How to Lose Over 50 Pounds as a Food Blogger

No, this isn't what I really look like these days.  But if the title of this blog post didn't get your attention, I thought the picture might.  (Photo courtesy The World's Greatest Physiques)

One of the battles most food and restaurant bloggers must endure is the inevitable weight gain - especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle like I've had for so many years.  Being on the road and trying out new places to eat - and subsequently blog about - has been a fun little hobby of mine for the past 13+ years.  But as time went on and my age started to advance, my body doesn't process food like it did 30 years ago.  The next thing you know, you're standing on a scale and saying, "Holy shit!"  And it's not an unexpectedly pleasantly surprised "Holy shit!" like when you find $50 bucks in a coat pocket.

However, over the past six months I've taken it upon myself to somewhat change my lifestyle without sacrificing certain things that I really like.  And earlier this month, I hit a milestone of losing 50 pounds since July 1.  I still had another 25 pounds to go to achieve my goal of losing 75 pounds - and I'm on my way as I've passed 50 pounds and counting.  

Now, I'm not looking for congratulations or well-wishing sentiments, I just wanted to let you know that it can be done.  If you want to learn more about how I did it, read on.  If not, well, have a Happy New Year.  

OK, so what did you do?

It all started last June when I went in to get a check-up with my new doctor.  My previous doctor had retired almost two years ago, but I would see him out and around from time to time at the grocery store or at live music events.  I always liked him - after most of my check-ups he would say, "For the shape you're in, you're in great shape!"

Running into him earlier this year and having a quick chat about my health, he encouraged me to reach out to his replacement - a female doctor - to have her do a check-up on me.  I was a little apprehensive about seeing a lady doctor, but he spoke glowingly of her abilities as he personally hand-picked her to take over his part of the practice.

When I inquired with the doctor's office about getting in to see her, I was informed that she may - or may not - agree to take me on as a patient.  I had known the receptionist at the practice for a number of years and I asked just what did that mean.  She basically said, "She had her own patients at her old office and many of them followed her over here.  She took on some of your former doctor's patients, but not all."  Then she told me that I had to come in, fill out a form and a questionnaire before the new doctor would even consider taking me on as a patient.  

Filling out the form and the questionnaire brought me back to my days of searching for jobs just out of college.  I forgot how much of a pain in the ass it really was to try and be sincere and forthcoming for what turned out to be essay question-style answers for my prior health history.  However, it must have worked as I got a phone call from the office later in the day saying the doctor would agree to take me on as a patient.

After jumping through that hoop, I finally got in to see the doctor in early June of this year.  She was a very nice lady, outgoing and full of energy with a quick laugh and an easy-going demeanor.  I immediately liked her. She ordered tests for me - blood tests and a visit to the heart center for a stress test.  Oh boy...

I went and had blood drawn and the results came back a week later.  I was told that I needed to come into the office to discuss the findings.  I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and hyperglycemia.  My A1C was at 6.3 - the cut off for Type 2 diabetes is 6.1, so it wasn't that bad, but it was still bad.  And my blood sugar levels were at 141 - they say you're hyperglycemic at 130.  The nurse who was going over the results with me said that I had to start taking medication for the diabetes - Metformin.   I asked the nurse, "Well, how long will I have to take the diabetes medicine."  

She looked at me with a frank stare on her face and said, "Well, the rest of your life."  

Wait a minute...

I've read stories where people have basically dieted and exercised their way out of Type 2 diabetes.  Maybe I could do that!  But with my lifestyle, I knew some changes would have to occur.  

Now, for years, my wife has been praying for the moment would come when I would get "the wake-up call".  My idea of what she thought "the wake-up call" would be me on a gurney in an ambulance after a heart attack or stroke.  Actually, I don't think she thought of anything that extreme.  Well, then again...

She thought I would have "the wake-up call" 10 years ago when they did an angiogram on me to see if I had any blockage in my arteries after the results of a stress test (done before I had my hips replaced) showed that there may be something in there.  However, I came out of that with flying colors - so much so that it sort of pissed off my wife because I know she wanted to say to the doctor, "I've seen what this guy eats!"  She thought the angiogram would find a double cheeseburger in one artery, a chili dog in another, a stick of butter in another artery, so on and so on.  But the doctor said that there was minimal plaque build-up in my arteries - especially for my age - and I went out to celebrate the next day by having a cheeseburger.  

