Week 7 wrap-up .... 198 pounds!!!!!!!!!!

It happened!  It really happened!!!  My weight has dipped under 200 pounds.  This morning the scales stopped at 198.  I didn't realize how emotional this milestone would be.  My daughter Jamie gave me a two thumbs up when she found out.  My wife was truly excited.  I likened her excitement to the excitement I feel when BYU takes it to the Utah Utes.  What a rush!  What a  trill!!!  I have now lost a total of 16 pounds so far in this heart challenge.

All seven days my blood pressure measured below 120/80.  Two days of the seven my blood sugar registered below 100.  Life is good.  I am so blessed to have this opportunity to learn, grow and progress.  I am so blessed to have such a good friends and family who support and cheer me on.  The love and support mean way more that I can express!!!

Row, row, row, your boat

This morning during my workout session, JD put me through some torture.  He put me on this rowing machine and kicked it up to notches unknown to my body.  I don’t know if it has a proper term like elliptical.  All I know is that it is supposed to simulate rowing a boat.   JD has had me use this machine before, but not to the level of today.  I felt the burn in many places in my body.  My arms, my shoulders, my abdomen, and my heart were all shouting “let me go”.  Sweat was dripping down my face like never before.  I keep a towel around my neck when I work out.  It comes in handy for wiping the beads, or should I say drops of sweat from my face.  Well when doing the rowing I just can not take and hand off the machine to grab the towel.  So my face was pouring in typical monsoon style.  By the time I finally rowed the boat to shore my towel had fallen to the floor.  I was too beat to bend over to pick the towel up so that I could wipe the rain forest from my face.   After about a minute of catching my breath I finally had the strength to reach down and get it.  At one point during the rowing JD asked “on a scale of 1 – 10, where are you?”.  My reply was 11.  I think 11 was being conservative.  Now that I have had time to contemplate it I think it was more of a 15.  It is now 6 hours later and I am still sore.

Perhaps, just perhaps, I have been successful in breaking my addiction of stepping on the scales.  Today at about noon I thought for the first time this entire week “I wonder how much I will weigh in the morning”.  I have not thought about it at all and now the anticipation has me giddy.  Will I be under 200?  Stay tuned. 

Fats

I seem to have adjusted well  to 255 gms of carbs and 9 oz of protein per day that is in my eating plan.  My biggest eating challenge is keeping the fats down.  My eating plan calls for 5 servings of fat per day (25 gms).  I do drink skim milk.  My yogurt is the non-fat variety.  If I use mayo I only use lite mayo and it is used sparingly.  Sour cream, yep fat free.  The other day I had a baked potato and only used a small amount of fat free sour cream and no butter or margarine.

What is killing me is my love of beef.  I find it easy to justify eating beef.  After all my beef consumption is way down from where it had been.  At the beginning of the challenge my total cholesterol was 187.  Thus it is very easy for my mind to say, its okay have a steak or some prime rib.  Yesterday I could not pass up the smoked beef brisket that presented itself to me.  Last week I had a craving for a hamburger.  After a couple of days fighting the craving I decided to have one.  So I stopped at the store and purchased some ground turkey patties.  I  thought this could satisfy my craving.  I cooked up the 4 oz pattie and found that it was satisfying.  Then I happened to look under the package at the Nutrition Facts label.  Each 4 oz pattie had 17 gms of fat, the equivalent of 3 of my daily servings of fat.  What???  I should have just had the beef!!!

Lesson learned, always look at the nutrition facts first.  You can not assume  that just because it is turkey that it is non-fat or low fat.  I won't be making that mistake again.

Week 6 review – Not a bad week if you ask me.

The 100-Day heart challenge is now over 1/3 done.  Thirty-nine days down, sixty-one more to go.  Here is a wrap up of week 6:

1)      Two pounds lost this week, bringing the total weight lost during the challenge to 13 pounds.  An average of 2 pounds lost per week.  I’m happy with that.  I am just a hair away from dropping under the 200 mark.  It is so close I can smell it.

2)      Four of the seven days in the week saw my blood pressure below the 120/80 mark.  The three days that were higher had the top number recorded at 124, 124, and 129.  Not one single day did the bottom number exceed 80.  I’m okay with those results.

3)      For the first time since day one of the challenge I had my waist measured.  Five, yes five, inches have melted away in these 39 days.  I could not believe it.  I imagine my grin went from ear to ear.  Ask my wife, she can attest as to how happy I was.  She was the one who measured me.

