7.5 Pounds gone since 6.19.2015!!!!!!!!!

I’m freakin’ out here!  Literally I’m typing with this HUGE ear to ear smile on my face.  Do you know what is like to drink your morning coffee with your lips stretched out ear to ear?

Messy.  Very messy.

But SEVEN FRIGGIN’ POUNDS!  It’s a miracle!  I’m seeing the face of Elvis in my coffeemate! There are frogs raining from the sky!

Ok, ok, I am a weeeeeeeeeee bit excited by this.

You may have noticed.

I do have trouble opening up and expressing myeslf after all.  I need to work on that.

SEVEN POUNDS! and 1% body fat!  In LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!

Did I mention I have lost weight?  Oh, I did? ooops.  My bad.

Just to be specific:   I weighed 318.6 lbs on 19-June-2015.  This morning, (AM reading), 02-July-2015, just 13 days later I weighed 311.12 lbs

318.6 – 311.12 = 7.48  (rounding) = 7.5 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH. EM. GEE!  Like totally! [in my best Valley Girl voice]

This morning’s revelation…

No, I’m not going all Biblical on you.  Revelation as in “news.”  Back on 6-19-2015  or 25-June-2015 for my European friends, I weighed in.

I had not stepped onto the scale in literally months.  Yes, I had been a bad boy.  Mea Cupla.  I had partaken of the chocolate chip cookies.  I had drank of the 100% whole milk.  I had eaten of the deep dish pizza.

Maxima Mea Culpa.

And my doctor had given me a “Mom” look at the beginning of June.  You know the ones that say “you’ve been a bad boy and you know you’ve been a bad boy” with a dash of “don’t try and pull your crap on me; I’m not buyin’ it!”

Yep, that “Mom” look.

Ssssssoooooooooooooooo……. Where were we?  Ah…

1. Doctor informing me that I am a Type 2 Diabetic

2. Brand new shiny drugs that my doctor gave me and ordered me to take.

3. Tiny attempts at improving my diet (very tiny… money for good foods is a real issue)

4. Two weeks of taking aforementioned drugs on a regular basis

5. A renewed effort to be more active

Aaaaaannnnndddddddd [drumroll please]  TAH-Dah!  SEVEN pounds GONE.  Poof!  Burned up!  DEEE-soved!  Converted into energy!  Zap! Obliterated!

Uh-huh!  Woot!  Yippeee!  Yay!

WHO da man?  WHOSE yer daddy?  Take THAT foul FATNESS!

Whew!  I need a cigarette.

So why the big drop?

This is a theory.  Just a theory.  But it makes sense to me so I’m gonna go with it

[Standard disclaimer.  I’m not a doctor.  I may be totally wrong.  Take this for what it is: me telling a fun story, NOT as medical advice].

About a year ago, I was at 332 lbs. I felt awful.  Then I got motivated.  I did a lot of VERY hard work and dropped down to 319 lbs.

Then I fell off the wagon.

You may have heard in the news that we’ve been having earthquakes here in North Texas?  No, I’m not kidding you. There have been two in the last 7 days and 72 in the past year!

Google it! If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’

Here, I’ll help.  Check out this webpage: http://earthquaketrack.com/r/northern-texas/recent.

We really are having earthquakes, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on a regular basis now.   Not huge ones but some are big enough to feel.

I personally have felt three of them. The first time I felt an earthquake I thought it was someone running down the balcony outside my window from the stairs to my front door.   Hey!  I’d never been in an earthquake before!  So don’t judge!  And to my credit, I did pick up on the “directional” aspect of the waves moving through the ground.

These earthquakes have allowed me to scratch an item off my bucket list!  Woot!

EEEEeennnnnnyyyyyyyyWAY…

I do believe that at least ONE of those tremors was caused by me falling off the wagon.  THUD!

I think that they used the sound effect of me hitting the ground in that new movie San Andreas.

Hey, it’s possible!

I weigh a LOT. But I digress (again)…

Getting fit can be frustrating…

I fell off the wagon, I believe, because I wasn’t seeing any improvement.  I was working hard, very hard, but it wasn’t producing ANY results.  Sure, I got from 332 to 319 on the scale, but then I couldn’t seem to improve beyond that.

And the definition of insanity, as well as stupidity, is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

BTW, and FYI, I have had an hot and cold relationship with exercise all my life.  I really hate exercise that seems like exercise.  There are however some physical activities which are exercise-like which I enjoy doing.  Dancing, of course is one of them.  Cycling is another.