While I didn't quite take the diagnosis of having Type 2 diabetes as my personal wake-up call, I did have to think about what I needed to do to change my diet.  We looked at a number of different types of diets and the foods you could have and the foods you couldn't.  Bread was a no-no - that would be a killer for me.  Even more so, milk was out of the picture - an even bigger killer for me as I drank a LOT of milk.  (If I were home for three or four days, I could easily drink a gallon of milk.)  Oh, yeah, and those delicious Hy-Vee chocolate chip cookies and the cream-filled maple long johns from Kwik St★r had to go off my rotation.  There were other foods that were deemed bad, but with all the diets we looked at - about five or six total - there were some that contradicted the others as to what was good for you and what was bad for you.  

But there was one "good" food that was consistent on each and every one of the diets that we saw...

Kale.

Now, my wife is big on kale and she makes kale smoothies, kale burgers, kale chips, kale cookies, kale-fried steaks, kale pesto, kale stir fry, scrambled kale, kale sticks with a side of kale tartar.  OK, it's not like that, but she's been extolling the virtue of kale for a number of years.  

I've tried kale.  I don't like kale.  I like cheeseburgers.  

Actually, before I get into the diet, let's talk about the stress test.  

When I had my previous stress test before I had my hips replaced nearly a decade ago, they pumped me up with adrenaline to be able to achieve the target heart rate.  That was because they were worried that my hips were so bad that I wouldn't be able to walk on a treadmill.  This time - with good hips - they wanted me to walk on a treadmill.  

I don't walk much - at least I didn't up to that point.  The most walking I did around home was mowing the lawn, or walking out to the garage to pull a cold one out of the beer fridge.  Actually, that's probably the most walking I get when I'm at home is going to the garage and back - a distance of 20 feet one way.  So, I got to thinking - I didn't want to keel over on the treadmill when I'm doing the stress test.  I told my wife about a three days before the stress test that I needed to go find a hill to go up to make sure that I wouldn't do a face plant during my test.  

We have a hill not far from our house that is long with a gradual incline.  We took off on a beautiful summer morning starting the walk by going down a long sloping grade near our house, walking around the neighborhood on a flat plain, then starting up the long hill that had a pretty good gradient on the climb.  As I'm huffing and puffing, sucking in air and wheezing, my wife is walking along like she's out for a neighborly stroll.  "Oh, look at how they have the flowers up by their house," she said pointing to a house along the route.  Or, it was, "Oh, what a great idea for putting hosta plants around that tree!"  Finally, I had to tell her that I was out for a walk and not sight-seeing around the neighborhood.  We can drive around and do that.  

Well, I made it - both days that we walked that hill.  I was confident that I wouldn't die on the treadmill.  I went in for the test at the heart center, my targeted heart rate was 134 beats a minute.  I got up to 136 beats a minute before they said I could stop.  My cool down period went great.  The two people who administered the test were very complimentary of the preliminary results and said that by their determination I passed with flying colors.

However, I got a call from doctor's office - from the same nurse who told me that I would be Type 2 diabetic for the rest of my life - and she told me that I had been diagnosed with having peripheral arterial disease.  Well, what's that?  It's a narrowing of the arteries, especially in the legs, probably from not enough exercise.  And because of that, I had to go see a cardiologist.  

I didn't have a regular cardiologist, so they made an appointment for me with one.  He was a young guy of Eastern Indian descent, a very nice and personable guy who, I deemed, knew his stuff.  He was looking over the chart on his computer and he said, "I see that you cut off your stress test after 4 minutes and 57 seconds.  Couldn't you go any longer?"  I told him, no, that I had achieved - and actually passed - my target heart rate.  He said in a somewhat surprised manner, "Oh! OK..."   And went back to looking at the chart.  He said my blood pressure was high, but other than that, he really didn't see why I was in there.  I told him, "Well, I was told that I have peripheral arterial disease."  

He said, "Everyone over the age of 50 has some sort of peripheral artery disease."  He just sort of brushed off my doctor's findings from the stress test.  He prescribed some blood pressure medication and that was pretty much about that.  

Finding the right diet proved to be somewhat tricky.

The diet aspect of things was one of those where there is no right answer with all the diets available.  I started out trying the Keto diet - an account of mine had lost over 75 pounds on the Keto diet.  But our neighbor lady - who is big into supplements - was horrified to learn that I was on that diet.  "Oh, that's horrible for your body," she exclaimed as were chatting over the fence in early July.  I had already lost about 10 pounds on that.  