4)      There were a couple of disappointments during this week.  First I missed exercising two days.  Work has been a beast for me this week.  I ended up working lots of hours.  The two days I did not exercise I left the house at 5:30 in the morning and did not return until after 7:30 in the evening.   By the time I got some dinner it was too late to get in a work out.  I do wonder if I could have dipped below 200 pounds had I not missed those two days.  Second I missed our weekly Nutrition Class.  It was held on one of the days where I had to be at work at 6:00 am.  I was looking forward to this one as we were going to be sharing menu ideas and recipes that work within our diet plans.  Oh well.

I did survive the entire week without getting on the scales until this morning.  The suspense was killing me, but it was certainly worth the wait.  The icing on the cake was five inches lost in the waist.  That was sweet, sweet, sweet!

Small Things

So many small things that will hopefully add up to larger things.

1)      Better balance.  I find that I don’t wobble like I used to, standing on one foot while putting my pants on.

2)      It is slightly easier to bend over when my shoes need to be tied.

3)      The ring on my right hand is getting so loose that it slides off when I wave my hand.  The ring on my left hand however doesn’t seem to be any looser.  Go figure.

4)      Pants that used to be snug are now just right.  Pants that were just right are now loose.  Thank heavens for a belt, otherwise those pants may end up around my ankles with the weight of my keys and wallet.

5)      My belt is getting looser.  I have already tightened it one spot and that is now too loose.  Two spots is just a wee bit tight, so I guess I’m somewhere around a 1 ½ belt loop smaller.

6)      My double chin is now a chin and a half.  My man boobs on the other hand are still hanging on.

7)      I take the stairs with more speed and I find that I’m not gasping for air.

8)      Improved blood pressure is a very good thing.

9)      Rarely do I have to get up and pee in the middle of the night any more.  It used to be a nightly ritual for me never realizing that it was a symptom high blood sugar.

10)    I have had two people who know me, but do not know about the 100-Day Heart Challenge, say “hey, you are losing weight”.  Man that feels good.

I am sure there are other small things that I have yet to recognize.  I am grateful for the small things.

Patience. I must find patience.

Saturday was the last time I stepped on the scales to weigh myself.  It is driving me crazy.  I want to know ... am I up or down?  How up or down am I?  I did not realize how obsessed I was with the obsession of weighing every morning.  I must resist.  I must learn to practice patience.  But the suspense may just kill me

Warning ... my actual weight may be vary from what is shown ...  Truth be known, this is how much I weighed when I got married, a mere 30 years ago.  And one last thought for today .... can someone be obsessed about not being obsessed?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Week 5 review

I have enjoyed doing a weekly review but I am changing the timing of the end of the week.  I had been using Monday as the end of the week for these reviews for this blog.  It made sense as the 100-Day Challenge began on a Tuesday.  However we report some of our results to Traci Heiner weekly and her week ends on Saturday.  This change is mostly due to my decision to take some advice from one of my long time friends, Karen Heard, and only weigh once per week.  My report to Traci includes my weight at the end of the week, hence my change to a Saturday blog reporting as well.  So now for the wrap up of week 5:

1. Lost 1 pound this week.  That feels a bit better.  After no weight loss two weeks ago and gaining 2 pounds last week,  this simple 1 pound was a breath of fresh air.  I am feeling stronger.  I can feel muscle so I do believe some of the weight gain/no loss can be contributed to gaining muscle.  Gaining muscle is a good thing!
2. I am currently on a string of 8 consecutive days of blood pressure readings under 120/80.  In my opinion, this is truly the greatest accomplishment thus far.
3. This week I spent 7 1/2 hours in a diabetes education class that was taught over three nights.  It was very worthwhile.  I now better understand the blood sugar readings.  I understand how the blood sugar levels constantly change through out the day.  I better understand the importance of the consistent carbohydrate diet and how beneficial it is to have three snacks throughout the day, especially at bed time.
4. Eating.  I call it eating, not dieting.  I simply dislike dieting.  After all the first three letters if dieting is die.  Having the snacks has been a nice surprise to me.  I have found that I am not getting as hungry before a meal by having a snack in between.  When eating a meal, I am being satisfied.  Three servings of carbohydrates during a meal are sufficient for me.  My wife and I stumbled on a 9-grain bread that we can purchase with our Bountiful Basket.  This bread is tasty and the best part is that it contains only 10 gms of carbs per slice.  This means I can have a sandwich, with two pieces of bread and it will only cost me 1 carb serving.  
5. The education this week was exceptional.  I now better understand how to work around the "eating budget" that has been given me.  I love ice cream.  Well I had me some Butter Pecan ice cream yesterday afternoon for my snack.  It was a one cup serving that cost me 2 servings of carbs and 1 serving of fat.  It sure tasted good and helped me feel normal again.  By careful reading labels I was able to find a flavor of ice cream that I love that worked with what I was willing to spend from my eating budget.  Thursday's Nutrition Class were we discussed the book Intutive eating I found that I am a bit obsessive in a couple of different things.  One was stepping on the scales every day.  Karen told me a couple of weeks ago to only weigh once per week, but I determined that I needed my instant gratification.  I need to know now!!!  Well when I saw the practice of daily weighing listed as an obsession I decided it is the time to heed the advice of a trusted friend.
6. The exercise is going well.  JD keeps pushing me to new levels.  Higher levels of difficulty, more reps in weights, new exercises, longer workouts.  I can't believe that I am saying this, but I really do like the way I feel after the work outs.  Of course that doesn't mean that I love working out.  I'm not to that point, yet.

