Today marks day 56 of my diet. That means I have officially been doing this for eight weeks. Eight weeks, I can’t believe it! It feels like only yesterday that I was starting this journey to become healthier.
At the time I weighed just over 210 pounds, an all-time high for me. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and the doctor had me on two separate medications to manage my condition. Even on two pills for treatment my blood pressure was still 146/95. The doctor went on to say that I was suffering from a fatty liver and that I was slowly killing myself.
With all this bad news in my life I seriously considered just giving up and letting nature and a series of bad health choices doom me to an existence where I died prematurely leaving a wife and kids to pick up the pieces. I am not a quitter and made a choice to see if I could curb the health problems and become healthier.
Starting this program with my health coach Amy I began a journey not just to lose weight but to hopefully learn what caused my gradual weight gain. It was this educational process that I had not expected and one that I have grown to really appreciate.
Now here I am eight weeks later and I am shocked at the progress I have made in so many aspects of my life. Besides eating better, I am now more active walking approximately 5 miles a day, which equates to around 11,000 steps. I am making better food choices and have an understanding of what the nutritional labels on the back of packages actually mean. I’m getting more sleep. Although I am still not getting the recommended 8 hours a night I have increased my rest from 3 hours to just over 6 hours so I am making progress.
I stepped on my Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale to get an end of week reading. I hoped I would see a 2.5-pound loss, which is what I have been averaging over the past little while. Instead my mouth fell open to see I was now at 181.6 pounds. That is a loss of over three pounds and a total loss of 29 pounds since I started less than two months ago! My body mass index is now solidly in the normal range and my percent body fat has dropped to 18.2%. I have not been this weight in over 20 years.
When I started my blood pressure was alarmingly high. Now eight weeks later I have stopped taking both medications and my readings are now 112/72, which is slightly low. It’s not just the weight; it’s how I feel. I have more energy and I’m able to enjoy things with my kids that I had thought I had outgrown long ago.
I could not have done any of this alone. My health coach Amy has been amazing. She is there to listen when I was discouraged and pepped me up when I needed it the most. She patiently answers all of my questions which I am sure are anything but normal.
My family has been a major source of support. My wife Trina painstakingly shops and prepares meals encouraging me beyond my comfort zone to try new healthier items. She has rearranged her schedule so that she makes sure I eat at the proper time. There are days when she is fixing several different meals for members of the family and she never complains. My kids have been eager to help cheering me on and motivating me to continue when I didn’t really want to.
Looking back over the past eight weeks it has perhaps been one of the most enjoyable journeys in my life. I feel like a completely new person who is taking advantage of being healthy for the first time in a very long time. I have not reached my goal yet. I still have 11.6 pounds to get where I want to be but for now I am happy with the results and I encourage everyone to stop and consider finding a healthy lifestyle that will make them happy.
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