Made It...............Arion

Nine months ago, I told you about how I got a bad health report from my doctor: high sugar ratings, seriously overweight, high cholesterol, bad triglycerides, and on and on. My doctor told me I was "pre-diabetic", and headed for trouble. After getting the bad news, my girlfriend (and now-fiancee) immersed ourselves in a new world of nutrition and exercise. I made a vow to change my lifestyle and lose forty pounds.

Well, my friends, after nine months of hard work and careful planning, I did it! This morning I weighed in at 250.lbs! My goal has been achieved, and the last round of tests were almost all good. My cholesterol ratings have fallen through the floor, my blood sugar ratings are down by 30%, and almost all the nasty tests came back much better than expected. Better still, blood tests have shown my internal organs are all in good shape!

It has not been easy. My morning exercises start with 300 crunches; yep, 300! When I work out on the elliptical I sometimes try to burn 1,000 calories in one shot. I can, but it requires an hour to do it.

My meals have completely changed. Breakfast is usually oatmeal with fruit; lunch is something harsh like steamed rice with vegetables, or a three-bean salad garnished with balsamic vinegar. Supper is a single plate of something creative like a quinoa casserole, with a piece of fruit for dessert.

I've read new books on diet and nutrition like "The Forks Over Knives Plan" and "The Starch Solution" which have been recommended on health sites. What I have learned has left me stunned at how much the food industry controls our lives. So-called low-fat foods have been topped off with extra sugar to make them more tasty, which, of course, is automatically turned by our bodies into fat--which completely defeats the purpose! Carbonated water in soft drinks sucks the calcium out of our bones and makes them as brittle as matchsticks! Hormone-treated milk upsets the hormonal balance of our bodies causing no end of body irregularities. And virtually all candy is manufactured on equipment which is cross-contaminated by peanuts and tree nuts which causes allergic reactions later in life. They are feeding us garbage, and we're letting them do it!

When I go grocery shopping now, I take care to read the labels, and bypass items which have High Fructose Corn Syrup. It is, unfortunately, a common food ingredient, and a big-time contributor to diabetes. I've virtually given up on processed foods and stick with things that grow in the ground. In place of milk, I drink Soy Milk, and get my calcium from things like spinach, kale, and sunflower seeds. In place of eggs I'll consume a fruit & vegetable puree from my blender.

The results speak for themselves: my body has tightened up, my knees don't hurt anymore, and my energy level has risen.

Now and then at work someone will bring in a box of donuts or a bag of cookies and I just pretend it's a container of high explosives. And it is: fat-bombs! There are so many people at work who have huge bellies, and a lot of them hang over their belts. When I see them I think, "It's stuffed full of donuts and baby back ribs."

I'm tempted to try to lose another ten pounds. I'm sure I could do it, but first I've got to pull some clothes out of my back closet--stuff that I haven't worn for ten years. And I need to buy a new belt. A smaller one.

UPDATE*********************************************

I checked with the Body-Mass Index (BMI) online and found that being at 250 is not enough. I'm still classified as "overweight", and it's recommending that I lose another 20.lbs. I'm going to cross-check with my doctor to see if this is right, or even healthy. But, I'm sure I can do it! So far, this is the thinnest I've been in more than fifteen years, according to some old pictures that I've been looking at.

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