Musings on journeys and such

I started a journey, way back in 2010, to lose weight. I’d started on Weight Watchers, and enjoyed the app. Switched over to LoseIt! at some point to avoid the fees with the WW app. I’m not sure anymore what my weight was at the beginning of the journey, but along the way I kept logs in different places. According to one such record my starting weight was 342 pounds around April 2010. By December of that year I’d past the 300 pound mark and ended up with my lowest weight being 278 pounds around April of 2011.

Math: 342-278 = 64 pounds in 12 months.

What I remember was my plan. Log every food that I eat. Drink water regularly. Move some everyday. The journey was a regular trend with some plateaus. I started a Couch to 5k program along the way and about the same time as my lowest weight, I completed a 10k race. Other things I picked up along the way was a daily weigh-in and recording that number but only looking at how a daily weight related to a 10-day moving average trend. Anything below that trend was on track. Generally I was most always below trend. There is a post in history with stats on that.

But then slowly, things happened. Life happened. Lost a job, deaths, depression, all the things and losing weight wasn’t that important. I got a new job after a few months, and started trying again, kept my weight under 300 before just not caring anymore.

There are some disparate data points logged in my LoseIt! History (thanks for a 10 year history and a lifetime premium membership) that I can look back on.

April 2014: 340
April 2015: 355
April 2016: 365
— a short stint of a diet end of 2016 got me back to 246 by the end of the year
April 2017: 370
— a plateau here, no more data until I got my type-II diagnosis in September of 2020
Sept 2020: 394

Start the clock – that was a single weigh in at the doctor’s office fully clothed. I felt horrible, had a persistent cough (my reason for said Doctor visit), was given a shot and some pills to help clear my lungs. (This was six months after Covid-19 started things, and I had a cough all the way through). Came back to my doctor in two weeks for follow up and a physical. Type-II confirmed, blood-glucose fasting in the doctor office by blood stick was 400 mg/dl.

Time to become real. I devoured books from sources either my Dad had recommended (The Diabetes Solution by Richard Bernstein, The Diabetes Code by Dr. Fung) along with every book that Gary Taubes has written. Then came up with a plan on how to eat as someone that is basically allergic to sugar.

I didn’t go buy a bunch of cookbooks, I spun my own plan. More fat, less sugar, more protein, less simple carbs. Tracked macros not calories (though track one you get both – just be sure the labels are as accurate as can be). While I do want to be more active, I haven’t really started exercising. Each time I dipped my toes into losing weight after my initial success, it was exercise more than diet. Exercise led to injury, and off the wagon I fell. This time, I told myself, it would be in the kitchen I lose weight.

Starting Weight – 394 – Sept 15, 2020
Present Weight – 325 – July 13, 2021

Math:
10 months
394-325 = 69 pounds

Steady(ish) drop in weight, two little plateaus of a bout a week. The first in April (that six month window seems to be consistent in both journeys), where I let more white carbs back into my diet, stalled me out. Better choices, less bread, back to a steady drop. Another week, first of June, I stopped tracking, stopped weighing on vacation. When restarted after coming home, I’d “gained” five pounds that was erased in three days, and haven’t had a meaningful pause yet.

I hope to be 100 pounds down by the end of the year, but I don’t have a timeline. I’m eating what is best for me, making good choices, tracking my blood glucose daily (by sticks now, not CGM), looking at trends, and drinking water. Enjoying a bit of ice cream in the evening before I start my fast, then breaking it (not really) with a cup of bulletproof coffee when I rise in the morning. I follow a 16/8 Intermittent fasting to help regulate my insulin levels (the real point where you body starts metabolizing fat, versus storing fat is based on this unknown, but related to blood glucose, number.

Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace (Serenity Prayer – Reinhold Niebuhr)

90 Days Keto

Keeping up with an update to my journey. I had my three-month doctor visit a couple weeks back. I was very interested in seeing my blood panel results, including HbA1c, and other tests to compare to how very poor my numbers were back in October.

The doctor called me, and said my blood tests looked really really good.

Two reallys – I’m happy. Let’s dig into some numbers

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Removing the sugar…

The biggest change in what I’ve eaten over the last three months is cutting carbs drastically. This has had dramatic improvements in my blood glucose levels, with fasting (in the morning when I wake up) levels lower than 110 mg/dL and inching lower week by week.

Changing my diet has also resulted in less consumption, daily calories, and also a drop in weight (over 25lbs since September 15th). I’ve read some great books on diabetes specifically, and currently making my way through Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes. It’s a fascinating book, wish I would have read it ten years ago.

Speaking of ten years ago, as I wrote previously, my current diet is taking advantage of habits I learned (then discontinued) ten years ago in the middle of losing 60 pounds in a year (Apr 2010 – Apr 2011). I was trying to hack my diet using what I would now refer to as the standard dieting, lower calories. I never bought into a low-fat diet, but neither did I adhere to a low-carb diet 10 years ago. I was trying to hit more Zone Diet goals in macronutrient ratios (30-fat, 40-carb, 30-prot), but I wasn’t trying to be very precise.

