|
In late February 2018, I went to the doctor like I do every six months. It was a quick physical that included blood work and an EKG. I got the same ole discussion about weight loss (this time with an emphasis on intermittent fasting) and I was sent on my way.
A day or so later, I got a message that my online health portal was updated with my blood results and my EKG. I always like to double check and make sure none of my numbers are too far outside of the average range, and as usual they were decent. Nothing was too out of whack.
I clicked on the EKG results and was shocked to see a full written report from a cardiologist. Apparently something was amiss. They called it left ventricle hypertrophy, but I’ve always heard it called an enlarged heart. Long story short, your heart is a muscle, and like all muscles when it’s worked a lot, it begins to harden. This is great for your biceps, not so much for the left side of your heart. A hard heart makes pumping blood more difficult and opens you up to a higher risk of heart disease and even heart attacks.
The doctor also mentioned that I needed to see a cardiologist immediately if I had any of the symptoms listed which included a flutter in my chest and an intense pain felt while exercising. What do ya know, I was two for two, and had simply written these symptoms off as part of being out of shape. Well, I guess that was accurate, but it was a little bit more serious than I had imagined.
I knew what was next; I make an appointment to see the cardiologist, I pay $100 for the specialist fee, I get subjected to a battery of tests, and once it’s all over and everyone got the money they wanted I’d be told to lose some weight and check back in six months. That’s the way healthcare in America works, and to be honest, I don’t have the wallet or the patience for that game.
Instead, I decided to take things into my own hands. The very next day, I began counting calories, something I’d planned on doing later in the summer. I used a TDEE calculator to find my daily Total Daily Energy Expenditure and tried to eat 300-500 less calories a day. It was hard to adjust the volume of food that I ate at first, but I hit the ground running pretty quickly and while the pounds didn’t just melt off me, I noticed the scale starting to budge pretty quickly on.
I began calorie counting on February 25th, 2018 and weighed in at 253.6 lbs. It was an embarrassing weight, since my usual ceiling for weight was 230 lbs, at least for most of my life. Nonetheless, it was someplace to start.
After a couple of months, I decided I wanted to get some exercise in, specifically something to help stabilize and strengthen my knees. I decided to buy a cheap aerobic step and decided to give the classic 90’s Reebook Step video a try. I loved the no non-sense approach to it, but my wind was just not there and to be honest, neither was my motivation. Just cutting calories took most of my willpower and that was okay. I had finally learned that you get thin in the kitchen, and fit at the gym. Right then my only goal was to get thin. So I put the exercising on the back burner.
My wife had begun Weight Watchers a month or so before I started counting calories, and had lost thirty pounds by April. It was almost embarrassing listening to everyone gush about her weight loss, while I stood idly by with my mediocre eleven pound loss, trying not to steal the spotlight she rightfully deserved. I didn’t tell many people about my calorie counting; I guess I didn’t want to have to face people after another failed attempt at losing weight. Of course, this time I was a little more motivated knowing that my ticker wasn’t functioning properly.
I wish I could say the next few months were full of all sorts of exciting events, tremendous weight loss, and mind blowing realizations, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was a grind. I woke up, tried to eat as little as possible while still enjoying myself, and then repeating the next day. I didn’t start rock climbing or traveling the world, and I didn’t lose ten pounds a week. In fact, some weeks I gained weight, or stayed even. But overall, I was averaging down and I began feeling it in my clothes. First I noticed my pants were too big. Then came my dress shirts, then t-shirts, and finally polos. I had to cut some length off my belt, and I was forced to start buying new clothes on a monthly basis. I started feeling better about myself, and people started noticing the weight loss after five months or so. It was the little comments that kept me going, and it was visiting r/LoseIt and the FatSecret Community that kept me focused on the days where pizza sounded like a cure to everything.
Now, it’s August 28th, 2018, and it’s been six months. Tomorrow I’ll step foot back into my primary care doctor’s office and I’ll have to face the music. Did my heart recover? Is it on the way to recovering? Those are my two biggest questions. I already know the thirty-eight pounds that I’ve lost is a lot but I also that I still got another thirty-five pounds or more to go.
This past week I’ve gotten more comments on my weight loss than any week prior. I think finally switching to an XL from XXL made the weight loss noticeable. Last week I went walking twice, and even attended my first ever yoga class, after ten years of practicing off and on at home. I’m somewhat excited about bringing some exercise into my routine, especially since I had a great friend whose keeping me motivated. I’m hoping this will help strengthen my heart and maybe even assist with my calorie deficit each day.
I’m feeling good, better than I have in years, but I can’t say that I’m not a little worried about tomorrow. I think my biggest fear is they will say my heart is still hardened and I’ll feel like my weight loss made no difference. I just gotta keep focusing on how good I feel, and how much more confidence I have, and how I’m actually getting out of the house some now.
Diet Calendar Entry for 28 August 2018:
|
1434 kcal
|
Fat: 60.40g | Prot: 110.06g | Carb: 127.46g.
Breakfast: Nabisco Belvita Cinnamon Brown Sugar Breakfast Biscuits. Lunch: Homemade-Style Spaghetti Sauce with Beef or Meat, Kroger Reduced Calorie Thin Spaghetti. Dinner: Carrots, Chicken Breast. Snacks/Other: Great Value Deluxe Mixed Nuts. more...
|
|