Enough has been written about the shortcomings of using Body Mass Index (BMI) to gauge fitness levels and I'm not going to rehash that here. If you want to learn more about the history of BMI as well as some of the concerns about it, check out the BMI article on Wikipedia.

I do think about BMI occasionally however, particularly as I review my own weight loss goals. As a 6'0" man the BMI chart would tell me that I would still be overweight at 184 pounds and obese at 221 pounds. When you are at 296 pounds those numbers are extremely depressing. I've been as low as 177 as a young adult and spent a year or so between 185 and 190 and I have to tell you that at 177 (where BMI would have me at the upper end of normal) I felt too skinny and I felt just right at 187. Is that a realistic goal for me now almost 25 years later? I don't think so, for a variety of reasons.

But to even be thinking about 187 right now is folly, frankly I should be focused on a goal of 287. Then 277, etc. But then I think of that 187 goal and realize I would still be categorized as overweight and it is totally demotivating. Lately I've been thinking that I should be shooting for 220, not because it gets me out of the Obese BMI range but because it just feels so much more manageable. Maybe I can reassess when I get there. Wishful thinking, right?

I was reminded of all this today after reading a post by Zeusmeatball in which he mentioned he had lost a total of 219 pounds to date (how awesome is that!?) and showed this picture of MMA fighter Muhammed Lawal at 219 pounds. I checked his Wikipedia page and if it is to be believed he is 6'0" like me. That's right, but 2 more pounds on Mr. Lawal and BMI would have him categorized as obese. See a problem there? Why should anyone put any stock in this index when it is calculated in this fashion? It seems to me that the best measurement is a true body fat% measurement but of course that is not so easily calculated.

So I'm not going to let the BMI charts drive my goals and so I have set what I believe to be a realistic long term goal of 220 pounds, at which time I will reassess my fitness. My short term goal is 289 pounds, which seems silly but I haven't seen the 280s for awhile and it's time to be thinking about taking those baby steps again.

How do you feel about BMI?

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

BMI Leads to Unrealistic Goals?

Check out this great post by Sean:

It is very important to maintain good health these days, because you don’t want to become ill during such tough economic times. Apart from the burden it will give your body—the pain, discomfort, unsightly appearance, scars, etc.—sickness can very well encumber you financially too. Even just acquiring health insurance is affected by your health: If you have conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or addiction, or even if you’re just involved in high-risk activities such as extreme sports, you are likely to get higher health insurance premiums. So here are a few ways to make sure you remain healthy and protected from illnesses:

1. Do away with all forms of addiction

We all know that all things must be taken in moderation, although we may be quick to deny it for our own addictions. It sure is tough breaking vices such as alcoholism and taking drugs, but help is always available through rehabilitation centers and other organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Smoking is challenging to quit because the nicotine in cigarettes function to actually get you hooked, but you can wean yourself from it by reducing the number of sticks you smoke each day, and you can also use nicotine patches to make the transition smooth.

2. Have a proper diet

You’ve heard it one too many times, from your mom and from your grade school health teacher, but it is a fact that you are what you eat. If you consume a lot of junk food and love fatty and greasy dishes, don’t be surprised if your waistline is in the 40s and you cannot run for your life during emergencies. If you hate vegetables and only consume proteins and carbohydrates, don’t be surprised if you’re a frequent visitor of the nearby hospital. Eat a balanced diet, but with more fruits and vegetables if possible, and drink 8 to 10 glasses of water per day. Make sure the calories you consume are appropriate to the lifestyle that you lead, e.g. if your work involves sitting in front of the computer daily, don’t eat too much carbohydrates so you won’t become chunkier by the day.

3. Exercise

It is a pretty daunting word, but it doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the gym for at least an hour twice or thrice a week. It can be as simple as jogging an hour before you’re supposed to wake up in the morning, taking the stairs instead of the elevator to get to the second floor from the basement, or walking or biking to a destination four blocks away instead of taking the cab. Perform household chores more frequently and you’ll get the exercise you need too, and it will also ensure your house is spick-and-span. You may get easily tired the first few days you put an effort into increasing your physical activity, but you’ll find that your energy level is already increasing afterward. It’s a win-win situation.

4. Avoid stress

Stressful situations aren’t always external, like a gossiping co-worker or a really awful traffic jam, but they can also be internal. If you can change your outlook in life, becoming more cheerful and less irritable, you’d be doing yourself—and the people around you—heaps of good.