Over all it has been a good week, physically and emotionally.  I am beginning to feel like I am in control.

Education overload

This week has an education overload for me.  I have attended two diabetes education sessions lasting 2 1/2 hours each and our weekly nutrition class lasting 1 hour.  Tonight I have the third and final diabetes class.  My wife has been attending the diabetes classes with me.  It has been wonderful to have her support and to have another set of ears and another mind to catch more nuggets of goodness.  So much good information in such a short period of  time.  I hope to be able to digest all of it.  There has been some real good stuff. 

I now have a better understanding of what is happening in my body in regards to insulin and glucose.  I better understand the need for carbs and why as a diabetic you just can't save them up for one good blast at the end of the day.  I have learned that snacking can be a good thing, when done appropriately. 

This morning's nutrition class brought new thoughts on attitude towards dieting and how to listen to your body in regards to its nutritional needs.  The reference for today's lesson was from a book titled "Intuitive Eating".  I was impressed enough that this may be one of the books that I will purchase to help me along my journey.

Tonight's diabetes class will focus on exercise.  Will I learn that I can actually love (or at least tollerate) that dirty word?

Week 4 review

The 100-Day Heart Challenge has just concluded its 4th week.  Here are the results as I see them:

1. Weight lost since beginning challenge: 10 pounds.  This means that in the past week I gained two pounds.  I had hoped that I would have been under 200 pounds by the time of this writing.  Obviously that did not happen.  I am a bit frustrated because I am faithfully exercising and I am keeping up with my diet changes.  That lousy weight loss wall is higher than I would like.
2. Blood sugar is showing signs of improvement.  It is creeping lower.
3. Blood pressure:  This past week this has been the one thing that has made me feel like this is all worthwhile.  My blood pressure was under 120/80 four of the seven days in the week.  The lowest reading was 99/62.  The three days that were over 120/80 were just slightly elevated (112/87).  Each of the past four day's readings have been under.

The improvements in blood pressure has made it easier to swallow the fact that the weight loss over the last two weeks has been stagnant.  But emotionally I need to see some progress once again in weight loss.  This positive mental attitude will expire unless it is re-freshened with visible results.

Diabetes & kidneys

I had a visit with my doctor on Friday.  It was a follow up after having been diagnosed with diabetes three weeks ago.  Among other things we talked about kidney disease.  The two leading contributors to kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure.  As a precautionary measure he has given me a prescription for a medication that is generally given to diabetics to help ward off kidney problems.

This came as bit of a shock.  I already knew that those who suffer from kidney failure are generally diabetic, but I had not viewed this as a problem that I might experience.  Given my vocation in life, I know a bit about a renal diet which those with kidney problems must follow.  It is a very restrictive diet.  Way more restrictive than a diabetic diet.  This is not exactly something that I want to experience.

Since then I have reflected on the life one of my aunts, Velma Gill Stokes, pictured above.  Velma was one of the world's great sweethearts.  Kind, loving, dedicated, and caring.  Velma passed away nearly two years ago at the age of 87.  Velma had diabetes and suffered from kidney failure.  She had to undergo dialysis treatments for the last years of her life.  She did not let this slow her down.  At her funeral her bishop remarked how Velma would go for dialysis in the morning and would be in the temple in the afternoon.  If I end up facing  the same type of challenge, I think I would be thrilled to live 87 years and serve in the temple all while living with these challenges.  Velma Stokes, a modern day pioneer, who blazed the path that I (and others) may have a clearer road to travel.