But I was feeling rather funky on the Keto diet.  It was burning up the fat and carbs, but my body was feeling strange.  After seeing a segment on diets on The Today Show not long after that, I adopted a modified Keto diet that allowed me to add small amounts of carbs to the diet.  I felt much better after doing that.  But the key was maintaining a much lower consumption of food.  Watching the food intake made a huge difference.  

I read about another diet this past summer that had been adopted by a number of professional athletes - the OMAD diet.  OMAD stands for One Meal a Day and it basically says that if you eat all and anything you want once a day, it will help you lose weight.  This extreme fasting has its proponents and detractors, but I started to do it for a couple three weeks.  And it worked for me.  But getting to the point where having the one meal a day was sort of tricky.  

Prior to going on the OMAD diet, I felt I needed to have three square meals a day on the road - especially if my company was going to pay for it.  Now, my wife is also a subscriber of three squares a day and is also big on a variety offering of meats and vegetables or starches for evening meals.  Once I started in on the diet, however, I found that I could easily cut one meal out of the mix during the day.  I had to convince my wife that if I wasn't hungry, don't force me to eat.  "I don't care if you're not hungry," she would say, channeling her grandmother.  "You still need to eat something."  Well, no, not really.  Once she realized that I couldn't be badgered into eating if I wasn't hungry, she pretty much left me alone on that point.  And it wasn't long before I was down to having one large meal a day.  And I was losing weight.  

But exercise was also a big part of the puzzle.  

We have a number of great places to walk along the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois.  My wife and I started to walk three or four times a week, up to two miles at a time.  I would take breaks during the course of the day in the office and go out for long, circuitous walks around our neighborhood.  I felt stronger in the legs and the shortness in breath that I experienced early on in the process was slowly going away.  

By the end of August, I was down 30 pounds.  When I went back in for a 3 month blood test and subsequent follow-up with my doctor, my A1C had dropped to 5.7 - still not where she wanted me to be as it was just outside of the 4.5 to 5.6 A1C levels for Type 2 diabetes.  But my blood sugar was also down - 108.  She wanted me to be down between 70 and 90 for blood sugar levels.   (Spoiler alert - I got there.)  And I had dropped 35 pounds since my visit in June.  She said, "Whatever you're doing, keep it up!"  

Now, let me tell you another story that is sort of a ridiculous sideline to what I was going through with being diagnosed as being a Type 2 diabetic...

Federal guidelines for minimum healthy blood pressure readings, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, even obesity charts have dropped over the past couple three years.   Even if I were to lose 75 pounds, at my height and subsequent weight I would still be considered as obese by the Federal Government.  My friend, a pharmacist, told me that they recently dropped what are deemed the minimum levels of healthy blood sugar in your system from something like 120 to 90.  When I was told that I had Type 2 diabetes, I was told that I had to go into diabetic protocols that included having to go to a diabetic health coach, then have a separate meeting with a nutritionist.  

When a lady with the diabetes clinic that is connected with my doctor's practice called to set up appointments for me in June, I was told that because of the sudden number of people diagnosed as being Type 2 diabetic had swelled recently.  And it had something to do with the new government guidelines.  The lady told me that it would be late August before I would be able to see the health coach - over two months away!  And it would be sometime in mid-September before I could get in and see a nutritionist!  

As I lost weight in July and August, by the time I had to go in and see the health coach, I was down 30 pounds.  And I knew what was going to happen - I was going to get yelled at that I was a no-good so-and-so for letting my health deteriorate over the years and that I was going straight to hell for being a Type 2 diabetic.  Well, maybe not like that, but I could see - and feel - that I was on my way to righting the ship, health-wise.  

The day to go see the diabetes health coach came up and I reluctantly went over to the office after waffling back and forth about even going in the first place.  I still wasn't certain I was even going in when I pulled into the parking lot.  Sucking it up and heading in, I followed a somewhat attractive 30-something lady into the office thinking that she was probably a drug rep or something like that.  Nope, she was there to see the health coach, as well.  I guess that diabetes affects the in-shape as well as the out-of-shape.  

I had to give my drivers license and my insurance card to the receptionist who, in turn, gave me a three page questionnaire that I needed to fill out before I saw the health coach.  It was filled with questions like, "Who makes the menu decisions at your home?"  Or, "Who does the grocery shopping in your family?"  I could easily see where this was going after about 8 or 9 questions - and that didn't even encompass all the questions on the first page!  I got to the second page, read a couple more questions and those two little words popped up in my head - F*** it.  I thought to my myself, "There is NO f-ing WAY that I am going to go through with this."  I went back up to the receptionist desk, placed the clipboard with the questionnaire on the counter and said, "Nope, I'm not gonna do this.  I'll take my license and insurance card, please."  

