Alfonso D.
D-Day
Weight 301 BMI 43.5
Fasting Blood Sugar 156
BP 158/102 HR 100
So I finally caved in. I’d been hoping to save enough money for the Lap-Band, but I did my taxes and it turns out I owe the IRS a big chunk of change. That, plus the house that Silvia has her heart set on buying this year means it’s going to be a while before I can have the procedure, and I don’t think I can wait.
I’ve been working for Synchrony Health / Center for Weight Management of Oak Brook for almost six months and I kept getting asked if I had the Lap-Band or was on medical weight management. It was kind of embarrassing, which with my personality made me more defiant and resistant to the idea.
Yeah, like most of us I’ve dieted before and lost weight lots of times, then gained it back with interest.
At 14 I lost 40 pounds in a few months on the typhoid fever diet, from 185 to 145 (not recommended). That’s when I first started working out regularly.
By 17 I gained it all back, even with the exercise.
By 20 I was a full 335 pounds.
At 21 I graduated college in winter, and not having anything to do until the fall (med school), I went on an insane diet and exercise plan:
- 700 calories per day (two Slim-Fast shakes and a Healthy Choice dinner)
- 11 hours of exercise per day, 4 times a week (strength and aerobic), alternating with
- 7 hours of exercise the other days, 3 times per week.
- I lost 148 pounds (335 to 187) in 19 weeks (7.8 pounds per week)
One year later I gained it all back.
At 31 I tried Atkins and lost 60 pounds (don’t listen to all the baloney, Atkins works – I ate thousands of calories of meat each day and lost weight; the problem is, I got sand in my gallbladder and got sick of eating all that fat).
One year later I gained it all back.
At 32 I tried Chicago’s most advertised weight loss guru – I mean, doctor. What a goofus. It was nothing but a “pill mill.” I got to see him once. He talked for a couple of minutes about my weight history. Then his nurse drew my blood, and gave me 7 pills and a badly photocopied “diet plan” (what a joke: eat half an apple and a glass of skim milk for breakfast, 3 ounces of fish and a yogurt for lunch, blah blah blah). I came back the next week and was told I had diabetes. I was given a prescription for metformin and 7 diet pills, plus another badly photocopied joke. I went back there a few times, never got to see the doctor again, never had my questions answered nor my lifestyle and issues discussed. I gave up.
All those times, what I didn’t have was a support group. I was pretty much winging it on my own, even with Dr. Goofus Guru. Well, Dr. Ehtesham Ghani told us in Synchrony Health Academy about the National Institutes of Health finding that 70% of weight loss patients who participate in regular (monthly-bimonthly) maintenance programs are able to successfully keep the weight off even after 5 years. Meantime, 95% of those who don’t participate regain their weight in as little as one year. I guess I feel better being in such company.
The thing is, it didn’t used to be too bad. I was obese but active and strong. The only problems I had, which were humiliating but infrequent, were not being able to fit in an airline seat or walk through a turnstile. When I got married, though, my activity level went way down. Instead of biking 12 miles early each morning, I had a reason to stay in bed. Instead of walking downtown and visiting the bookstore, I had a family waiting for me at home, to talk, play, and sit and watch TV.
So anyway, things have gotten pretty bad:
- my knees hurt when I get up;
- my leg hurts once I’m standing;
- I get severe leg cramps at night;
- I’ve got peripheral neuropathy (numbness in my limbs);
- my diabetes is getting worse;
- my eyesight sometimes gets blurry;
- my blood pressure is bad;
- and I’m having more trouble in the boudoir.
Erectile dysfunction is a very common consequence of obesity, but so is male infertility. Years ago I was diagnosed with very low sperm count (5 million), and though it’s too late now to have children (and Silvia’s kids are wonderful!) I still feel a bit of a sting about that.
I’ve learned that all of these problems: diabetes, heart disease, ED, infertility, neuropathy, joint pain, etc., can begin to get better with as little as 10-15% weight loss. So even if I don’t become a swimsuit model, I can get better. For me to be a 25 BMI (highest “normal”), I’d have to go down to 178. I don’t think that’s going to happen. But if I can lose 12-18 pounds and keep them off, I might start feeling well.
Of course, the first several pounds is water loss, emptying my intestinal tract, and losing the glycogen reserves in my liver. I always figured the first week’s worth of weight loss was meaningless, but every pound after that is real fat being burned off.
Okay, so I’m starting Synchrony Health’s Medical Obesity Management (MOM) program. Dr. Ghani has had a lot of success with the Center for Weight Management (Hinsdale, which helped Oprah lose all that weight she brought out in a wheelbarrow, Naperville, Brookfield, Berwyn, and now Oak Brook). He tells me the average weight loss is 53 pounds in 12 weeks. That’s the average. On top of that, he’s got an excellent long-term success rate with the patients who stay on the maintenance program.
Fingers crossed, here goes nothing.