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Ten Years is a long time…

I haven’t been away from the blog for ten years, but ten years is how long LoseIt keeps your data. I started using LoseIt a little over ten years ago, and kept at it for the first two years. Then slowly started trying to get back on the wagon. Ten years later, I’ve reached the point in the slow — what’s opposite of decline, incline? Where it’s time to put pressure downstream again.

I documented a lot of my weight-loss journey of 10 years ago on this blog. I personally learned a lot of good techniques to help me. But I just never go back to making them my daily routine, until about a month ago when I was diagnosed with Type-II diabetes. A wake up call I desperately needed.

I cut down my carbs drastically, went back to logging EVERYTHING in LoseIt, and now have about a month of solid data to make decisions on. I read back through my blog, and ten years ago I was struggling through a plateau, and trying to make sense of what was happening. In the day-to-day it was confusing. But – as I stated back then – time and pressure paid off. I dropped below 300# and got to almost 275 before the wheels came off, and the incline began.

The dip at the left side of the graph shows my progress at the time. I was jogging everyday, and logging all my food. The drop at the top right shows my progress since the beginning of October of this year. What is off the graph to the left is where I started. I started at 378#, which is about where I am now. So I’m traveling a path I’ve traveled before. Gonna enjoy the view as I go.

What will I do differently. Well with age comes more patience, and a type-II diagnosis comes with a different priority. I need to do this for my health. Not pride or vanity, but to keep living. I had a frightening week just before I started this new trek, and I don’t want to be there again. So what is different in my diet. This next chart will be kind of show my plan.

The far left shows my macros from my first trek down the weight loss trail. The right show my current macros. Back then I strived for “zone-like” 40carb-30prot-30fat – struggled to get protein into the 30 percent, but limited carbs to around 40% of diet for almost 20 years. The data points get sporadic from there.

The far right shows two months of the new normal. Trying to be “keto-ish”, the first few weeks my goal was 40g of carbs, to get to the 5/25/70 Keto standard. I met and discussed my goals with my dietician and adjusted my goals up to 10-15% carbs, 25-35% protein, and 40-50% fat. This seems ultimately sustainable long term.

What that breaks down into – back in 2010, my daily carb intake was in the 250g range, now my goal is 80g. That means a lot less french fries and hamburgers, not as much hot fudge sundaes, etc. But there are a lot of foods that I can still partake of.

What has this done to my glucose levels. And another chart to show progress:

These are two week trends from my continuous glucose monitor (CGM), which isn’t measuring the same as a fingerstick. But close enough. The bottom block is the first two weeks, then the next two weeks in the middle. Then the top block is my current two week period. Much better readings, much tighter control. One hypo (that is a low reading under 70 mg/dL) that was from last night (my blood glucose was ~81 for that period – the CGM was reading a bit low).

The point of that is that controlling carbs is working. My weight has dropped almost ten pound since the first week of October. I know the trail downhill will be slow, but I feel in control now.

Santa wants to make sure I keep on running!

Santa brought me some nifty new gadgets for Christmas which will totally support my running habit, though of late it’s been hard to call it a habit. 

First up, a new heart rate monitor (HRM) with a footpod to track cadence, and give the treadmill runs a bit more data to analyze.  The Garmin FR60 doesn’t have GPS, but I don’t really need all that horse-power.  My new job (I need to blog about that… someday) came with an in building gym and locker rooms with three treadmills, so I have a great facility to continue my drills, so at least until it warms up enough to run comfortably outside, I can use the treadmill and my FR60 to give me the data.  I’m still working out the kinks, but here’s an example of a run event Daily Mile by jon.stueve at Garmin Connect – Details.

Fine tuning…

imageCelebrated the one-third mark of my journey this past weekend.  I’ve lost 50 pounds, or roughly a small 2nd grader.  This past week was one of my best weeks on LoseIt! as far as consistency, with the month of January matching my best loss in a month, ten pounds.  The last time I lost 10 pounds in a month was my last month on Weight Watchers. 

In July I started using LoseIt! as my food journal, and continued to log my meals and stay under calories.  The biggest difference between WW and LoseIt! tactically is what Weight Watchers calls Weekly Points.  These are points above your daily point target that can be used as you see fit, use them on a splurge day, add a bit each day, or don’t use them at all and speed up your weight loss.  I tried to keep a weekly points balance most of the time which really helped me lose 25 pounds in the first 3 months on this journey.