There is a third activity which sadly though I enjoy it, my doctor informs me does not count as exercise.  I countered her argument with “but it gets my heart rate up” and she then countered my argument with one of her patented “Mom” looks.  (see above for details)  I think they gave her a bottomless supply when she got her Medical Degree.  grin  I love my doctor.  Can you tell?  She so rocks!

The point of mentioning this is that I know — I absolutely KNOW how my body responds when I work at it.  e.g. I put xxx hours of dance practice in and I get xxx better.  And I loose xxx pounds and I feel and look xxx percentage fitter and healthier.

I ride my bike for xxx miles at xxx speed and xxx cadence and TAH-DAH!  I end up with a fitter healthier body.  Having been there and done that in the past, I know what it feels like when I put effort into making myself healthier.

And I was putting effort into getting healthier and I wasn’t GETTING HEALTHIER!  Arrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!

So…  I stopped being good.  I didn’t exactly start being BAD but I wasn’t working hard anymore TOWARD getting fitter and healthier.

Something was different.  And I did NOT know what it was.

As it turns out, during my “not being good, but not working at it hard” phase, everything was pretty stable.  I weighed 319 when I “fell off the wagon” and I weighed 318 when I pulled myself over the tail gate and got back on the wagon.  Dust covered and a little worse for wear, but back on the wagon.

So… “WHY” wasn’t I seeing the results like I had in the past?

Introducing the Arch-Villain:  T2D

Kinda like an evil version of R2D2.  Or perhaps more like “Snidely Whiplash”

Also known as Type 2 Diabetes!

The Fiend!  Boooo!!!!  Hissss! [throwing metaphorical popcorn at the silver screen]

So, if I’m understanding this right, what T2D (a.k.a. “diabetes”) does is basically mess up how your body gets energy.

Your muscles and organs need energy.  Kinda like your car needs fuel to run the motor.

Just like filling the gas tank on your car, you have to “fill” your body’s tank.  With your car, you stop off at the corner gas station and fill it up with gasoline or diesel.  Or if you have one of those new fangled electric cars, you unplug the TV and plug in your car.

With your body: you eat.Your body then takes the food, breaks it down magically into “sugar” (and some other stuff) which then gets pumped into your blood and the “sugar” a.k.a “the fuel/gas/go-juice” gets taken to your muscles and your organs.  Woo Hoo!

But, sometimes, just like a clogged fuel line in your car, your body gets “clogged” and the “fuel” doesn’t get into your muscles and your organs.  Eeekkkk

“Holy insulin shot Batman!”

Confession time… I had such a crush on Robin when I was a kid.  😉

Introducing the Arch-Hero:  Innie

AKA “insulin”

Insulin, Innie to his friends, is the magical “Super Hero” chemical that allows the sugar in your blood which, once upon a time was food, to pass into your muscles and organs where it is used as “fuel” to do all the wonderful things that your body is designed to do.

Yes, I realize that it is more complicated than that.  BUT I think the analogy basically works pretty well.

Back to “Moi” — it is all about “Moi” after all…

So.. what I THINK is happening is this:

My body is starting to work the way it is supposed to again.  Yay!   The drugs are helping reset my body and things are starting to come back on line.  Kinda like in Star Trek when Scottie gets the Warp Engines running again after a surprise attack from the nasty space alien “de jour.”

And on top of THAT

I’m not as hungry

One of the “symptoms” of being diabetic is that you are hungry all the time.  Yeppers, been there.  Done that.  Got the extra weight AND the t-shirt to prove it.  Size 4XL.

So, the drugs are starting to work and my body is now processing energy better (not perfect yet, but BETTER)  so it is no longer sending me “FEED ME” messages like that plant from Little Shop of Horrors named Audrey!

I think I shall name my Blood Glucose Meter “Audrey” because that sucker is always beeping for more BLOOD!  I tell you the silly thing should be all sparkly like the dude from Twilight!  It is a friggin VAMPIRE disquised as a medical device.  Wrong I tell ya.  Just wrong!

But I digress.  I do that you know.  You may not have notices.

I sometimes feel a wee bit of stomach upset

I take three diabetes pills a day.  Two in the morning and one at night.  Two different drugs:

• Janumet (sitagliptin and metaformin HCI) tablets 50mg / 1,000mg  – twice a day
• Invokana (canagliflozin) 300mg – one time per day

One of the side effects listed for Janumet XR is that it can upset the stomach.  And if your tummy is not happy then food just doesn’t seem appealing.

So, between “just not being hungry” and “not feeling like eating” because of the occasional quesy feeling in my stomach, I am not eating as many calories.

No big deal because I’ve got plenty stored which my body can convert to energy. I tell ya, I’ve got a friggin year’s supply I’m carrying around on the INSIDE of my body!

