Thank you everyone for your kind words. A lot of you said I don't look like the same person, much as do my co-workers and friends that I see infrequently, but it really is me
Also I wanted to say I've received my results from my heart and vascular testing I took a couple weeks ago. They pretty much say what I expected.
I have "mild" blockages in my right and left neck aorta. But I have no blockages in my abdominal artery or in either descending leg artery. The first time I took the test in 2009 I showed mild blockage in my right neck artery only and was told it was about 25% blocked.
This time they would not give me a percentage but just simply said that its very mild. The range for a "mild" reading is from 1-29% blockage. Yeah thats a pretty rough reading.
Unfortunately, they would not give me a more exact reading than that which kind of defeats my purposes. I can't tell if my current very mild blockage is better or worse than my previous mild (25%) blockage. And of course this time I had some in my left neck artery as well which tells me that I continued to progress with cvd for another 3 years of eating SAD since my initial test.
The bottomline is that I was rated in excellent health and the mild blockages were perfectly normal for a male my age.
They also did an ECG, which this time they called "abnormal". In 2009 I had a normal ecg with a pulse of 88 which they thought was OK (I knew though that was way high for me).
This time my pulse rate was a very low 45 average with peaks going slower over the 10 mins or so they tested me. They felt that anything below 60 beats per min was "abnormal". Despite my explaining to them that I had a naturally low pulse rates all my life, except for when I was obese. In fact my rate now is as it was when I was a teen and at my best health and activity levels. I even told them that I exercise 7 days a week but they didn't seem to hear that or care.
What I didn't tell them that what also may have helped my rate be so low was that I purposely meditated while laying on the table
I ususally get "White Coat Syndrome" whenever in the doctors office so this time as I layed on the table I simply closed my eyes and meditated quietly as I do everyday. I guess it worked maybe too well
Oh well, I'm happy over all with the results. I'm debating on whether I want to take those tests again as the results are just not fine enough to tell me how I'm progressing in my health. If anyone knows of a better test (non-invasive of course) that can give me more accurate measurements of arterial blockages I'd like know about it.
Other than that my ecg was perfectly normal and looked "stronger" than I had in 2009 according to the doc, whatever that really means.
Again thanks everyone for all the comments, it really makes the past year worth it and hopefully some of you will be motivated to continue in this lifestyle...I know I am...and I've started a new journal to cover another year, this time focusing on increasing fitness and this woe