Agnes Z's Journal, 09 September 2023

Yay for you! Love iprovements in bloodwork results. Mine just came back too. Can't seem to raise my HDL cholesterol levels for love nor money though. All other numbers were beautiful though. Yup, this journey is worth it! 

Pretty common to have to reduce your thyroid meds with weight loss. I had to as well. annis-- I wouldn't worry too much about raising your HDL. A lot of what I'm reading is that HDL is a marker of CV health, but not causative. When they tested meds that raised HDL, they didn't result in better health outcomes. If you're lowering your LDL, that's the important part 

Yup, so worth it, Ann! I’m happy with these numbers but I’m making more dietary changes to try to lower the LDL. As writingwyo said, that’s important. (Heart disease in my family history, too). I noticed that according to FatSecret, the milk I pour into my coffee is one of the biggest sources of saturated fat—I would have never guessed it! Switching to nonfat milk today. 

Sounds good!! 

30 pounds in 3 months is quite a loss! I do put 2 tablespoons of half and half in my coffee but drink fat free milk. Your LDL is about what mine was in my last lab work results. I've started eating oatmeal 

Congrats on all! 

Great wins! Congrats!!! 

Bravo 🎉💪 

Incredible!! Congratulations!!!! 

Great job!!!!  

Great Inspiration🏆 You’re doing an amazing job at this!!! 

I'm still reeling over your trigs drop -- nothing short of amazing. Keep up the great work; by the time you hit 150 lbs., I'm sure the LDL will drop below 100. 

Thank you so much everyone for the support and comments! I keep going over the results in disbelief—I’ve struggled so long without much success. In May, I felt sick and was terrified I was headed for diabetes and heart disease (my father died in his 30’s from a massive heart attack). I was going to start statins which the doctor had been directing me to take for several years now. My BMI was over 40 (I’m only 5’1”), I had sleep apnea, fatigue, etc. Sharing these results here helps to make this victory a bit more real. But I should add it was not just due to the caloric deficit and weight loss itself, but exercise and dietary changes. I doubled the amount of fiber in my diet, halved the saturated fat, eliminated almost all refined flours and sugar. My family got on board—that’s a biggie. They go along with all the beans in mom’s cooking now😀 

Very good! It just goes to show you can change your direction to a better way of life! 👍👍 

Wow! That’s Amazing! Good work ❤️ I recently got blood work done to check, my insulin was 13.9, almost hit pre diabetes at 5.2, and my glucose was a shocking 115 while fasting 😵‍💫 I got put on thyroid medicine I do think that’s helping a lot & she suggested semaglutide for insulin resistance & weight loss. I have been on my weight loss journey for 8 months with hardly any progress I was about to give up completely. But I’ll keep pushing now since I found out my body was working against me all this time 

So glad your family is on board! That can be a real barrier for a lot of folks. I'm eternally grateful my husband has gone along with our changes here. In the long run, it benefits them and makes them healthier, too! Awesome! 

Babyfacetori, don’t give up and keep pushing! 5.2 in HBA1C is ok, and you can work on getting the other numbers down. You’re not doomed to diabetes! Keep trying with the various changes you can make in food and your activity level. Not all the changes will be keepers—they even might be mistakes—but will be important lessons anyway. As long as you keep track, evaluate, make changes, you’ll get better at it. For example, I reduced meat a lot last year because my total cholesterol was so high (over 250), and this spring my cholesterol was much lower but I didn’t feel good and I kept overeating and gaining weight. I was not yet educated about the role of protein in the diet. This time, I am very mindful of protein and that helped a lot. It’s a step-by-step, trial and error kind of process. The thyroid is so important in this—so good you’re getting it under control. It sounds like you are unsure about the weight loss meds. That’s a whole minefield of individual risk and chance, cost, insurance, etc., so I can’t give you any advice, but I can tell you about my experience. I was so desperate in June for any kind of help that I went to a medical weight loss clinic in my area and asked for semaglutide. I didn’t get it. My insurance would only cover it—maybe—after I first tried an older (and cheaper, duh) weight loss medication and had adverse effects to it. Well, that older drug works like a charm for me, for now. But it is risky (such as heart risk, scary for me) and I’m being monitored monthly on it. Semaglutide also has risks. I hope you get the best option figured out with your doctor. It may be foregoing weight loss meds altogether but whatever happens there, keep moving forward. Get good (ideally professional) advice on eating and exercise, or educate yourself from reliable, scientific, evidence-based sources. Sorry, this is such a long response. You are in a spot, it sounds, where I was not too long ago, and I just really want you to know you CAN get healthier. 

Yes, writingwyo, that really is the key! My kids are old enough (17, 20) to understand that what I’m doing is hard. I’m proud of them. My husband is losing weight, too. The biggest supportive thing he did was that he hit a pause on his pie and cookie baking habits😀 And the kids haven’t complained yet! At least not to me.. 

Great job Agnes ! Would you mind sharing the name of the weight loss drug you are on? 

Honeebuns, I don’t mind, but I want to make sure that people understand I’m not endorsing it or recommending it in any way. It’s phentermine, the generic version. It is FDA-approved for weight loss and a strictly controlled substance prescribed for only up to 3 months. It’s a stimulant-type of appetite suppressant that acts on the central nervous system. It was prescribed by a doctor in a medical weight loss clinic and my health is being monitored closely there. It’s supposed to be one of the more widely prescribed weight loss meds around, especially before the arrival of semaglutide, but one almost never hears about it—or at least I never did.