Yipee Ki-Yay M----- F------!

I have now lost 98 pounds, which is the same weight as the "98 pound weakling" featured in the old Charles Atlas advertisements in the back of comic books.  I have now lost as much weight as an official person.  Sure, a tiny person, but a person nonetheless.

With this loss, I am pleased to report that I am officially back on track after our little Italian visit and scale calibration induced deviation from the plan last week.  I am feeling a little saucy today because I not only got back to my two-weeks ago low, I managed to lose a bit more, erasing last week like it never happened.  And we shall never speak of it again. [grin]

The lesson I learned from all this is that consistency is critical - - staying on track with my eating and plowing through my exercise 6 days a week even when I had gone up meant that my gain last week was just a blip, nothing more.  And we all have blips - - much as I would like to see it happen, no one's weight loss path is perfectly linear in only a downward direction.  Everyone gains occasionally, and we all plateau from time to time. 

The important thing is not how you got there when the scale shows you something you don't want to see, it's what you do.  Do you give up and start binge eating again on the premise that you gained anyways, what's a little "cheat day"?  Do you stop exercising because it's too hard to do if it's not going to pay any dividends?  The correct answer is "No", because you can't let minor blips get the better of you.  Because then they turn into major problems, rather than minor blips.  And it's much more difficult to fix a major problem, I will tell you right now.  The way to succeed is to keep consistently working your plan, even in the face of adversity or minor setbacks.  As the wise people over at Tristar Gym say, "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up". 

I have to admit that this week the news that the Patriarch was diagnosed with Type II diabetes threw me for a bit of a loop.  On sober reflection after I let all the emotion drain away, I think it's because "there but for the grace of god goes I" - - he and I are so similar attitudinally, emotionally, and physically, that it's as if I am looking in a mirror.  A mirror that knew he was pre-diabetic last year and did nothing.  I discovered I was pre-diabetic last year as well - - maybe even around the same time - - but the big difference is that I took it as the wake up call that it was, and motivation to keep on my eating plan and exercise regimen.  

I suppose what really threw me and made me feel just a little sorry for myself is the realization that if I stop working out and stop eating well, I will absolutely become diabetic.  With my family history, and with the Patriarch's demonstration of the progression from pre-diabetes to Type II diabetes, there's simply no other conclusion that I could draw.  And before, I suppose in the back of my dinosaur brain I had thought that I would not become diabetic, simply because my mother (and her entire family) was diabetic.  I thought that I could live as I wished, and diabetes would be something for other people.  But now I have to face the fact that if I do nothing, I will (much more likely than not) also get Type II diabetes.

That is not to say that it is inevitable that I will become diabetic, on my current path - - just the opposite, in fact.  I am losing weight more or less consistently (ahem) each week (recent blips excluded), and have significantly improved my eating habits, both in terms of quality and quantity.  I do 55-60 minutes of cardio exercise 6 days a week, and weights 3 days a week for a further 30 minutes each day.  My resting heart rate was 47 the last time I checked, and my blood pressure was 115/61.  I have lost 98 pounds, or more than 29% of my starting body weight.  All of these things are positive, and you can see the results in my fasting blood sugar numbers, which have declined from the mid-high 6s to 5.7 mmol/L.  Given more time, and more weight loss, I expect to see those sugars decline still further.  Eventually, I will have enough normal readings that I no longer qualify as pre-diabetic. 

I just wish wasn't so clear what my path could be.  I would like to pretend that I have some choice in the matter, you know?  I would like to think that I would still be working out every day and eating well just because it's the right thing to do, not merely because I have a significant looming health issue I am trying to avoid.  I suppose anyone who has ever experienced a lifestyle-related health issue (heart attack, high blood pressure, knee and back issues) is in the same boat. 

Next week will be better, as I will have processed all of this diagnosis-related angst, and will be back in my normal routine.