5. Get adequate sleep

You’ve also heard this one too many times already. Sleep at least 8 hours each day. This may vary with each person, however, as some are perfectly fine with just 6 or 7 hours of daily sleep. Find out your body’s requirement and meet it.

With the above pieces of advice, you can be in tiptop shape and guarantee that your finances suffers little burden. By making sure you keep yourself out of the hospital, you’re not only saving yourself money but you’re also avoiding having to keep your family and friends—and yourself—worried about your well-being.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

How to Keep Yourself Healthy and Your Wallet Happy

I had put off a doctor visit for awhile so the blood work I recently got back is the first I have had for about 20 months. But despite my not doing well on my weight loss plan the results were pretty good. In fact, much better than I expected. Frankly after being diagnosed with sleep apnea I was pretty sure the other hammer was going to come down in the form of diabetes showing in my blood work but I had nothing to worry about.

Here's a recent history of my bloodwork:

Good cholesterol went up, bad cholesterol went down and total cholesterol went down. While triglycerides and glucose went up a little bit they are both well within range and my doctor was happy with the numbers.

I don't quite know what to make of the results being good since I am being so bad, but I think it likely that had I done blood work last year that the results would have been a lot better – so maybe what I am seeing here is something that looks good but in fact is worse than where I was last year when I was eating better and exercising. At least that is what I am going to tell myself.

Don't be like me and skip a physical like I did last year, go see the doctor every year and get your bloodwork done.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

2009 Blood Test Results

I had my annual physical yesterday. Well, not quite annual. It's been about 20 months since my last one – I skipped last year. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I just turned 43 and I can't be skipping these things. So the good news is that even though I haven't been feeling good about myself I did suck it up and schedule a physical. And go to it.

I have to say this was one of the smoothest doctor visit's I've ever had. I arrived about 10 minutes early and before I could even finish one side of the little health survey they give you my name was called – 5 minutes early. I had a student nurse who walked me through the collection of the height and weight data. She may have been a student but she did know to have me take off my shoes. Last time the nurse didn't and I came in at 6'1". Of course she may have been seasoned enough to know she simply had to subtract an inch to get my real height. In any case, this time I took my shoes off and I came in at an even six feet.

It's a good thing I took those shoes off too, because the scale was not kind. Of course this is a different scale than I normally use and I was almost fully clothes (sans shoes) but when I first got on it registered an even 300, something I have never seen before. Then it dropped to 299 before settling in at 299.5. THAT SUCKS!

I was ushered into the exam room and went through the normal 20 questions and assessments. The initial reading on my blood pressure came in at 132/80 and when I expressed surprise at it being so high the student nurse took another reading, saying something about how she didn't like the cuff. This time it came in at 110/72, which is exactly what it was 20 months ago. I'm going to go with that one.

After the nurse left the doctor followed within a minute. We went through all the normal mumbo jumbo. He loved the family history my mom put together for me. He wasn't concerned about some residual pain I have in my legs. We talked about some of the symptoms I have which lead me to believe I have sleep apnea and he agreed enough to give me a referral at a sleep clinic.

I had to setup another appointment for the blood work so that I could fast, I'm doing that on Monday so I should have the results by the end of next week I would guess.

I hesitated even reporting these results since they are pretty meaningless without the blood work but I didn't want to hold back. But we'll see how the blood work looks. I am not expecting it to be good and I'm hoping I can use it as the impetus I need.

Have you been avoiding going to your doctor? Stop it and make the call – you won't regret it even if the scale doesn't report what you would like it to.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Doctor Visit

I'm having a physical next Monday and this time I will finally be prepared to include some family history in my file, which they asked for the last time I was there but I neglected to bring in. Because I didn't have it. This year I have it because I thought to remember to ask my mom about it on Father's Day when we were over there. So today she emailed me the family history and let me just say: TMI! Okay, I do appreciate getting it but yowza, my mom really went into depth. Not that it isn't important and I do appreciate it, but really, I think an aunt having sore knees is not the kind of family history the doctor is looking for. Although I could be wrong.

What was in there?

Well on my mom's side everything looks pretty good. Must be the hearty Swedish blood. My mom and grandma are both doing great at 65 and 93. My mom's dad, my grandpa, died of a heart attack at 67, and his mom also died of heart disease at 67. His dad died of congestive heart failure at 87.

My dad's doing great at 65, but both of his parents died in their early 50s although the medical records are a little lacking they don't appear to be heart related. Not too much else from my dad's side, I guess that side was a little mysterious.

I did see a few different relatives with gallbladder issues and eye issues so I guess those are things I will have to look out for.

One thing I did note on my grandpa's record, according to my mom he suffered from claudication during the last couple years of his life, saying he had poor leg blood circulation and pain in his legs. Reading a little about claudication makes it sound a little bit like the pain I recently had in my legs. DVT was ruled out, but maybe I have this? That's a scary thought. I'd better be careful I don't turn into a hypochondriac.

It's easy to get depressed and sad when reading over this kind of history but it's also a great reminder of why I need to get healthier. The extra 10, 20 or 30 years would mean so much to me and my family. I have to get that into my thick skull.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Looking at my Family History

My right calf has been swollen and a little sore for the last few days.

It started last Sunday when I spent the better part of the afternoon trimming the bushes around our pool. I think the landscaping company that put them in assumed we would pay for them to trim the bushes every year because they must have put in the fastest growing, largest bushes available. But I fooled them – I trim them myself. Every year I trim them down to almost nothing and every year they grow completely back and wilder than the year before. Sometimes I regret my cheapness. After a day of trimming, picking up and hauling the waste branches I ended up pretty tired and with a sore knee to show for it.

The next day I left for Vegas for a week where I did a lot of walking, and my knee remained sore the entire week. Then on Memorial Day I noticed the pain had moved from my knee to my calf. It sort of felt like a mini-cramp. Not nearly as painful as a cramp, but still cramp-like. Yesterday I noticed my right calf was noticeably larger than my left and it was a little warm. On the instruction of my pharmacist wife I elevated and iced my leg but it didn't seem to do any good. It remained swollen all day today and tonight it's still swollen and a little sore.

A little Googling and I found someone here who described pretty much the exact same symtpoms – initial sore knee, then swollen calf. There doesn't seem to be an actual resolution to what he had – no doubt because he died of deep vein thrombosis (ok I don't really think that), which is what I'm wondering if I have. As an obese person I am more susceptible to DVT and so I think this is more than just a casual fear.

What is Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)?

According to the Mayo Clinic, DVT is "… a condition in which a blood clot (thrombus) forms in one or more of the deep veins in your body, usually in your legs. Deep vein thrombosis is a serious condition because a blood clot that has formed in your vein can break loose and travel to your lungs. This is called a pulmonary (lung) embolism."

This gets my attention because a friend of mine actually recently suffered a pulmonary embolism while playing basketball at the Y. Thankfully, everything turned out OK for him.

Symptoms of Deep Vein Thrombosis

These are the symptoms of DVT, all of which I currently have:

• Swelling in the affected legs; this can include swelling in your ankles and feet.
• Pain in your legs; this can include pain in your ankles and feet. This pain often starts in your calf and can feel like cramping or a "charley horse."
• Redness and warmth over the affected area.

In addition to my calf being swollen my ankle (or cankle as it certainly looks today) is definitely swollen.

Risk Factors of Deep Vein Thrombosis

Of the complete list of risk factors you'll find on the Mayo site there are a couple that relate to me:

Sitting for long periods of time, such as when driving or flying. When your legs remain still for long periods, your calf muscles don't contract, which normally helps blood circulate. As a result, blood clots can develop.

Being overweight or obese. Being overweight increases the pressure in the veins in your pelvis and legs.

Injury can also be a factor, so perhaps I hurt something when trimming last weekend.

So could I have DVT? There is a huge difference in a simple swollen calf and deep vein thrombosis. My wife thinks it unlikely that I have DVT yet I am worried about it. My work schedule is making it tough but I am going to try to get an appointment scheduled over the next few days to clear up any possibility that I have would could be a life-threatening condition.

I'll tell you what though, this does get you thinking.

Need to learn more about DVT and leg health? Check out the blog A Lighter Vein that focuses on leg health issues such as veins and blood clots.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Simple Swollen Calf or Deep Vein Thrombosis?

I should probably just end this post with that – I Am The World's Worst Weight Loss Blogger. But from the beginning of this blog I have committed to writing about the good and the bad and so here I go – the bad continues. Take a look at my weight loss graph and you'll see I have spiked up to 288, which is almost back to what I started at. I'm having a hard time focusing on what I want to write about, so here are some rambling thoughts on where I am at.

I started a new job on March 2nd. That morning I got up early and lifted weights and did 30 minutes of cardio. It was a great start to a new job and a renewed focus on my health. It lasted all of that one day. No exercise since then. But worse than that is that I have started eating fast food again – most likely all of the weight I have gained in the last month can be attributed to morning McDonald's and Subway or Hardees for lunch. Part of the problem is that with a new job comes new locations and new eating establishments. I haven't worked hard enough to figure out the healthy places to eat and so I go to what is fast and convenient.

The good news, however, is that we are going to start homeschooling our kids this fall. Why is that good for my health? Because that means my wife will be working much less which means we need to start pinching those pennies. And eating out all of the time will not be on the budget. So I know I have said this a thousand times before but as of today, no more fast food and greatly reduced eating out. The challenge will be to be good while eating out when my company is paying for it.

While this next month will include a bunch of travel I have started to figure out my schedule and I should have time most mornings to get my exercise in.

I wore a pair of my "fat pants" last night that I had previously shelved as I dropped down into the 260s. I actually donated a bunch of my fat pants (I was confident I wasn't going back up again) but kept one pair as a cruel reminder. What was cruel was fitting into them comfortably last night.

My water intake has been just terrible. I've got to invest in a good reusable bottle.

Not only have I been ignoring my blog and my health but I have been ignoring my fellow weight loss bloggers out there. I haven't been reading about your progress or your struggles and I have not been joining in on the conversation. I feel bad about that. I'm not providing support in any way and that's what this community is about.

I have said too many times "this will be the week I start anew" so I'm not going to say that. But what I will say is that hopefully I am starting to figure out my schedule and how I can adjust to it and hopefully that means good things.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

I Am The World's Worst Weight Loss Blogger

One of the things that concerns me about my weight loss journey is my age and the impact it has on my being successful. When I was young it seemed so easy to lose weight when I needed to. As I have hit my forties it seems to be so much more difficult. Not that I have my age to blame right now, right now it's all about eating too much and exercising too little, which is the opposite approach I took when I started writing this weight loss blog a year and a half ago or so.

With the proliferation of fake weight loss stories I take any claim of success with a grain of salt until I see some real evidence – evidence such as this video from The Today Show featuring Grandma Brenda Willis who lost 140 pounds in her forties. What I liked most about her story, other than her age, was that she dropped all of that weight (248 to 108!) by starting with a slow and steady approach of "starting to eliminate things from her diet one at a time" and adding exercise "one step at a time."

Great weight loss success story!

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Successfully Losing Weight in Your Forties

I've written before about how important it is to focus on your decisions and not the results. With good decisions will come good results over time. Results can be fleeting and it is very easy to get frustrated when you don't see the immediate results to what you thought were good decisions.

The primary scorecard I use right now is my weight loss graphs page, which is primarily a scorecard of results. My weight trends, BMI, body fat, waist measurement, etc. I think it is very important to track your results and in fact I don't track nearly as many measurements as I would like. It's hard to track things when you aren't going in the direction you would like but I'll tell you it sure keeps you motivated on keeping up with it. My problem is I need more and more motivation, but eventually I will get those damned charts going in the right direction! That is the power of using a scorecard of results.

However, as I mentioned it is important to focus on decisions. Did you do the things you need to do to achieve the results you are looking for? To that end as of yesterday I started a simple Excel database where I will track on a daily basis my decisions from an overall health perspective. This is a work in progress and I see it changing over time, because right now it is really, really simple.

Here are the fields I am currently tracking:

Brush Teeth
Floss
Mouthwash

Remember, this is a health scorecard not just diet and exercise.

Vitamins

I'm just taking glucosamine and chondroitin right now.

Water

Measured in ounces. I'm looking for at least a gallon a day.

Sweat

This is the one part I need to flesh out more but to start with I'm just tracking whether I broke a sweat (as part of exercising) or not.

Breakfast
Morning Snack
Lunch
Afternoon Snack
Dinner
No Food After 8

I'm still working on the formula I'm going to use to determine my overall daily score but I didn't want that to hold me up from starting to record my results. I know I was more diligent yesterday knowing I was keeping a scorecard. I'm hoping I can keep that up.

How about you? Do you keep track of just your results? What daily decisions do you/would you track?

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Creating a Health Decision Scorecard

On Monday when I wrote that I was going to go after a perfect week of health I had major doubts as to whether it was the right thing to do. One day at a time is surely a better approach, particularly when I have been off the wagon for so long. Yet I felt as though I needed to have a little more structure than just a day. So I picked a week.

