WEIGHT: 245 as of 5/31/2021
My last post about this was pretty big, so I'll just hit some highights of the last
two weeks.
This morning I hit my mini-goal of reaching 245 pounds. Today marks six weeks into
the effort; I've lost 10 pounds, but the progress is so much more than what 10 pounds
would seem to represent.
Diet
I'm so thankful I changed my diet when I did. At this point, I'm fine-tuning
based on blood sugar measurements. Example: beans and rice are not my friends.
I love them dearly at dinner, but they put me at or slightly over my limit (130
mg/dL). I'm still not eating or drinking anything after dinner, though I am
considering maybe resuming evening coffee: My blood sugar elevates only about 25
mg/dL 20 minutes into coffee with 2% milk and a packet of Sweet-and-Low.
Exercise
I'm keeping up both cycling and swimming. My confidence on the bike continues
to increase. I'm riding the same route, but now I'm monitoring what gear I'm in —
which means looking down at which rear cog the chain is on. I couldn't do that a
couple of weeks ago. In the pool, I'm doing my exercises — yesterday I did it for
10 minutes — but kiddo and I are also playing badminton. It moves that exercise
ring (on my Apple Watch), believe me.
Conclusion
Two weeks ago, I wrote:
My initial milestone, which is to reach the weight of 240 lbs. by July 1st, is part of
the larger goal of getting down to wearing size XL shirts by the close of summer (Honestly,
I don't know how close I am at this point because I got rid of probably all of my XL stuff
sometime in 2019) and staying at XL through the colder months into next spring. It may be
ambitious, but if I can remain on my current trajectory diet-wise, I shouldn't have any
problem (after all, who gets fat off of chicken and lettuce?).
Well, I was off on that a bit. Six weeks in, I'm wearing those XL shirts, and I'm halfway
to my original weight goal. My family and I can see improvements — Laurel points out that
my "dunlop" is gone; I noticed in a recent photo that my head and neck are smaller. Most
of the improvements I see are small things, like the guitar now hanging flat against my
body. My 42" waist jeans are awaiting transfer to the garage or the attic; I bought
a pair of 38" jeans a pair of 36"'s (I haven't tried either on yet). I'm ready to buy a
leather punch to put a new hole in a belt I just bought maybe two months ago. Last night
I noticed something was different while I was playing my guitar — I realized I couldn't
see the fretboard anymore, because the instrument isn't resting on my belly while I play.
All of these are fantastic, and excite me for the potential of the next six weeks.
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