With LoseIt! you have a daily budget of calories, not points, and there isn’t really a concept of a weekly buffer as far as extra calories you can consume, unless you exercise, then eat your activity calories.  This was a question that played on my mind through the summer and fall, how to handle the lack of the weekly points, and what to do with my activity calories.  Frankly I was busy with work and travel, and I was happy to just keep logging and get in my exercise goals.

When October came, I really wanted to figure out how to fine tune LoseIt! to allow me to meet my stated goals of losing 2 pounds per week.  You can see in my graph the imageslowing down that was frustrating me, I was thinking it was just a plateau, and tried just giving it time, I decided to really analyze what was working, and what wasn’t.  I started weighing in daily to get more data about how my weight fluctuates.  I started noticing a correlation between some up days and my caloric intake when I ate my activity calories my weight loss stalled.  In December I tried to not eat my exercise calories and had a really great first half of the month.  Mid-month I met my first goal of losing 42 pounds, and my first weigh-in under 300.  That was a relief, because I thought that goal was in reach but it always seemed to move, first by Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then by Christmas. 

I started planning the next phase of my journey, knowing that reachable goals would be easier than seeing a big 100 pounds on the graph, so I made a series of small goals that I’d set after I achieved the next goal.  The first was 4, then 8, then 15, 16, 23, 42.  Also known as the LOST numbers which added a bit of fun to the goal setting chore.  So far, I’ve met the 4 pounds and almost to the eight pound goal. 

The next adjustment I made was to reduce my daily calories in LoseIt! by 200 calories per day.  The reason I chose that number is because that is about what a light workout on the Wii or a circuit training at the gym would burn.  This limits my calories a little bit, but allows me to eat back some exercise calories for days that I have a long run, and still hit my goal of losing 2lb/day.  I’m only about 10 days into that experiment and had a really good week, so I’ll keep tracking and see how that works out long term.

With LoseIt! I enjoy there is enough data in the system that I can make an informed decision about what I want to do.  I’d recommend that people talk with their doctor if they have questions about how much they should eat. 

What tweaks have you made to your system to help you reach your goals?

So today is my birthday!

and I’m gonna have a good time,on this the 43rd celebration of my parents greatest accomplishment.  (I kid, 4th greatest… Winking smile )

image

Great way to wake up to some of the most stunningly beautiful people (of which my smokin’ hot wife is numero uno!) on facebook stopping by to write on my wall.  As well as a loyal twitter following of the best tweeps on earth!

I’ve had a great 42nd year, and so I should write some of the things I’ve accomplished, as well as some of the things I’ve avoided.  Here is it in bullet form!

  • Did not weigh 400 pounds
  • Did weigh under 300 pounds and should continue to weigh less as my 43rd year elapses
  • Watched all of LOST, again.
  • Did not watch all of Desperate Housewives.
  • walked a mile numerous times.
  • walked a 5k
  • ran a 5k and made it in 42 minutes.
  • Celebrated 17 years of marriage to the love of my life in a swanky hotel in Frisco.
  • Got a massage treatment with my wife.
  • Watched a Los Angeles Dodger game at Dodger Stadium
  • Didn’t watch the Dodgers win a game in Dodger Stadium *shakes fist at the Phillies*
  • Celebrated my children’s 11th, 14th, 8th and 16th birthdays
  • Disagreed with millions of other parents over who’s children are the bestest! (mine are, duh!)
  • Continued as editor-in-chief of LOSTblog.com
  • Obsessed over my quest to lose weight on various web-sites and excel spreadsheets.
  • Obsessed over my iPhone and have a bit of an app addiction (step one, admitted I have a problem)
  • Celebrated one year in recovery for my hurts, habits and hangups at Chase Oaks Celebrate Recovery.
  • Continued to be blessed by leading and teaching Sunday School each Sunday at Prairie Creek Baptist Church
  • Blessed to have many awesome online and offline friends, and doubly blessed to have some in both camps.
  • Didn’t get downsized.
  • Didn’t get supersized.
  • Celebrated 10 years of continuous employment with my current employer, eclipsing the previous record held by the U.S. Navy.
  • Didn’t vote in the mid-term election (because I was out of town, and forgot to early vote… off to the gulag for me!)
  • Pleased with the result of said election.

Thanks for hanging with me, during the pressure packed year of being The Answer.  I promise to be wrong more often in my 43rd year, and plan on remaining a loser of the rest of the year.

Cheers!

Jon

Blog Pimping…

Looking at my Google Analytics blogging stats. Some observations:

  • I get more traffic blog-baiting DocJensen than starting a LOST Disney petition.
  • Hardly any of the blogs/articles about the petition, have driven traffic to this blog.
  • Twitter is a good way to bring people in to read your blog, but not necessarily to comment.
  • It’s probably because my followers just tweet me back. 🙂 which I LOVE.
  • it does look like the ‘lost disney petition’ might finally overwhelm such favorite google searches as:

And finally, it appears that the person that most reads my blog, is … probably me *facepalm*