Good health news

The scale dropped again today down to 252.1, a new low. I think I can safely say at this point that I have passed through the plateau and am on my way down again which is a great feeling. This morning I am going on my maintenance run in just a few minutes, a short 5K. I always looked at runners in amazement, when I would talk to people at work who said they run 3 or 5 miles on a daily basis I thought that was impossible and I thought they were crazy. Never in a million years could I have imagined that I would become a runner and do the same thing, yet here I am calling a 3.1 mile run a short maintenance run and training to run 13.1 miles and running in timed races. It is amazing how much of a transformation I have gon through.

As of today, I have lost 72 pounds. The equivalent of 9 gallons of fuel, or 12 gallons of water, or five 14.5 pound thanksgiving turkeys. Imagine that at the store, look at the frozen turkeys and the size of five of them. My life has definitely changed. The loss equals a 22.15% total body weight loss, almost 1/4 of my total body weight. When I started, my Body Mass Index (BMI) was at 43, today it is at 33. According to the BMI charts, 20-25 is normal, 25-30 is overweight, and 30+ is obese with 40+ being unofficially classified at morbidly obese. I am still in the Obese category and will not slip down into the overweight category until I loose another 25 pounds, but with the leg muscles and upper body muscles I have been building in working out, a BMI of 30 is a good number.

According to doctors, your risk for diabetes goes up exponentially from a BMI of 30. When you hit a BMI of 45 (about where I was) they say you have a 100% chance of developing diabetes if you stay there. I just had a conversation with a doctor yesterday who said that he would put my risk now at less than 15% if I maintain my lifestyle and workout habits. Also, your risk of heart attack goes up with weight as well. at 300+ pounds, the doctor said it was "more likely than not" that I would have experiences a heart attack within 5 to 10 years, possibly sooner. In my current condition and if I maintain a healthy lifestyle, he said that I my risk is not greater than average and that I might have saved myself from that too.

It is good to hear that I have really done good things for my life, perhaps even saved it from an early end. Scary to think about, but really good to know that I am on the right path.