Day One went well. Day Two? Well, not perfect but I'm going to take it! For breakfast I had a few left over baby yukon gold potatoes my wife bought at the farmer's market, the leftover Juicy Lucy patty and a V8. For lunch a small thai curry soup with no noodles, with tofu and chicken. Some almonds for a snack. For dinner we ordered takeout pasta from Pizza Hut and I managed to keep myself to a single portion and just one breadstick. Oh, and a single cinnamon stick. I did have a beer while watching the kids out at the pool.

I did not get the exercise I was hoping for, because I forgot to set my alarm and woke up late. After work I mowed the lawn and then watched the kids for an hour at the pool, so my exercise time was minimized. I did do Day One of my hundred pushups and also did 25 situps.

So really, far from perfect. But so much better than I have been and my head is still in the right spot so that's good enough for me.

Time to buckle down today.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Day Two of the Perfect Week?

After being bad for so long I don't know what makes me think I can make it past a day, let alone a week, but my goal for this week is to have that perfect week. Stay on my diet. Get the exercise in. No binging. With July 4th parties it's going to be tough but I'm giving it a shot.

So far today, a great start. For breakfast I had a couple of fried eggs, a small bowl of strawberries and a yogurt. Mid-morning snack was a banana. For lunch I had a small bowl of Thai Curry Soup with Tofu and Chicken with no noodles at Noodles, with a banana and a Kind bar for afternoon snacks. For dinner I had a Burrito Bol at Chipotle, which the chipotle calorie calculator pegged at 795 calories since I had no rice and no sour cream. I had a yogurt for dessert. The best part for me about dinner (which I brought home) was that after I had the Bol I was looking in the fridge and saw a left-over hamburger patty (actually a homemade Juicy Lucy, good thing there isn't a calorie counter for those!) I had made for dinner last night. I actually pulled it out of the fridge and had it half-way to the microwave when I reminded myself how good I was going to be and I put it back. WOoT!

This morning I did my lower body strength training routine as well as 25 situps and 15 pushups. The 15 pushups were the initial set of the One Hundred Pushups program I am going to try to start. After work I did 2 miles on the treadmill and then I swam for a leisurely 20 minutes.

I just brushed my teeth and chances are really good I'm going to bed with no late night snacking. Day One marked down as a success!

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Going After The Perfect Week

I'm leaving for a few days of poker in Vegas tomorrow morning. It's been hard to get full-bore back into my health plan knowing this trip was coming up. It isn't that I go wild in Vegas, in fact I pretty much just sit at the tables and drink water, but I do know that sitting at a table for 20 hours with minimal breaks just isn't good for me and I really didn't want to start something I could not maintain. Of course, that is the complete backwards way of looking at it – I know I should be thinking I should start now and force myself to be better in Vegas, but I'm just having a hard time thinking that way. I have been thinking about the buffets, however, and how I will try my best to stay away from them. I'm not bringing my computer so no updates until middle of next week. Be good!

As a side note I had to share a weird story. I went to lunch at Timberlodge (they sent me a $10 off birthday coupon) this week and I was the first customer in the door when they opened at 11:00am. I had a newspaper with me and after I was seated by the hostess a waitress (not my waitress though) came up to me and said, "I'd like to look at that paper after you are done." OK, so that was sort of weird to be accosted by a waitress before my drink order was even taken, but I just mumbled, "ok." Then she said, "yeah, I think my friend's obituary is in there."

Welcome to Timberlodge. Enjoy your lunch (which was a salad, by the way).

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Poker and Health Don't Mix

In a comment here yesterday John asked, "So what is your ultimate goal weight?"

The easy answer is 185, down from 295 and a total loss of 110 pounds.  At 267 I am a quarter of my way to that goal.

But that's my perspective from the start of the diet, I expect it might change as I continue to lose weight and tone my body.  I picked 185 because I remember that weight and remember feeling good at it.  I was there in my late teens, early twenties where I was also as low as about 177, where I felt too thin.  185 felt healthy to me and that has been the weight I have wanted to get back to ever since I started ballooning up over 200 and beyond.

However I was not exercising then like I am now and to the level I expect to be in another year when I'll be closer to that goal.  I can imagine me feeling fit and strong and being 195 and resetting my goal.  I can also imagine me be fitting and strong at 185 but still having obvious body fat that could be reduced.

So for now, I am focused on milestones such as to lose 50 pounds, lose 100 pounds and lose 110 pounds and of course the monthly goals I set for myself like Lose 6 pounds in December, 2007.  As I knock off milestones and get closer to where I think I should be, I'll reassess.