I feel very Mormon at the moment.  (get it? Mormons are supposed to have a stockpile of food & supplies… oh well, maybe that connection was kind of a stretch)

Yes, my brain works weird; I really do make those kind of connections all the time!  But I digress…

I have more energy

This may be psychological, but I do not think so.  I think it is real.  The first week after taking the drugs, I didn’t really notice any difference. Well except for the choking bit when I was trying to swallow those #$@#$#@$@ pills!

These critters are HORSE size bits of drug!  I tell ya, they are HUGE!  It is enough to make a size queen go “oh my!”

Well, the SECOND week of taking the meds, (this week) I noticed, that, without seeming to really try I was doing MORE STUFF around the house.

Otherwise know as “exercise.”    Yes, Virginia, doing laundry, cleaning out closets, and filing away long neglected paperwork all counts as “exercise.”  Especially when you’re as out of shape as I am currently.

And exercise does what class?  Say it with me:  “Exercise burns calories!” 

Renewed effort to re-vamp my life on a PERMANENT Basis

Being told you have Type 2 Diabetes is a wake up call

This S**T is serious folks!  Do you KNOW what can happen if you ignore being diabetic and leave it untreated?  Brace yourself.  It ain’t pretty.  IF you ignore the Mom looks from your doctor and do NOT take your medications like a good little soldier, then this stuff can happen to you:

• Blindness
• Glaucoma
• Cataracts
• Diabetic retinopathy
• Kidney disease
• Kidney failure
• Nerve damage
• Peripheral diabetic neuropathy can cause pain and burning or a loss of feeling in your feet. It usually starts with your toes. It can also affect your hands and other body parts.
• Autonomic neuropathy stems from damage to the nerves that control your internal organs. Symptoms include sexual problems, digestive issues (a condition called gastroparesis), trouble sensing when your bladder is full, dizziness and fainting, or not knowing when your blood sugar is low.
• Higher risk for gum disease — Red and Bleeding gums

Folks Diabetes is NOT something you want to ignore!  Jus so ya know, the list above was extracted from an article on WebMD: How Does Diabetes Affect Your Body?

Folks this crap is SERIOUS.  That stuff can lead to well… ummmm DEATH as in the big R.I.P.  And not in a happy, lived a full life, have time to say goodbye to your loved ones kinda death.  Nope… a miserable icky nasty way to go kinda death.

Not. good. at. all.

I was “relieved” when I got my diagnosis.

Why? Good question.

As an aside (yes I realize that almost all my blog post is/are “asides”) but moving on…  I got an email from a very nice reporter who writes for Diabetes Health Magazine.

She had seen one of my blog posts and wanted to use me for a “profile” thing that they do where they do a short bit about people who are living with diabetes.

I don’t know when / if it will be published.  I’ll let ya know.  After all, the very nice reporter could have been freaked out after the interview and might have decided that this scary cowboy down in Texas should not be profiled!  Hmmm? Uhmmm.. I uh… I mean, I Hmmm…. I hope she didn’t change her mind; I hope she wasn’t like freaked or anything.  I mean, uhmmm… I like being in the spotlight.  snif snif  I wanna be profiled! Waaaaahhh!

But I digress…  😉  I do that you know.

During the interview, she said that part of the reason why she contacted me was because she was intrigued by my reaction; by why I felt relieved.

And it is actually very simple.  I am relieved about my diagnosis, because I can DO something about my diagnosis.

There I was, months ago, working my butt off… but my butt wasn’t going anywhere!

Literally.

My pattootie was just a big and round AFTER weeks of effort as it was BEFORE weeks of effort.

I heard that they were doing a casting call for a remake of the “Baby’s got Back” song.  I was seriously considering going to the audition!

Can we say “FRUSTRATION?” Yep, I knew ye could!

So, when my doctor told me that there was a REASON that I wasn’t seeing progress the way I had in the past, well I felt relieved.  Because this is simple folks:

Get diagnosed.

Get treatment.

Do what your doctor says.

Change your diet, Increase your exercise.

Get Healthy

Get off the meds.

TAH-DAH!

Ok, it is simple in concept, more difficult in real life.  But the basic fact remains: it is do-able.  It can be done.  It HAS been done by lots of people.  Diabetes is not a irreversible thing.  You can go back to being NOT a diabetic.

So, I’m relieved because now there is something concrete I can do to move myself further along the path to being a fit and healthy and DANCING guy!

Did I mention I lost SEVEN POINT FIVE pounds!?

Seven – point – five pounds

in 13 days!  Woot!

oh, I did mention it??

ok then.

See ya on the dance floor!