My biannual blood test results for May 13, 2021 are in, and they continue to be great. I also had an echocardiogram and X-rays taken, and the doctor said they were all normal. And I’m at the lowest weight of my adult life – down 133 lb to 151 lb.
My blood sugar remains normal, without medication. It even dropped some more. My cholesterol is fantastic, and blood pressure is great. While I continue to (very very very slowly) lose weight the doctor strongly emphasized that I shouldn’t lose more weight, should add more calories, and concentrate on physical training. He said I do not have any more worries about weight or diabetes and sort of lectured me a bit on that.
Some nurses who saw me were raving about how good I looked (they remember me from before), and one of them who is sort of chubby wanted details of what I eat, so I introduced her to the Japanese version of Dr. Greger’s, “How Not To Die” on Amazon.
The rest of this post are details, if people are interested in numbers, and some nice news at the end.
What I eat and don’t eat
Just to “sum up” I follow WFPB (whole food plant based) eating: mostly vegan, no oil, very limited nuts, and limited sugar and salt. No intermittent fasting, no keto, lots of carbs including potatoes and fruits. I stick to low calorie density foods to help with weight loss. For example potatoes are surprisingly low calorie and bread is very high calorie. I guess going forward I will have some higher calorie density foods like more rice maybe? Or maybe some more fruits. I’ll see.
For more details on the specific things I eat and the people in the field I follow take a look at my post from November, 2019: November 28, 2019 – quarterly test results | Doug Reports
Basically I eat lots of veggies, including starches, and have fruit every day. In other words, I eat lots of carbs. Carbs do not impact negatively on blood sugar or weight.
Logging with MyFitnessPal And Current Weight
I log my food and exercise calories in MyFitnessPal, and keep within 1550 net calories per day (food calories minus exercise calories). I recently upped that a bit, and I guess I’ll up it some more.
Today is my MyFitnessPal Streak Day 3,280. Daily logging in MFP has been a great sanity check and prevented me from having a complete rebound when I fell off the wagon in the past.
My current weight is down to 68.6 kg (151 lb). My total weight loss is 60.4 kg (133 lb).
This means I have lost 46.8% of my original weight, and am at a normal BMI of 22.7. I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been in my entire adult life.
Anyway, I will continue healthy eating and doing as much exercise as I can. I’ll continue eating this way for life. It’s healthy, and I enjoy what I eat. There is no feeling of deprivation at all. I’ll just try to add more muscles and not lose more weight.
More on the “E” Word
Exercise…
I have been taking my puppy, Pao, who will be one and a half years old this month, for walks to the park and along the river, so that helps. I’ve also added an extra morning walk for shopping because I have extra energy.
I finally did start doing some resistance training using my bullworker. I’d like to go swimming if it’s safe. I generally feel like I have more energy lately, and have been moving faster.
Blood test results
Here are the latest and previous results. Normal ranges are in parentheses.
Total cholesterol (120-219)
2021: May 13: 124
2020: Nov 19 – 123; Aug 20 – 108; May 21 – 124; Feb 20 – 120
2019: Nov 28 – 118; Aug 29 – 116; Jun 8 – 136; Mar 19 – 133
Holding steady in the low-but-normal range. Low is supposed to be heart healthy.
HDL good cholesterol (35-80)
2021: May 13: 50
2020: Nov 19 – 53;Aug 20 – 39; May 21 – 43; Feb 20 – 40
2019: Nov 28 – 46; Aug 29 – 40; Jun 8 – 34; Mar 19 – 38
Normal range.
LDL bad cholesterol (70-139)
2021: May 13: 47
2020: Nov 19 – 47; Aug 20 – 46; May 21 – 56; Feb 20 – 54
2019: Nov 28 – 55; Aug 29 – 56; Jun 8 – 73; Mar 19 – 72
This remains very low, and lower than normal range. But, again, that’s supposed to be great for your heart.
Triglycerides (30-150)
2021: May 13: 48
2020: Nov 19 – 56;Aug 20 – 69; May 21 – 93; Feb 20 – 107
2019: Nov 28 – 62; Aug 29 – 79; Jun 8 – 129; Mar 19 – 114
This went down even more – my lowest ever – but well within normal range.
Blood Sugar HbA1c (4.7-6.2)
2021: May 13: 5.4
2020: Nov 19 – 5.5; Aug 20 – 5.6; May 21 – 5.8; Feb 20 – 6.1
2019: Nov 28 – 5.9; Aug 29 – 6.1; Jun 8 – 5.5; Mar 19 – 5.9
2018: Dec 20 – 6.5; Sep – 8.2; June – 10.8
This dropped some more again. It has now been in the normal range since March, 2019 and I’ve been off blood sugar meds since November, 2019.
And my blood pressure was a great 109/55.
A note about honey
Yes, I know it’s not vegan. But as I said I’m “mostly” vegan. And so are most WFPB sources. For the past few months I had been eating a 50 g bag of hard candies that are 100% only honey. I felt it was keeping my mouth busy and making it easier to stick with my diet, and made dog walks more fun. They were really tasty. In the back of my mind, though, I wondered what it might be doing to my blood sugar. As you can see, it had no bad effect at all. My blood sugar even dropped some more.
Nevertheless, I felt the 200 calories a day were a waste. And, in fact, I was practically forcing myself to finish the bag in the evenings. So over a week ago I dropped them. I wondered if I had become addicted to them and how easy they would be to let go of and was surprised to find that I didn’t miss them one bit! Walks were just as enjoyable. And I had more of a calorie buffer that allowed me to eat some strawberries, have larger potato servings, or munch on some veggies as snacks. Lately I really love sliced raw eggplant sprinkled with nutritional yeast.
And, Finally the Nutritionist
The nutritionist was very pleased, and said… she believes… our work is done!
She feels I have everything under control.
We got misty eyed, and I thanked her for her support over the years, and we bowed at each other, and said goodbye.
I just want to tell everyone how important healthy eating is. Truly, if I can do it anyone can.