Hope this isn't too personal, but I can't resist

I appologize in advance if this is TMI for some ...


I have heard lots of women comment that the first thing they notice getting smaller when they loose weight is in their bust size.  Well I'm sorry to say that I'm not seeing any decrease in the size of my man boobs.  I would love to see them melt away.

The three week mark

Three weeks have now elapsed since beginning this 100-Day Heart Challenge.  A few thoughts (ramblings) concerning the events of these 21 days:

1. I never dreamed that writing a blog could be therapeutic, but it has been for me.  Gives me a little time for reflection and introspection. 
2. This past 3 weeks has been an emotional ride for me.  The emotions came quickly to the surface right from the start on day one.  It was difficult to break the news to my sweetheart that my blood sugar was so high that I was very likely diabetic.  It was, and still is, hard to hold back the tears when I think of it.
3. Just knowing  that people are reading my blog is humbling.  Then when I add in all of the comments that people have made to me either in person or postings on Face Book, I become emotional once again.  It is a privilege to have such wonderful friends and family members cheering me on and giving advice.  It becomes it easier to keep on keeping on during workouts when the muscles get tight and the heart is pumping, or when bad food choices are is in front of me knowing that there is a group of admired associates who want me to succeed.  My personal thank you to this cheering section!!!  You are making a difference in my life!!!
4. I have been blessed.  I have not had the feelings of "wanting to eat the table".  This is what we call it at my house when you are so hungry that you could eat a horse, or in the case the table.  The pangs of hunger have been at bay.  I have not really had a hard time resisting those tempting foods either.  The real test came on July 4th when Fat Boy Ice Cream Sandwiches were available.  I was introduced to Fat Boys some 25 years ago and was instantly hooked.  I was offered "one bite" but it was easy to say no.  Deep down I was afraid that it would become like potato chips.  One bite just won't do.  

So after 3 weeks I have lost 11 pounds.  The blood sugar levels continues to improve, but still room for improvement.  The blood pressure is showing more days of low and less days of high readings.

My hope is that I will be able to announce in the 4 week report next week that my weight is under less than 200 pounds.  It will be a glorious day when I can say I weigh less than 200 pounds.

Tough weekend

This weekend has been a bit of a challenge for me.  It took everything I had to get me to the Wellness Center on Saturday.  I was just plain tired, physically and emotionally.  I've been a bit down because I have hit a weight loss wall.  Anyone who has ever dieted and hit the wall understands very well how hard it is to keep motivated when you seemingly don't see any progress being made in weight loss but you are sacrificing so much.  It really does test one's resolve.  I did muster up enough gumption to get to the Wellness Center.  While driving there I got my burst of energy and happiness that I did not give into the temptation of letting this pass, just this once.  I had a nice work out on my own.  I am seeing progress in how my endurance is improving and feeling like I am gaining some strength.

Now for the food challenges .... oh my temptations abound.  Dinner out on Friday.  I love a little restaurant in Payson called Dalton's.  Deep fried pickles, onion rings, coconut shrimp, fresh baked breads, and wonderful huge desserts.  Well I caved in - somewhat.  I ate one half of a roll, I fit it in carb wise.  I passed on the wonderful onion rings but I had one bite of a deep fried pickle.  I pretty well succeeded in that eating out venture.

Saturday night dinner at the Wright house.  The Wrights just built a fire pit and they wanted to test it out.  Roasting hot dogs, potato salad, and smore's was what was on the menu.  Knowing the menu in advance, I went prepared with a turkey tender that we wrapped in foil and threw in the fire.  Took along some tortillas and the other makings for turkey tacos.  I over cooked the turkey a bit but the tacos were fine.  What I wanted was one of those giant Polish Sausages.  I have been hooked on those things since my mission days in Chicago some 30 + years ago.  I did have a bit of potato salad.  I'm also a potato salad junkie.  Portion size was the key.  I sure wanted more though.

Monday is a family bbq at the in-laws.  I am sure it will be another struggle to keep my eating in line with my diet plan.  When ever the family gets together there is always a ton of great food.  I have really been pleased up to this point of how well I have been able to keep my food choices and portion sizes in line, but like a true addiction, the food calls my name and it takes more will power than I thought I had to turn a deaf ear to its beckoning.