She sort of feebly said, "Ooooh-kay, then" and handed me my cards.  I left, completely fuming over the whole ordeal.  

Later in the day, a friend of mine - who had dieted HIMSELF out of Type 2 diabetes three or four years ago - came over to the house and I told him of what I had been through.  He was standing there with a big grin on his face as I was recounting the story of blowing off the diabetes health coach earlier in the day and how I was definitely not going to see the nutritionist in a couple weeks.  

He said, "Man, I hear you.  You made the right call."  He said that the diabetes health coach basically lectured him about critical lifestyle changes making him feel like he had been called to the principal's office.  And he said that he and his wife had both gone to the nutritionist and he said that wasn't quite the waste of time seeing the diabetic health coach was, but it was information that he and his wife knew about the type of diet he needed to be on to help with his diabetes.  I viewed this little part of the whole story as nothing but an insurance money grab by a cadre of health professionals and was completely unnecessary.  At least, for me.  Others, it may have been very helpful.  But I knew I was on the right track by doing what I was doing. 

I suddenly realized that my body was getting smaller and I was slimming out of most of my clothes.  

At my weight before I started on the diet, dropping 35 pounds was not as noticeable because I was so big to begin with.  I made a point not to discuss how much weight I had lost in passing conversation with people other than family and close friends as I wanted to see if some people noticed.  Some people did - especially European colleagues who saw me at a trade show in San Diego in early September.  But many people did not.  However, once I got toward the 50 pounds down milestone, a lot more people began to notice.

With the weight loss brings a whole new set of problems - suddenly I have a closet full of clothes that are too big on me.  My old jeans looked like clown pants because I had basically dropped 3 sizes.  After wearing some way-too-big black jeans at the trade show in September, I had to go out and buy new casual dress pants at Duluth Trading so I'd have some something to wear for semi-dress up functions.  I kept taking a couple of my belts to the shoe repair shop so he could put more holes in them as I kept losing inches around my waist.  After getting down to the 9th notch with the end of the belts flopping about as they were clearly too long for me, I decided to go out and get new belts.  My wife talked me into getting one size of belt - I thought I needed a smaller size.  I'm now down to the last notch on those belts I bought two months ago.  

Not only have I dropped a significant amount of size around my waist, I've also found that my fingers have gotten more skinny.  So much so that I can't wear my wedding band any longer.  Well, I can, but it keeps falling off.  After it slipped off in a restaurant in late November - and I had to climb under a table to retrieve it - my wife told me to take it off and keep it off until I hit my target weight and then we'll have it re-sized.  It's currently sitting in her jewelry box patiently waiting to be worn again at some point.  

Shirts that I had grown out of years ago or were bought for me that were too small suddenly fit.  And even some of those are now too big on me.  My wife bought me a couple of UNTUCKit dress shirts for Christmas last year.  They were little too tight on me, but still wearable.  Now, they're really too big on me.  And that's a shame because I love the shirts.  (As an aside - she got me four more UNTUCKit shirts for Christmas this year in a smaller size.  Once again, they're a little tight on me, but they're a good incentive for me to continue to lose more weight.)  

I had bought a number of polo shirts and some pullover V-neck sweaters earlier this year that were on sale at JC Penney.  They were all a little tight - especially around the middle.  The sweaters fit almost perfectly today and I'm worried that come Spring the polo shirts will be hanging on me.  

I finally had to go and buy a couple pair of jeans earlier this month.  I'm not kidding you - one pair is already too big on me.  The other pair - made out of a different type of denim material - fit a little snug, but are still wearable.  The great thing about all this - I'm no longer buying from the Big & Tall section at Penney's.  Off the rack is so much easier to find stuff to wear.  And my long range goal in life is to never have to walk into a DXL ever again.

A dealer of mine gave me one of his company polo shirts to wear about 8 years ago.  I was really never able to wear it.  That is, until I tried it on this past August.  Good friends of ours got me a great Hawaiian shirt about 6 years ago.  It's always been way too small.  Today, I can button all the buttons, but it's still a little tight around the waist.  Once I can fully fit in that shirt, I'll be more than happy.

I have a dealer in Springfield, MO who dropped over 100 pounds about 10 years ago.  He noticed that I had lost weight when I saw him in October - I was down about 40 pounds at that point - and he asked what my goal was.  I told him that I wanted to get to 75 down and possibly see if I can drop even more from there.  His advice to me was, "Once you hit your target weight, wait six months before you go out and replenish your wardrobe."  He said that too many people hit their target weight and then gain much of it back.  

