- Weight as of Jan 1,2013: 226 lbs
- Weight as of Feb 1, 2014: 201 lbs
- Net Loss: 25 POUNDS!!
- 17 "official" workouts (including two return trips to the gym!)
- 262 miles on the bike, 10.7 of which were outdoors in 15 degree temps... (Mileage total smashes previous January total by 120 miles PLUS I went outside)
- Various days of snow shoveling and pushing the snow blower through drifts and such. Never figured THAT could be a workout!
- Single-day trainer mileage record at 50 miles in a single sitting!
I don't know if this works this way for everyone, but as the scale moves down by small degrees I start to notice the upcoming landmarks. Like, "hey, that's only a pound away from losing 20," or, "cool, I'm almost down to 200." And what happens next is that those goals become so much more real and achievable because you don't want to screw them up! Seriously. At some point last week or so I was at 202.5. A pound and a half away from losing 25 pounds. Do you think I thought more about everything I was doing at that point?? "Maybe I can ride an extra five miles today." "Even though this stuff is vegan and good for me, I probably don't need that second helping because I'm pretty satisfied."
And once you get that particular train of thought going you can motivate yourself even further. I don't remember the last time I weighed less than 200 pounds. There will be a party when the first number changes, believe me. And once that block falls, then I am only a few pounds from losing 30. And so on, and so on.... I am considering this a good thought process :)
Today is Feb 2; yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of my father's death, and I have been wondering how to mention it or mark the occasion. Here, at least, I have decided to mark the occasion by discussing what basically eventually killed him and how I am working on not being that guy 20 years from now.
Doc died on the operating table after a basically failed quadruple bypass surgery. The surgeon went in and discovered he just couldn't fix it all; it was far worse than even he had imagined. Dad had suffered from high blood pressure (hey, me, too!), heart disease, and Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes. He'd had rheumatic fever as a child, and he and his twin brother suffered from rickets as children, though I don't know that that would have had a bearing on their health as adults.
The thing is, though, that two out of three of those adult diseases are totally preventable (OK, I don't know about totally). My internist says that the high BP indeed has a genetic component*, but we all really know that exercising and eating right will prevent Type 2 Diabetes, and exercising, eating right, and maintaining a healthy weight can ward off heart disease.
*My blood pressure was quite "normal" until a few years ago regardless of my weight through the years. It spiked around age 45, and I went on meds at around age 46. What caused the sudden increase? That's where the doc says genetics come into play. Nathan, for instance, is a young, healthy 6'0, 185, and his BP is quite high... Working on that !!
Genetics?? I don't want to take any chances; if Doc passed along some gene or something, I think I should know about this. Well, this study on heart disease from Northwestern University shows that "only a small proportion of cardiovascular health is passed on from parent to child; instead...the majority...is due to lifestyle and healthy behaviors." Whew. Cool. Of course, it does mean that I have no one to blame but myself should I contract this condition.
And diabetes? Hmmm... Actually not as clear, but there is more of a genetic factor at play here. So I could do all of this work and still end up contracting the disease - by a factor of somewhere between a 1 in 7 chance and a 1 in 13 chance, depending on when my parent got it. I think dad was around 55 or so, which means my "genetic chances" are 1 in 13. Armed with this information AND a calendar, I can certainly make great strides to ward off its onset as long as possible, and maybe even prevent it completely. My cholesterol ratio has always been good, blood sugars normal, etc. I should be in good shape for the time being, and keeping up the weight loss and healthier eating will certainly help.
So there you go. An update and a little family history. Nathan was just about six weeks old when Doc passed, and of course Erin wasn't around at all yet. And that's too bad, because I know he would have enjoyed getting to know another grandson, and I would pay serious money to see him interact with my now teenage daughter; they would have gotten along famously. He was 71 when he died just a few months shy of his birthday. Can't really imagine him at 91 now.
Thanks for reading. Now get off the couch and go exercise and eat better food.
only
a small proportion of cardiovascular health is passed from parent to
child; instead, it appears that the majority of cardiovascular health is
due to lifestyle and healthy behaviors. - See more at:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/11/heart-disease.html#sthash.g7y5GSq7.dpuf
only
a small proportion of cardiovascular health is passed from parent to
child; instead, it appears that the majority of cardiovascular health is
due to lifestyle and healthy behaviors. - See more at:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/11/heart-disease.html#sthash.g7y5GSq7.dpuf
only
a small proportion of cardiovascular health is passed from parent to
child; instead, it appears that the majority of cardiovascular health is
due to lifestyle and healthy behaviors. - See more at:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/11/heart-disease.html#sthash.g7y5GSq7.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment