My Journey

I call this my journey.

Since June 1st, 2017 I have made a changeover in what I eat. I have gone to a Paleo diet, while my wife (Ava) went more Keto, which is similar to Paleo. Well since that time I have lost weight. Today, I reached a milestone my progress. I have lost 50 lbs. I have not told anyone at work, except four people and a few at church knew this as well, so I am letting the cat out of the bag. I will not be updating every day, but as I reach a goal.

Today, I have passed the 75 pounds lost, which I am not surprised that this 25 pounds since the last time took just as long as the 50 pounds. Now, I am exercising and limiting calories. It is onward and forward to the next 25 pounds. Today, I past the 100 pounds lost. Adding to this I am walking our dog 6 miles plus a day minus a couple of days for rain or sleet. I will keep marching on and forward towards to my next 25 lbs.

Today is my 1 year anniversary since I did my lifestyle change. I love it and don't want to go back. I thought that I would miss the carbs and sugars, but I don't. I now walk 6.5 miles a day with the aid of our dog Sadie. I am still losing weight, now it is looking more like a step pyramid. Paleo is great. Tomorrow is my 2 year anniversary on my lifestyle change. I am still eating Paleo and loving it.

I am close to 200 pounds now and walking 5 miles in the morning with Sadie. My weight loss has slowed down a lot which I expected. My profile picture was taken a while back while cover picture was taken more recently. This shows the difference in my in my face. This is my 3rd year anniversary. I am still sticking with the low carb diet and loving it. I have come real close to 200 lbs. I am doing over 20,000 steps a day on a consistent basis, I have posted a couple of pictures showing me now. It has become a lot harder to drop the weight, which I expected. Onward and forward. Today's update. I have pasted the 200 lbs. mark and now lost 125 lbs. It has taken quite some time, but it is definitely worth it. I was hoping that this would happen before my 3 year anniversary, but patience was the key. Now it is onward and forward to 190, which is my ultimate goal.

This is a lifestyle change and I am enjoying every minute of it. That is all for now. I have updated with my driver’s license photos. The first one is the new one and the second one is from March if 2017. On June 1st, which is a few days away, it will be my 4 year anniversary doing a low carb. Keto diet. I have gotten as low as 189 lbs., but I am maintaining in the 190 range. I currently am doing 20,000 steps per day with on the weekends as long as it is not hot or rainy a 7.5 mile walk in the afternoon with our two dogs Sadie and Harper.

People have asked me if I am going back to the way I ate prior to this. My answer is always never. I just remember the way I was before, and now I am enjoying my new lifestyle. That is all for now. Today December 27, 2021, I am glad to announce that I have hit my weight goal of 185 lbs. I was going to determine that weight after I crossed the 200 lbs. mark. I wanted to be low enough that I didn’t see looking up at the 200 lb. line. With 185 I can adjust either way, so if I lose a pound or 2 that will be fine or gain 1 lb. or 2 that will be fine and I will adjust from there. I am still doing the things that I said below. I will not go back the way I was eating before this, because I feel better than ever. I write this and post pictures so I see myself back then and now. Thanks for your support, especially my wife who has been through this with me.

Yesterday, I had my five year anniversary of my weight loss journey, which I started at 325 lbs. I have been keeping my weight range between 180 lbs. and 185 lbs. I have dipped as low as 178 lbs. Now I am trying to maintain this weight range. I am not going to go back to the way that I used to eat and why should I. My blood pressure was astronomical when I started out (over 190 on the top number and over 120 on the bottom number). Now, I have an average blood pressure 113/74 as of the 1st of June 2022. My A1C was 6.5 when I started out and my last reading was 5.0 last year, I will get blood work in July, so I can have updated numbers. Also, right now I have been doing over 20,000 steps a day for 188 days straight.

As long as the weather cooperates, the dogs and I will do between 7.25 to 9.5 miles in on walk on the weekends. I have to give a plug to Dr. Marlene Merritt, whose books I bought that started me on this journey, called the Blood Pressure Solution and Smart Blood Sugar. I have been in contact with them and they want me to do a video interview with them as a success story, which I will set up with them soon. I will continue to update, so onward and upwards. On December 1, 2022 was my 5 ½ year anniversary and on December 27, 2022 will be my 1 year anniversary of hitting goal.

I have lost since then a little bit of weight and I am now in the 170s, which I am still trying to figure out if the scale got moved from the day I defrosted the freezer, but I am going with it maintaining my weight which is real close to the top end of what they call a normal BMI. I still walk 20,000 steps a day and had streaks of 211 and 151 with one day in between not making it. Things that I have noticed since I have doing this low carb healthy Keto Diet (5% Vegetables, 5% Carbs, 20% Protein and 70% Fat). AIC went from 6.5 to 5.0. Blood Pressure was north of 190 over 120, now it is as close to normal as possible 124 over 79. Took sinus medication before and do not take any medications now, not even aspirin.

This means that I have gone holistic. I also go to a place called Total Health Systems, where it does my chiropractic care and medical care, and they promote a more natural way of doing things. My medical doctor, when I started this, would have never approved of how I was going to attack my high blood pressure and prediabetes, so that is why I made the switch to Total Health Systems. If I even have a headache now, it is very mild and I am over it very quickly, again no meds. I caught COVID-19, but other the initial when I caught it felt like I had a sinus infection, I had no symptoms. Since I am not vaccinated, this goes the prevailing narrative of the unvaccinated.

I do believe that my workout routine of walking very much helped in keeping it in check, besides losing the weight. Obesity is one of the major reasons for complications for COVID-19, along with any disease that is linked to obesity. I had flaking skin and it looks as it is gone now. I am not as moody now and seem to roll with the flow more. This might have also been that I have switched companies in 2020 due to being let go at Park West and hired at Medlogix to do the accounting for their subsidiary Michigan Evaluation Group. Diet can change your mood along with the change of jobs.

I do have more energy now than in the past, but when I crash, I crash. Right now that is all that I can think of and when I can think of some more I will add to it. So long for now.