But I think I can maintain the weight I will ultimately lose.  I've been at the same weight - plus or minus five pounds - for about the previous six years before I started to lose all this weight.  

I continue to go in the right direction.

I just went in for a three month blood test a couple weeks ago and got the results from my doctor.  I have basically dieted and exercised myself out of being a Type 2 diabetic.  My A1C was at 5.4 - within the range of what they want to see (readings of 4.5 to 5.6).  My blood sugar - that day, for whatever reason - was at 98, but I tested myself before I went in and I was at 79.  I've been consistently under 90 for the past few weeks with occasional spikes just over 100, but those don't last.  My doctor took me off Metformin, but I'm continuing on the blood pressure medication as that's still a little high.  She said that from the time I first came in last June to earlier this month, her scale had me down 56 pounds.  I'll take that.  

When I recounted to my doctor that her nurse told me that I would have to be on Metformin for the rest of my life, she said, "That's because 99% of the people who come in here and get diagnosed with diabetes will just go home and not do anything about it.  We're kind of programmed to tell the vast majority of our patients that they'll need medication for life.   You are a one-percenter, and a one-percenter in a good way!"  

People ask me, "Do you feel better?"  Well, I feel different.  I feel better about myself.  I'm not so hesitant on having my picture taken and I will look at myself in the mirror more than I did.  I notice that I can get out of chairs more easily.  I can actually bend over and tie my shoes or pick up a good luck heads-up penny from the ground.  My joints - especially my knees - don't hurt as much.  And when I stand on the scale these days, I find myself exclaiming, "Holy shit!" in a pleasantly surprised kind of way as I've not seen numbers that low on there in a number of years.  

But one thing I've really noticed - I get cold much more easily.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the thermostat over the past few weeks and wondered if my wife had turned down the temperature.  Nope - it's sitting at 70 degrees, just like always.  I'm usually warm when I sleep - I like my bedroom cool at night - but I've been putting an extra blanket over me.  My wife says it's because I don't have as much insulation as I did.  She's probably right.   

A couple weeks ago, I had to replenish the salt in our water softener.  I picked up four-50 pound bags from Costco and as I was lugging one of the bags down the stairs to our basement, I thought out loud, "Wow!  This is about how much weight I've dropped!"  It was certainly an eye-opening realization for me.  

The weight is coming off slower as the colder weather has come on and I haven't been out walking as much as I had earlier in the year.  But we've dusted off the elliptical machine and I've started to use that on a limited basis trying to get up to speed again.  I have no doubt that I'll lose the 75 pounds I want to lose and I'll re-evaluate if I'd like to lose more once I get there.  

Oh!  The one sacrifice that I didn't make in my diet?  

Beer.  The hell of all this is - had I quit drinking beer, I'd probably be damn close to 75 pounds down by now.  I mean, I still have an occasional cheeseburger or share a small pizza with my wife every once in a while, but beer has remained a constant in my life over the past six months.  

But, I figure the way I'm going, 75 pounds down can wait a little while longer.  

Comments

[Kylie]

This is awesome. Loved this update and congrats. Thank you for sharing!
I lost almost 100 pounds doing lazy keto. It’s the only way I’ve found to
keep my appetite in check. Can’t stress enough the importance in finding what
works for you and consistency. Love your success!

[Robert]

Classic line. I've tried kale, I don't like kale, I like cheeseburgers.

Who doesn't?

[Jennifer]

Happy new year to you two! Thanks for sharing your story. I agree, kale is kind of gross.

[Jerry Bailey]

Modern medicine is nothing but a back scratching racket between doctors fostered by the insurance industry.

[L.D.]

After the loss of my husband and the death of a grandchild a little over a year later, I gained a significant amount of weight and fell into a deep depression. Your story is similar to mine. I went to see health professionals for both my mental and physical being. It turned out that I had Type 2 diabetes, too. And I did go through the health coach and nutritionist. Like you, I lost enough weight where I'm no longer diabetic, I feel better about myself, I don't consider myself depressed any longer, and life seems to be going great again. Happy New Year to you and all!!!

[Charley S.]

Great sense of humor regarding a life changing situation. Loved the part about your wife thinking they would find cheeseburgers in your arteries. And I agree. Most of today's medicine is a scam involved in trying to pry more money from your wallet. Just wait until you hit Medicare age. They bounce you around like a pingpong ball.