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

Back to the dietician

I can confirm that already I have lost may patience and sense of humour.

But I've also lost 2.5Kg and 2cm off my waistline.  Not bad for the first two weeks really

My birthday party

My lovely wife took me to "Billy Kwong" for dinner tonight, where we had:

Crispy Organic Salt Bush & Tatsoi Cakes with Homemade Chilli Sauce
Steamed Silken Tofu with Ginger, Shaved Kombu, Chilli, Shiro Shoyu & Biodynamic Sesame Oil
Stir-Fried Organic Salt Bush Leaves with Young Ginger 
Crispy-Skin Pasture-Fed Duck with Organic Quandongs & Organic Orange Sauce

The Shaved Kombu was perhaps the most amazing thing I have seen on a plate in a long time.  If you told me it was muslin, I would have believed you based on the appearance!

Then home for a home-made no sugar cheesecake.  Thanks everyone!

Happy Birthday to me!

Made it through another year, and even though this one hasn't gotten off to the most auspicious of starts, I am going to make the best of it.

On advice from Duncan the Dietician "not to take it too seriously", I treated myself to bacon and eggs for breakfast.

At least I am honest about it!

Meet my new best friend

Dieticians are a funny bunch, and Duncan is no different.  To start with, he looks like he's about 15 and does more listening than talking.

The first question he asked me was "on a scale of 1 - 10, how serious are you?".  Without hesitation, I answered "11", and he drilled in on this.

Allow me to explain:

I have four kids, aged from 3 1/2 up to 26, and they along with my wife are the most important things in the world to me.  What the last month's results have given me a simple choice.  Either I take control of things, get help where I need it and change, or I can die.  Not immediately, but I certainly won't get to see my daughter's (miss 3 1/2) children growing up.

In the end, it's a no-brainer from a decision-making point of view.

Interestingly enough, my diet has not been too bad overall, except that:

1. I eat too much of everything
2. I eat at the wrong times.  There's no regular eating pattern

Now at least, I have a plan of action.  I need to eat less, regularly and get some more exercise.  I also have a logbook (Google Docs) that lets "big brother" Duncan track my progress.  Im due back in 2 weeks to check how I am going.

My Christmas Present - On Australia Day

My three boys gave me a great gift for last Christmas.  A 1-hour flying lesson at Gostner Aviation.  I was lucky enough to have David Maddock, the owner take me himself on a very hot day out of Camden Airport.

I originally got my PPL back in 1992, but lasy flew in October 1993.  After near enough to 20 years it was a great feeling to be at the controls again.  The Jabiru was faster and lighter than the 150 I learned in, but not quite as solid feeling as the PA28's I last flew in.  But glass cockpits are quite a change for me.  It was hard to remember where to look.

Clearly I must have done something right, because it was my aircraft from beginning to end on the second leg of the lesson.  Sorry about the hard landing David!

Taking my medicine

So my blood readings weren't extreme, but they did vary an awful lot over the last two weeks.  What it shows is that I'm not able to effectively process the carbs and sugars (yeah, I know they're somewhat the same), rather than an overall deficiency.

The haemochromotosis results came back, and with readings in the low 400's we should be able to manage this with a combination of diet and venesection (literally, giving blood).

So what's the plan for now?

1. I'm now on metformin (diaformin in my case) to try to smooth out the blood sugars
2. Cut out red meat (control the iron intake)
3. Cut out alcohol
4. Lose some (well a lot) of weight

  Doctor tells me that losing weight should also be a big help with controlling these things as well.

I've got bad news, and I've got bad news

A lot of things went on between November and now.  Work, Christmas events, my GP going on leave, ME going on leave, fear of the unknown but I finally managed to go to the doctor tonight and get my results.

I'm not at all surprised about what he told me; but it's not fun to hear it.

Result 1:  Your testosterone levels are so low you might as well be a woman.  In fact most women have higher levels than you do.

Result 2:  Congratulations, you're a Type 2 Diabetic.  Now, we're not sure how bad it is just yet, so get a glucometer and start measuring for 2 weeks.  Spread the readings out so you get a good distribution of numbers.

Result 3:  As a bonus, you also got your father's Haemochromotosis.

Result 4:  You're clinically (and visibly) obese.

Geez, doesn't get much better than that, hey?  Actually, there is a bright side.  Haemochromotosis is generally not picked up till men are in their 60's or later so I figure I got a 10 year head start on it.  The ferritin levels are not too bad at this stage, so it's going to be manageable (or at least that's the theory).

It wasn't that I doubted the doctor (did I mention he looks and sounds like Lewis Hamilton?); but I want a second set of tests while we're at it.

To be sure, to be sure