My own journey has been a forward one—never backward—and yet there were more than a few detours and lay-bys along the way. There was the persistent gout for the first seven weeks, and its recent return visit. It prevented me from getting quite as much exercise as I wanted and was supposed to have.
However, despite the physical limitations, I still made progress: My blood pressure is under control, and I’ve lost 6.9kg (a little over 15 US pounds) over the past six months. I’m happy about both. I also know that if I get my weight down some more, I might get a lower dosage of the blood pressure medicine, and I may not need to increase the dosage of allopurinol to control the gout.
There are still a few things I don’t know: How easily will I lose more weight? How are my cholesterol levels (I’ll be tested next week)? And one thing more: Every once in awhile I get scared that things might eventually get bad again, since I wasn’t aware it was happening the first time.
But despite the bad things, the worries, and the unknown things, overall it’s been a case of steady progress, and I feel better than I have in years. Here’s an example: Today I had a lot of physical chores to do, such as changing the sheets on two beds, removing, washing, and putting back a super-king size duvet cover, I washed a dog, vacuumed the house, and went grocery shopping. In the past, any one of those things could have wiped me out for a couple hours. Not today: I felt fine—good, in fact, though a little achy in too-seldom used muscles, maybe.
As far as I can see, this means I’m in a good place to push on ahead to lose that last bit of weight (I’m roughly at or near the halfway point), and to get fitter and generally healthier still. Six months ago, all of that seemed like a dream I couldn’t achieve. Since then, I have.
And it’s a very good feeling.
1 comment:
Yay!
Post a Comment