Sunday, July 15, 2012

Education

It has been a while since my last post, time has flown by while staying busy at the gym.

I have come to the understanding that when talking to people about weight loss surgery, you can give them the information, answer their questions and hope that they do something before it is too late. This is a decision only they can make.

The reason I bring this up is I almost waited too long because of my diabetes. As most of you know by my earlier posts, my A1C test was 10.2 when I was diagnosed. My symptoms were numbness and tingling in my feet. After the weight loss and reversal of my diabetes, my total feeling in my feet returned. This DOES NOT happen for a lot of people. Sometimes the feeling never returns and the doctor said I was very close.

I urge anyone on the fence about this surgery to go and have their blood work done, that should be the eye opener that they will need to realize something has to be done.

I think it is great when people try to lose weight naturally and start exercising to get in better health. The problem is 99% of the people lose SOME weight but then gain most if not all of it back. While this is happening, you are getting older and your health is getting worse. Keep in mind, I am not talking about someone that needs to lose 30-or 40 lbs. If you are 50 or more pounds over weight, you need to realize what ever you have been doing IS NOT working. Your weight, age and height determines your body mass index ( BMI). If your BMI is 30 or higher, you are OBESE. Nine out of 10 people that I talk to that are OBESE do not see themselves as OBESE, I did not. The way we eat, sitting at a computer all day and lack of exercise is what got us in this mess, a pill, some exercise and trying to eat healthy is not going to fix this issue. The sleeve is a tool that provides the 4 oz restriction. Once you start losing weight, you WILL feel like exercising and that along with healthy eating, you WILL NOT gain weight back. The reason for this is if you can only eat 4 oz of food, your resting metabolism is enough to burn that few of calories of intake. What has kept me pushing forward after 14 months is human nature, we are results oriented.

Everyone that knows me will tell you that my ONLY regret was that I did not have this surgery years ago. I felt that I wasted so many years. The one thing I cannot do is bottle up how great I feel now compared to how I felt when I was obese. The energy level, the strength and most of all,  I am in the best health of my life.

Please, get your blood panel done, it is not just your blood sugar but things like cholesterol, heart disease and ALL organ functions are hurt by obesity.