact) misses. :(

The week ending 03/31/2013 went fairly decent. On the food front, there were quite a few mentionables:
1. Started carrying home cooked food to office for lunch. Friday is open, to eat out with friends.
2. Started eating a serving each of raw vegetables and fruits a day
3. Stayed away from sweets for most days of the week except Sunday. Sunday was bad, at least 2-3 helpings of sugar laced stuff. May be I undid a week's worth of good deeds, but what the heck! I was able to stick to a schedule for at least 5 days!

On the exercise front, I managed to walk at least 40 mins for 4 out of 7 days. So that's a good start as well.

On the weight front, seem to have stabilized on 117Kilos.

How did it get to this?

I was always an active kid in primary school. I remember that I always preferred to run to get somewhere. I remember my school record that says I weighed 45 kilos at the age of 13. Then came high school. In three years, I went to 76 kilos. Maybe it was the stress of living away from parents. Maybe it was because I was first introduced to junk food, or it was a bit of both!

College got me back on to my health conscious ways. In fact, I almost turned into a workout junkie. A 1,000 meter swim in the morning and a 2 hour grueling workout at the gym turned me into a lean machine. I was quite proud of my physique and was probably in the best form of my life.

Then came a corporate job at a software sweatshop. For over a decade, I sat at a computer, typing away to glory. Workouts reduced in frequency and slowly stopped altogether. One fine day, I stood in front of the mirror and I looked like this! :(

In 2010, I weighed 130 kilos, a whopping 54 kilos were added in the span of a decade. My sedentary lifestyle also gifted me high blood sugar. Although I managed to bring my sugar down to normal levels by taking a break from work, it was back to haunt me in 2012. 

Surprisingly, diabetes hasn't scared me like it scares others. Doctors, family and friends alike are trying to show me pictures, telling me stories to make me understand the seriousness of the issue at hand. All this doesn't change a thing. I still love food! In fact eating is one of the only things in life I truly enjoy. My well wishers don't understand how difficult it is for me to stay away from food. I take medications now (Metformin Hydrochloride) but without a strict diet, it's not helping much.

Since Aug 2010, I made minor changes to my lifestyle and managed to lose almost 12 kilos. I didn't have to do much, just had to become marginally more active. I walked on some days, did some gardening on others and cut down on sugar, small changes. At 118 kilos, I now look something like this.

Now, I want to change some more. It's not just about losing weight anymore. It's about becoming who I used to be - an active and healthy person. Weight loss is an attractive perk. Something inside tells me that I can reverse this high blood sugar. My online research also says that it's possible. So, I have set out on a journey. It's going to be a long and painful one, but I sure hope it's worth it. So friends, WISH ME LUCK!

I shall use a few key metrics to monitor my progress through this journey. The following are the readings as I start this journey on 9-Mar-2013:

Weight: 118 kilos (ideal - 85 kilos)

Blood Sugar: Fasting 148 mg/dL (ideal < 90), Post Prandial 198 mg/dL (ideal < 125)

HbA1c: 7.14% (ideal < 6.0)

Mean Blood Glucose: 160 mg/ dL (ideal 90)

My lipid profile test is more than 6 months old. We shall consider my next test reading as a baseline. I am pretty sure that it's not too great either. 

The following is the plan:

1. No sugar

2. No baked food (especially refined flour)

3. No fried food

4. No refined flour

5. At least 40 mins of walk everyday