So, I decided to go through another Wellness Screening at work in March 2012 to see how I was looking. Here are the results:
- Blood Sugar: 115
- Cholesterol: 121
- HDL: 25
- LDL: 81
- Triglycerides: 75
- Blood Pressure: 120/78
- Body Fat Percentage: 22.7
- BMI: 30.5
- Weight: 239 lb.
These were great results! My triglycerides alone were cause for major celebration, but my Blood Pressure actually looked normal! I was thrilled with the extra weight loss, too. Losing 33 lb. in a few months was not shabby at all!
However, I couldn’t help constantly feeling tired. I knew the exercise was definitely adding more “effort” to my day, but isn’t that supposed to give you more energy? Shouldn’t all of these extra veggies and carbs give me the energy I need to be bouncing off the walls? I decided to abandon the vegan diet and added animal meats back into my diet. I didn’t go too crazy, added some fresh fish and other lean meats, which provided enough of a change for me to notice. I didn’t do any research into “why” at the time, but I just knew it was working for me, so I kept on.
I also decided to add weight lifting into my routine. The one thing I remembered from my first bout of weight loss in 2007-2008 was extra, loose skin. Granted, not a lot of loose skin, but enough to notice. I had bought a DVD set called ChaLEAN Extreme in 2008 to try and reverse it along with some very fancy select-a-weight dumbbells. While it didn’t really reverse much of the loose skin, it at least helped me gain muscle and some definition. That alone helped tighten some areas, just not all of, especially around my midsection.
A note about the weights: These are still in great shape today, 5 years later. But, these were totally an impulse buy, and I wouldn’t recommend buying these unless you really have the money to do so. I made a bad choice to buy these when I was still in college while I
should have been saving money. A simple look on Craigslist probably would have been fine for me to find good enough weights to use…plus, it technically took me a few years to pay those off.
As I moved into August 2012, I scheduled a physical with a new primary care physician (which I don’t think enough of us young folks have) and he was happy with my results – although wanted to see my HDL increase still. I didn’t quite understand why that one number worried him so much, but he said more exercise and quitting smoking would probably help, otherwise he’d have to put me on some sort of medication. I couldn’t stand the idea of being on a prescribed medicine and only 26, so I figured I could just exercise more.
I had every intention of chugging along with weight loss, but then I took a few steps back.
Smiling While Eating 
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