The Health Log Blog

I moved to the Philippines 8 years ago. When I moved here I weighed 430 pounds (yes, 430, that’s not a typo).

Six and a half years ago I had a stroke. I nearly died.

After having the stroke, I maintained a weight of around 340 pounds, plus or minus. So, my normal weight, post-stroke, was about 90 pounds less than when I first moved here. About 3 years ago, I had gotten my weight down to around 310 pounds, and I was really striving to get under 300 pounds, but I just could not make it. I was exercising and eating a fairly good diet, but I had hit a plateau, and had trouble getting under 310. Six months later, I stopped my exercising, and I let my diet go. My weight rose to between 330 and 340 pounds again.

Back in December 2007, just after Christmas, I started taking Lesofat, which is a generic form of Orlistat or Xenical. This drug keeps your body from digesting about 30% of the fats in the food that you eat. Taking Orlistat is not an easy thing, it has some side effects that are quite restrictive. However, it has worked well for me too, and the hassles are worth it in my case.

About 2 weeks after I started on the medication, I also started regular exercise. Every weekday, I walked one kilometer to a health club near my house. At the health club, I went swimming for an hour. I do this 5 days per week, and have been doing it for about 3 1/2 months now.

Last week, I got some news that really made me feel good. It represented a milestone for me. You see, an American friend of mine who has also been living in the Philippines moved back to the USA. He had a lot of stuff that was not practical to move back with him. I bought some stuff from him, but on some other stuff that he could not sell, he just gave it to me, since we have been close friends. One of the things that he gave me was a bathroom scale.

In my adult life, I have never owned a bathroom scale. One of the main reasons for that is because during my adult life, I have never really weighed little enough that I could use a bathroom scale. When you weigh in at 400+ pounds, most regular bathroom scales do not go high enough to weigh you. Because of this, I just never bought a scale. When my friend gave me the scale, though, I was kind of excited to try it out.

I stepped on the scale, and I got a surprise.

My exercise, modified diet, and the medication that I’ve been taking has been effective.

The scale said…… 289 pounds!

The last time that I weighed under 300 pounds was 28 years ago. 28 years. That means that I was under 300 when I graduated from high school. Yesterday, I weighed again, and I was at 287.

Even just being able to use a bathroom scale is a milestone for me. To be under 300 pounds goes way beyond even a milestone. It makes me feel good about my life. It also motivates me to go lower.

For my friend who gave me the scale - Thank You! You don’t know how much it means to me.

Here it is March already, 2008 is already flying by too quickly.  This year, though, I have to say, I have gotten into the right habits, health-wise.

In 2007, I put my health aside, and spent a lot of time working on business related projects.  I gained some weight in the process - weight that I had worked hard to lose in previous years.  Over the course of the year, I gained about 30 pounds, and I’m not proud of that!

In 2008, though, I have turned the situation around.  I started off the year by drastically increasing my level of activity.  For about 2 months now, I have been swimming every weekday.  I’ve missed a couple of weekdays, but only a couple.  I am very happy to have gotten back into the habit of regular swimming.  On top of that, on each day that I have gone swimming, I have walked to the Health Spa where I swim.  It is about 1.2 Kilometers from my house, so it is a nice walk.

In the 2 months that I have started this increased activity, I have also moderated my diet a bit, and the results are showing!  I have actually already lost all the weight that I gained last year, and even a little more.  I am wearing clothes that I couldn’t wear a year ago, and it feels good!

Getting into a new health routine really makes me feel good, both physically and emotionally too.  It’s the right thing to do!

Remember the other day, I said that I wanted to start increasing my exercise regiment?  Well, I really got a big boost yesterday.  Feyma and I took a visiting friend to a place called “ON Farm” about 50 miles or so from where we live.  A new friend owns the place, and we decided to go up and visit!  We had never been to ON Farm before, so we had no idea what to expect.

Well, the farm is not accessible by car, so we had to hike in.  Boy oh boy, what a hike it was!  And, it was all either a steep uphill or downhill climb too!  By the end of that walk, I was really exhausted!  And covered in sweat too!  The walk was well worth it, though, as the place is absolutely gorgeous!

You can read about our trip to ON Farm and see photos of the place at my other blog,

As I’ve been writing about, I’ve been trying to improve my diet over the past couple of weeks now.  I am starting to see benefits too!  My goal in this quest is not to lose weight, although that will be a nice side benefit.  The goal is to get my diabetes in check, get my blood glucose level down to near a normal level, and keep it there.

A little over 2 weeks ago, when I started, I had allowed my blood glucose level to get to about 250 to 300 in the morning after I got up.  This is way above the 120 or so that would be normal, and it’s not healthy!  For a week or so, I have not checked my glucose, but this morning when I checked it, it was 188.  That is quite an improvement.  Yes, I still have a ways to go to be where I want to be, but I am on my way there.  My ultimate goal is to get it to 120 after sleeping, although I consider an intermediate goal to be 150.  In the next two weeks, I can reach my intermediate goal if I just keep eating right and not snacking.  Read the rest