I'm a quarter of the way to goal?  Wow.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

My Goal Weight

I started my journey from fat to fit a little over three months ago at 295 pounds.  Through a combination of eating smarter and exercising more I have had good success, weighing in at 272 in last week's official Sunday weigh-in, giving me a total loss of 23 pounds.  My pants are looser, I've had to cut new holes in my belts, my blood test results are moving in the right direction, and I just feel better overall.

But there is still a part of me that hasn't absorbed these facts as evidence that I am having success.  There is still a part of me that sees this as nothing more than a little variance in the normal fluctuation of my weight.  I've been in the 270s a couple of years ago after we got back from a ski trip in Colorado. True, my normal variance for the last six years or so has been 280-298, but since I did see the 270s that one time it could still be in the range.

What clearly isn't in the variance range is the 260s, which I saw this morning when I weighed in at 269.8 (side note, even though my scale does measure decimal points I always truncate them, so if I weigh 272.2 or 272.8 I mark it as 272.  Just easier that way).

269!

All of a sudden this is starting to feel very real.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Caught a Glimpse of the 260s

Well it turns out that not only did I have a Great Visit to the Doctor in terms of our discussion but also as measured by my blood-work, the results of which I just got back.  Big picture?  Overall cholesterol dropped from 182 to 164.  "Super Cholesterol," wrote my doctor on the results.  Oh yeah!

Here are the side by side results for my blood tests from the last two years.  Note that they took place about 18 months apart, during which I have focused on my fitness only for the last 3.  Some of the desired ranges changed, not quite sure why that is.

HDL-Cholesterol went down a point, when you want it to go up.  However the range lowered such that I am now at the bottom end of the desired range.  All other numbers came down nicely.

While my pictures don't show the progress I was hoping to see, my blood-work, my scale and my belt all tell me I am heading in the right direction!

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

2007 Blood Test Results

I had my annual physical yesterday.  I had my last one in May, 2006 but I procrastinated setting this one up.  By the time I got around to it this summer I learned I would have to wait until October until my doctor had an opening.  Which means when I scheduled it I was not yet living my new fit lifestyle.  I was not looking forward to it, and not for why you think. 

The fact is I didn't feel good physically or mentally.

But that was then, and this is now.  Since August 1st I have been focusing on living a healthier lifestyle and it is starting to pay off.  For starters, according to the nurse I grew an inch to 6'1"!  But really that's just because I still had my shoes on.  In fact when I was weighed not only did I have my shoes and clothes but I also had my jacket on.  I clocked in at 278, which was down from the 285 I officially weighed last May.  I'd guess I had 5 pounds of accessories on.

The nurse took my pulse and indicated my resting heart rate was 60.  My blood pressure was a normal 110/72.

The tone of the conversation with my doctor was completely different than it would have been a few months ago.  I just feel so much better.  Instead of talking about the negatives we spent most of the time talking about positives, like confirming I was OK with the target heart rate I was going for during cardio workouts, for example.  He was really pleased with my progress.  I shared with him a new goal, which is to lose 50 pounds by the time we go spring skiing in Telluride at the end of March.  That's 50 pounds total from when I started, meaning going from 295 to 245, or an average of 6.25 pounds per month.  For the first 3 months I have averaged about 7, so it seems doable at this point.

Looking forward to getting the blood work back.  I'm certainly prepared for it to be worse than last time, just because during the 18 months since that physical I have only been good for the last 3, but who knows, maybe the trend downward has already started.

Going to the doctor sure is funner when things are going well.  I'm already looking forward to next year.

I highly recommend you check out the definitive guide to guest posting, Chris Garrett's Guest Posting Workbook.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

A Great Visit to the Doctor

I've dug in my heels and joined the FBT Weight Loss Challenge hosted by FatBlokeThin.  You can read more about this weight loss challenge at FBT Challenge Update.

I've been blogging for a week now and I have done some things well and some other things not so well.  I'll be writing about that later.  So at this point I have optimism, and I see the benefits in "scoring" myself against others in a challenge.  It may be the spark I need.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

FBT Weight Loss Challenge

I had a physical for the first time in a long while last May.  I plan to have one yearly now.  This spring I put it off but I did schedule one recently, although my doctor isn't available until October so it will be awhile yet.  Here are the results of my blood test from last year.  I've gained 10 pounds since then so I expect them to be worse this year.  But hopefully they will move in the right direction from this point on.

Total Cholesterol and LDL close to upper end of desired range, and HDL is too low.

These numbers are part of the scorecard I need to use to measure my progress.  Another are pictures, which heaven help me I'll be putting up soon.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

2006 Blood Test Results