{My Journey

Being a little crazy never hurts

I lost a little over 100 pounds Hope- to convince you that you can do

this, and to give you some idea of what it will take

Why am I here?

Slowly gaining weight over the years

More and more problems related to my weight and condition

Where did I start?

My Father (and his brother) died of heart attacks before age 45

I kept having joint pain and injuries Low energy Sleep Apnea- Sleep study, CPAP machine Pre-Diabetic – Diagnosed as diabetic shortly

after I started working on my fitness High Blood Pressure – 195/105 typical– last

resort medicine x 3, maximum dose available for each, to try to control it

Acid Reflux Disease – nexium daily Prescription co-pays $100/month

My Medical History Before this change

I don’t believe in “Diets” – we know what’s healthy, and it isn’t some magic formula- eating no carbs, all carbs, only twinkies, etc.

At least some of the problem is how much we eat, and some of it is what we eat

We also know that diet alone isn’t the healthiest way to lose weight and improve health- exercise improves body function

The answer- eat a little less, eat better quality food, exercise more, and listen to my body

Try some things that are challenging- even if people tell me I’m crazy

My basic viewpoint

Try to eat more modest portions Try to avoid ordering the food that I

know is a really bad choice Start to exercise, knowing my body will

have to adapt to that Find out what I really can achieve,

instead of saying “I couldn’t possibly do that”

Knowing there will be some work to do this

What did I do to change things?

Health- whatever else I might try to tell myself, I know that really it’s shortening my life and making the life I have more difficult, so…

Getting my life back- a lot of what I enjoy in life was much harder than it had to be

For my family- to be able to be with them day-to-day and long term

To stop fooling myself saying, “It’s not a problem”. Really, I knew better

Why make this change?

Activity classes 4 days per week Indoor Cycling Yoga – surprise, I liked it Weight training Tai Chi

Activities on my own Interested in running Volleyball / Softball teams at church Walking

Personal training

What activities?

Diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetic after I began working on this

Added Metformin as a medication to the list

After diagnosis, I was able to recognize that I had really been in that place for a while- I started to recognize what it felt like to have my blood sugar out of control

Brought under control almost immediately

Type 2 diabetes

I wanted real information about my physical health on an ongoing basis

BodyMedia Fit device helped with day-to-day diet and activity tracking

BodPod body fat testing showed me where I stood- starting above 40% body fat

How bad is it, really?

Goals – to focus my efforts Tools – to help me understand where I

stood moment to moment Adjusting my eating to eat in a more

healthy way Exercise – to improve strength and

conditioning, improve all systems in my body

What was essential to making this work?

Goals were essential to me Running – Turkey Trot, 5K, half-

marathon, Biking – Triathlon, RAGBRAI Eating- improve my nutrition by eating

the right mix of carbs, fat, protein (approx 50/25/25)

Enough fiber, vitamins, etc. in my food Tools and tracking of real information

was important

Goals

I’m a computer geek, so I found tech tools to be helpful

Food Logging tools- Spark People, fitday, livestrong.com

Nike + BodyMedia Fit Device

Essential for me, but $280 or so Food Scale and Nutrition labels

Tools

My Goal- eliminate the things that you know are just bad for you, and increase the ones that you know are good for you

- less “packaged” or “fake” food, more fresh food

Get the right nutrition balance – not too high fat, enough fiber, not too much saturated fat,e tc.

Don’t be afraid to take some food home or leave it on the plate

Eat the healthy things you love

Eating

At first, just trying to get used to making sure I did some active exercise each day

Later- setting goals and training towards them

A trainer can help a lot in disciplining your workouts towards a goal

Try different activities, and again- Find the ones you love

Celebrate achieving goals and get support fro, those around you

Exercise

BodyMedia Fit device helps me track- 90 minutes of moderate activity 20 minutes of vigorous activity 7500 steps 3670 calorie burn

Turkey trot with 10-minute miles 5K with 9-minute miles Do more activities with my wife/kids Half-Marathon with sub-11 minute miles Bike across Iowa – Almost 500 miles

Was able to hit all of these, with training

Exercise goals

Down to 14% body fat Down to 2 remaining prescription medicines

Off of both of these for 6 weeks, and my blood pressure and glucose stayed in control

Staying on these for their long-term benefits against diabetic complications

Co-pays down to $10/month Enjoying sports (running, volleyball, softball)

much more OK, especially the unassisted double-play last

season, I admit it Turkey trot this year with 9-minute mile pace

Where do things stand now?

Listen to your body to find where you really are Get help from the resources around you, to find

out how to manage this yourself- trainers, dietician, people who understand your experience

Challenge yourself- sometimes you need to really reach for something. It’s not a problem to miss the goal, but it is a problem if you don’t even try

Find the things you love in all of this- you are changing your life, not torturing yourself

Make a million tiny decisions to do some of this a little better- but you only have to make one of those decisions at a time, no matter how small

How do you do this?

I’ve blogged intermittently about this trip, and have just started posting again

http://beardonastick.blogspot.com I’m a busy guy, so I may be a little slow

at responding at times, but- I’m glad to help, offer advice from my experience, or just talk about the struggle you’re having right now. Feel free to email me- in the global address book

Some other info from me

Do some work and see what you can do- don’t listen to the “You’re crazy” responses

Listen to your body Stop accepting the situation as hopeless-

you can change it if you decide its important enough

Participate, and commit to it- show up whenever you can

Track your progress- don’t let your estimates fool you

Good Luck!

Summary