Quarterly blood test results

Busy night!

First a visit to the dietician, and I am down another 2Kg and 2.5cm off my waist.  This means I am 8.4Kg down in weight and 8.5cm smaller around the waist.  Based on that, I am now officially "fat", not obese anymore.  Still another 1.5Kg to my first goal, and 6.5 to the next, but I feel like I am making good progress here.

Afterwards was a trip to the GP to get my bloodwork results.  My HbA1c result was 5.0 which is really good news, when you consider the only medication I am taking is 2 metformin tablets each day.  The diet and exercise is definitely helping me a lot.

The Ferretin levels were 377, which is also showing that for now at least we have things under control.

Time to celebrate with a refreshing glass of water

What's the secret

Since a lot of people have been noticing how much err... "smaller" I am now, they have been asking what my secret is.  There's nothing too special, it is based on the old model of diabetic exchanges.  For more details on what makes up an exchange unit, I'd recommend this site:

http://www.diabetesoutreach.org.au/consumer/2011%20CarbServes.pdf

OK, so now you know what you can eat, it's a question of how much.  There are two options I was presented with, and a simple way of recording them.

Breakfast:Morning_Tea:Lunch:Afternoon_Tea:Dinner

The first option is the conventional diet

2:1:2:1:2

Which means Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are 2 exchanges each, while morning and afternoon are a single exchange.  The other option was more agressive:

2:1:0:1:2

It does not mean no lunch!  It means no carbs at lunch time, but about 20g of protein.  Yes, you'll feel hungry, but water is your friend here.  I have lost track of the amount of water I go through in a day now, but it must be 2 litres without too much problem.

The end result is that I am about 500 calories down on the standard intake of food.  So if I combine that with 30 minutes a day of walking, we're straight away into the fat burning zone.

But, I hear you ask "Where am I going to find 30 minutes a day to walk?"  It's not actually as hard as you think, especially if you rely on public transport to get to and from work.  Want to push it a bit more?  Get off one station before or after your usual stop and walk from there.  Not always practical, but it's essentially free exercise if you can manage it.

I don't guarrantee it's going to work for you, but it worked for me.  Even if you don't have the medical conditions, plan A is a solid place to start if you want to lose some weight.

More weight loss news

I'm actually a little disappointed this time.  I only lost 1.9Kg in the past fortnight, but still 2cm off my waist.  This brings to totals up to 6.4Kg and 6cm

Diet update

My results are still encouraging, but I am not kidding myself.  This is in all likelihood the honeymoon phase.  But still I am going to brag

Weight loss this period 2.1Kg
Waist loss this period 2cm

Totals: 4.5Kg and 4cm

See, I can do it

Today was a breakthrough for me.
In my line of work, there is a need for a lot of "networking".  Usually this occurs over lunch of some description

I've been worried that with all the restrictions and my rather strict diet regime I would not be able to partake, or once again I'd sit there explaining why I wasn't eating.

So I figured I'd try an experiment and attend the CEDA lunch at the Shangri-La in Sydney.  So based on Duncan's advice, here's the plan:

1. Walk to and from the event.
2. Skip the entree.
3. Ask for chicken or fish.
4. Drink only water
5. Skip dessert, or maybe just one little taste

Well it worked.  My blood readings 2 hours later were a little high, but not too bad all things considered.

But aside from that, the session, featured NAB's Adam Bennett, Executive General Manager, Enterprise Transformation was truly inspiring.  I am glad to have had the opportunity to attend.

The public link is here http://www.ceda.com.au/events/eventdetails/2013/02/n130228?EventCode=N130228

Call me antisocial

I am feeling sorry for myself tonight.

We have drinks at work every two months and I decided I just can't cope with people being around all the things I can't do, and frankly I can't be bothered trying to explain it any more.

Even though the senior staff are supposed to attend, at least for a little while my reaction tonight is "bugger this for a game, I'm going home"

Night all...

Visiting the Vampires

Don't get me wrong, I love the red cross, and I think they do a fantastic job.  It's just my way of saying that I am back from my first venesection session this afternoon.

You don't need to be in my state to give blood (but if you are, it WILL help you), it doesn't hurt and you're doing a good thing for people you'll never get to meet.

Get a group of people together from the office and make a party out of it.  I dare you