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)