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by ComputerBob
January 2, 2008
Last Updated January 4, 2008
Ever since I reached my goal of losing 100 pounds a few weeks ago, people have been asking me "How did you do it?"
Short Answer (for those who want a quick sound-bite instead of a serious answer): The secret to losing a lot of weight is to do just two things:
Longer Answer: My previous life ended on February 13, 2007. That's the day that a stroke put the entire left side of my body to sleep. I was so terrified that I covered up the symptoms and didn't even tell my wife about it until around 4:00 the next morning. (Don't worry — in my case, the doctors told me that as soon as I felt my left side go to sleep, the damage was already done, so it wouldn't have made any difference if I had rushed to the hospital right away). Anyway, from that point on, I had a choice to either give up and let my medical conditions "happen to me" for the rest of my (probably short) life, or try to take control of my life and my medical conditions. I completely understand why many people never bother to even try, or give up without reaching their goals. It takes an incredible amount of work to even try to lose weight, and there's no guarantee that you're going to be successful — and even if you are successful, there's no guarantee that it will make a significant difference in your health. "The damage may already be done." In my case, my attempt to wrestle control of my own life back from my medical conditions required an immediate and complete lifestyle change. Eating very low (but not unhealthy) amounts of calories, fat and carbohydrates, along with a low (but not unhealthy) amount of protein and lots of fiber. Eating lots of whole grains, vegetables, and salads. Eating only at mealtimes. Drinking lots of water. Getting plenty of sleep. Giving up all of the unhealthy, sugar-and-fat-filled things that I used to love to eat — things that still "cry out to me" every time I see them on store shelves. Learning to look at food as fuel instead of entertainment or comfort. Realizing that it's OK to always feel a little bit hungry. Keeping a (now very thick) notebook in which I've written down all of the following since February, 2007:
Going out on the Internet and reading a few hundred web sites' different advice about nutrition, vitamins and nutritional supplements. Reading the results of medical studies that studied the effects of various vitamins and supplements on diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol. Balancing the advice that I found for controlling diabetes with the sometimes-conflicting advice that I found for controlling cholesterol and controlling hypertension. Learning to glean the small amounts of good, medically-supported information from the vast majority of junk science, statistically insignificant anecdotal evidence, and intentionally misleading, exploitative advertisements masquerading as sincere advice. Figuring out exactly which nutritional supplements are the right ones for me to take, and how much of each one I should take, based on the results that I could see and feel, and confirming that they actually work for me by examining the results of regularly scheduled medical blood tests. In other words, instead of being a passenger in the car of my life, I chose to grab the steering wheel and be the driver, driving it in the direction that I want it to go. I knew that I was taking on a tremendous responsibility, but my only other choice was to let that car continue on down the road without any driver until it "crashed" again.
Here are my results: A couple of weeks ago, my doctor told me that he has never had any patient who has worked as hard or achieved anywhere near the level of success that I've achieved in the past 10 months. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, my blood glucose level was 495. I had to check my blood glucose level and then inject myself with insulin 5 times every day. But after less than 3 months, my condition had improved to the point where I was able to stop giving myself insulin shots, and instead take one diabetes pill every morning. Currently, I'm only taking one-half pill each day. My fasting blood glucose level is typically 90-110, my peak blood glucose level is typically 125-140, and my A1c level has been an incredibly low 5.2 for at least the past four months. My most-recent "bad cholesterol" level is below 100, which is exactly the same as it was after I had been taking cholesterol medicine for several months — even though I haven't taken any cholesterol medicine for the past four months. This past February, my resting blood pressure was 195 over something — now it's around 100 over 65. My doctor told me several times that he wants me to write a book, explaining the nutritional supplements that I'm taking and how I lost my weight, and how I got all of my medical conditions under control. But I hesitate to even think about writing anything that anyone else might consider a "recipe for good health," because the things that work for me and are healthy for me may not work or may be unhealthy for someone else. So, unless I can think of a way to write a book that I would feel comfortable having other people use as advice, I'm going to stick to encouraging people to learn as much as they can about nutrition, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and how each of them can affect their particular combination of medical conditions.
If you know in your heart that you need to lose weight, control your blood glucose, get in shape, lower your cholesterol, or any other difficult task, I pray that you will find the motivation and strength to do it — without waiting for a possibly deadly or crippling disease or a stroke to remind you how important it is. And if you find yourself having a tough time, and you feel like you need to tell someone who understands, write to me. I've been there. I'll be your cheerleader.
UPDATE, January 4, 2008: A number of people have asked me to publish more specific information about what I eat in a typical meal, as well as the names and dosages of the specific vitamins and nutritional supplements that I take. Believe me, I understand their interest — it takes a lot of work to figure those things out for yourself. But as I've said, I'm concerned that desperate dieters could take any specific examples that I might give as dieting advice and end up in trouble, because the specific things that work for me and that are healthy for my specific medical conditions, may not work and may even be unhealthy for someone else. Keep in mind that when I was researching vitamins and nutritional supplements, I discovered that a few things that are reportedly good for controlling one medical condition can make another medical condition worse. So, I think it would be better to not publish my "medicine cabinet" of exactly what I take, but instead leave it up to my readers to take the responsibility to learn what they need to learn about how to best control their particular combinations of medical conditions.
With that understanding, here is a list of several healthy foods that helped me lose weight and gain control of my diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol levels:
(All of them can be purchased at normal grocery stores.)
Please do your own research (with your doctor's knowledge and approval) to learn about other foods, plus vitamins and nutritional supplements that would be good for you. And be sure to have regularly scheduled blood tests and doctor's visits, to keep track of how your actions are affecting your overall health and any specific health issues that you have. If your doctor doesn't have the required knowledge, skills and attitude to encourage you and enthusiastically help you discover exactly what works best for you, then find a better doctor. Ask your friends and other people to recommend good doctors for your particular medical conditions. In my case, I called the nurse and the nutritionist who had led the two-day diabetes information class that my wife and I had attended right after I got out of the hospital. They both recommended the same doctor, and for nearly a year, he has been wonderfully helpful and extremely encouraging to me. In fact, every time I see him, he seems just as happy to have me as a patient as I am to have him as my doctor.
If you or someone you know would like to learn more about how I worked my way back to health after having a stroke, I highly encourage you to read My Previous Life Is Over. It contains all of my Journal entries about my recovery, starting on the day that I had my stroke.