Discussion Board

Today I started off on my morning walk, got to the corner and decided my usual walks around the same old blocks of my little neighborhood was getting boring... and took a left turn out of my neighborhood and onto the main road. I just started walking and didn't stop till I got to a church up the road where there is a really nice view of the mountain. I rested a few minutes, then turned around and came home. Total distance: 2.7 miles.
This is the furthest I've walked at one time on my journey home!! But more importantly, it marks a new confidence in my stamina and balance to safely walk the narrow and sometimes uneven/awkward shoulder of the road with cars speeding by just a few feet away.

My diet is well. I'm still feeling blah, both physically and mentally. My foot that has been bothering me has been feeling almost normal lately, and today's walk didn't bother it at all, so I'm pleased about that!

Trudging along!

-Norm

Great to hear the good news, Norm.

One step at a time....and you are definitely stepping. Glad to hear about your new longest distance!

Fulenn

Congratulations, Dissolution!!


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Yesterday I took my weekly blood pressure readings at the pharmacy up the road. Usually I take two readings, once after first sitting down, and once after having rested a few minutes. I only had time for one reading, as I was running late, and stressed. It was:

147/78 with a pulse rate of 55. No Meds.

I know that's high enough my doctor would insist I go back on meds... but I honestly don't think it's all that bad for a person my size under stress with no time to relax first. Anyone else got an opinion?

-Norm

I agree, I think that's very good. Did your doctor suggest meds? For me, I would have gone back on meds, but I tend to be a little over cautious sometimes due to my past heart problems. For most cardiac patients, the doctors seems to feel that lower is better, as long as you're not passing out.

I'm assuming that if you aren't taking any medication for blood pressure, then you probably aren't taking anything that would lower your heart rate. Prior to starting this WOE, on medication my pulse rate was typically 75-80. So I was very surprised to see my pulse rate running between 50 and 60 after a couple of months of this WOE, but I had assumed that it was related to my medication.

Wikipedia lists the normal resting pulse rate of adults as 60-100 and 40-60 for athletes. That's where our pulse rate is falling, and we are certainly not athletes, or are we? Here's my theory...

We have both lost around 20% of our total body weight and our hearts were used to pumping blood to all that extra fat. Now that there is 20% less, our hearts don't have to work as hard, hence the lower pulse rate. So if we follow my logic out, if we were to both drop to a BMI of 20, we would be able to run a 1 hour marathon...lol

Hey, Norm. Looks like a high normal BP to me. Seems to me that bottom number is too low to be lowered further with meds. (Dr. McDougall has mentioned this somewhere around here, that lowering the diastolic below--I want to say the number is in the 80s--with medication can be dangerous. You could do a search. Crap. I'll do it, 'cause now I gotta see if I'm misremembering. ) Okay. Here: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008nl/ ... ensive.htm
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/jun/promise.htm
At the second link, Dr McDougall writes "I believe blood-pressure-lowering medications are over-prescribed. I use the British Guidelines to start medication. In general, this means medications are prescribed when the blood pressure is sustained for months at a level of 160/100 mmHg or greater. Too aggressive treatment, meaning reducing the diastolic blood pressure (lower number) below 85 mmHg with medication increases a patient’s risk of heart attacks and strokes."

Here's a handy dandy little chart just for fun:
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicin ... essure.htm

Thanks for the links, Agnes!! I read them and they confirmed what I've been thinking!

-Norm

Hi Norm, just caught up with your journal!

I know you were talking a few posts back about how you are losing slower and not feeling as good as you did a little while ago - and I think you are handling that with admirable maturity and wisdom.

Just from an outsider's perspective - your progress is nothing sort of amazing! I know when I first started eating this way a year ago (almost) I had weight loss plateaus and days, if not weeks of feeling crappy, but the overall trend has been improvement, for me, and i am sure the same will be true for you.

I sometimes think feeling so good becomes the new normal, and when I feel a little less good I think - Oh NO - backward slide! But probably I am still feeling much better than the old normal. Its pretty subjective and hard to have perspective.

Thank you! I am handling it the way I'd suggest someone else handle the same thing. Just another hard time in life, and in the overall picture of things, not worth going off track over. On the plus side, yesterday was weigh-day and I'm down another 7 pounds in two weeks. That puts my weight loss right back on track where I'm comfortable it being. A week to go till solstice and then the days start getting longer and I will start feeling better, and I've managed to trudge along so far! The part of me that isn't feeling "blah" is pleased with that.

Yes, this is the point I keep telling myself. My current "blah" is a big drop from the high I was feeling a while ago, but it's still so much better than the normal I'd had for years.

-Norm

A Timely Reminder.

When you lose 100+ pounds people start to notice. They pat you on the back and tell you what a great job you've done! They tell you what a remarkable feat you've accomplished. It's easy to start getting a big head!!

Today was the Christmas Party Dinner for the volunteers at the Food Bank I volunteer at. I didn't want to go but I blew it off last year, so decided I should show up this year. The food choices we were given ahead of time included ham, chicken, or salmon. I chose the salmon as the lesser of all evils. A wonderful time was had by all, but a stark reality hit me square on the head as I was watching people put their leftovers in take home boxes. How could anyone have leftovers from that meal? It consisted of a serving of mixed vegetables, a potato dish, and a tiny little piece of salmon. The people who ordered ham or chicken didn't get a much larger portion than those who got fish. There was also a basket of buttered bread on each table to be shared, and everyone got a chocolate pudding dessert (which I traded to someone for their uneaten vegetables). But all in all there was simply not anywhere close to enough food to satisfy me, even though what I ate was calorie laden. My usual dinner easily consists of 4 or 5 times the weight of that meal.

Simply put... there is no way I could eat little enough of those types of food to lose weight over any significant length of time, and any short term attempt would be torturous. Hence my peak weight of 486 pounds.

The reality that smacked me square in the head is that my weight loss has less to do with any "remarkable feat" I've accomplished as it does to simply following the principles so clearly laid out by Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick. My part is easy.... to give in to a way of eating that for the first time in my life truly satisfies my immense hunger. I need to remind myself of this fact. In the past I would have limited myself to eating only twice what normal people ate, then suffered till I could finish satisfying my hunger later, with something else. Even then, I'd try to only eat enough to not be hungry.

With this way of eating I TRULY get to satisfy my appetite, which is reward enough! But as an added bonus, for no additional charge, I get to lose pound after pound after pound!!

Sure, I implement the plan in my daily life, and I will take the credit for that... but I would have NEVER come to this way of eating if it hadn't been so clearly laid out in a manner that made sense and was appealing to me. And in that regard, Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick deserve the bigger credit for my weight loss!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat some potatoes.

-Norm

Great post Norm! Enjoy those potatoes!

Sunday blood pressure readings.

After shopping, no rest, unstressed; 137/74 pulse rate 55
After a brief rest, 3-4 minutes: 131/72 pulse rate 53.


Today is Pizza Sunday!! I'm going to eat the whole thing!


-Norm

Isn't it great!? For us "big eaters" this WOE is truly a godsend. That was what first appealed to me about the Atkins diet, you can eat all you want, of course after a few weeks you will feel horrible, you'll have a constant bad taste in your mouth, you'll be eating laxatives like candy, and you will begin to despise the food that you can eat.

This WOE is so much better, I can eat all I want, and after 3 months I still LOVE the food I am eating!

Bloodwork from the doctor:

Cholesterol

TC 101
HDL 25
Triglycerides 86
LDL 59
Non-HDL 76
TC/HDL 4.0
ALT 26
AST 17
ALT/AST 0.6

I have no idea what some of those values mean. I know these numbers are lower than my normal but for me, normal has never been very high. I think my TC is usually in the 150 range. I always used my "admirable" cholesterol levels to justify my diet. Heh! The doc did say my HDL was low and that I could raise it by eating oatmeal. I didn't tell her I already ate boatloads of oats.

Other tests of note:

Fasting Glucose 82
Creatinine 0.65
Sed Rate 32
C-Reactive Protien 0.99

My fasting glucose is usually in the 95-100 range, and a couple of times it's come in at 101 and 102. I assume 82 is preferred.

My creatinine level is a bit low. It's never been low that I remember, but a quick google tells me that with vegetarians it's not uncommon to have lower levels and with "severe" weight loss it's not uncommon. So I assume I'm okay having a bit lower levels of it.

Sed Rate and CRP are both high, indicators of inflammation. These are normal numbers for me. I guarantee you that if they were checked a couple months ago when I was feeling my best that they'd have come in much closer to normal than this. One day!!

No sign of anemia, which my last blood tests showed worry for. None of the other tests were out of range.

-Norm

Great going, Norm. You must be proud of your accomplishment.