My melting away effort continues.

Some History:

I peaked at 308Lbs in early March. I am 6'1" with a moderate build.... historically..... but have crept up in weight over the past 13ish years to my now two month old peak. I wish I would have kicked myself in the butt sooner.

I have noticed over the past couple of years that I am a lard butted out of shape middle aged very fluffy version of my former self. It got so bad that getting off of an airplane was a quest that left me winded and my back killing me. Getting from the plane to my bags then outside for pickup was a several stage journey. Grabbing my carry on bags and navigating off of the plane left me sucking wind and I had to catch my breath at the door to the aircraft. Then up the jetway to a 5min collapse at the gate waiting area. Then it was 100yd increments of wind sucking, back killing journey to the baggage area. Then more wind sucking back killing bag hefting to the curb for pick up where I was now a sweat soaked gasping large pile of misery.

After a miserable trip from the Middle East back to the states at the beginning of March I started a less than dedicated low carb effort and dropped ~10Lbs by EOM. Due to some scary medical crap that began in December 2016 and dragged out from Jan-March of 2017 I finally engaged a full meal deal, no bullshit, no bedside manner, give it to me, all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly series of deep dive medical assessments with my health team (GP, Endocrinologist, Cardiologist) on 27-March. The first appointment was with my GP who complied with my "give it to me straight" directive and spent several hours kicking me in the butt (figuratively but only just. She was brutal... thankfully). After my session with her (DW was with me) she marched me down the hall from her office and planted me in the Ideal Protein office with the directive of get on this program, comply with this program, or you are going to die. So DW went all in with me on IP and it has worked wonders. Since starting the program on 31-March I have lost 30lbs as of Friday 5-May so I am down 40 from my peak. DW has lost 20 since 31-March.

We both feel amazing. I still have ~80Lbs to go to my goal and DW has ~30 to go. On a side note and referencing a positive result... our sex life has always been pretty notable but ... HOLY SHIT BATMAN!!!!! It has taken a notable turn for the better with every indication that a bad heart won't kill me. It will be an exploding heart due to crazy out of control passion that does me in. Not a bad way to go I think. ^-^

As part of my full meal deal medical lala-paluzza I also had a Heart Saver CT, and an echo done on my Carotid arteries. The results were not great. What inspired my medic-paluzza was that in Dec I had to have a root canal and crown (the second in 3mos... but that is not really relevant) and because they could not get a good picture of the root abscess my dentist put me in their stand up 3D Xray machine. They automatically send those to a Radiologist for review. The 3D got a good pic of the abscess and they were able get the root canal and crown done in three days flat. They did a great job. If you need a great dentist in the Austin Tx area let me know.

So as I am sitting in my rather stark bachelor's apartment in the Middle East in mid Jan I get a call from my dentist. The Radiologist Dx'd moderate calcification in my Left carotid artery. This is an indicator of potential issues in cardio/pulmonary arena apparently. Needless to say... big wake up call.

So meanwhile back at the ranch and 3.5mos later..... The follow up Carotid echo and Heart Saver CT confirmed a moderate level of calcification in my Left Carotid and in my heart. Calcium build up is apparently an analog for cholesterol build up so as a result of the carotid echo and CT results the GP referred me to an incredible young Cardiologist who my wife got all twitterpated over. Yep, he is a nice looking very fit young guy I have to admit.

I had the nuclear stress test a couple of weeks ago and a week later got the results. "Your heart is in perfect shape, your weight loss is what you need to be doing and when you hit goal and are on a sustained exercise plan the calcification should resolve itself. Keep doing what you're doing and come back to see me in about 3yrs." I surprised myself on that treadmill during the nuclear cardio stress test. I just kept going, and going, and going. I expected to drop to the ground after about 5mins but went nearly 30 and the Doc basically pulled the plug before I was ready to stop. Admittedly I was sucking wind but other than the lack of oxygen ... I felt great.

I dodged a bullet on all of this I think. As a 37 year T-1 diabetic I am not doing too badly.

My clothes are literally falling off of my body and I need to go buy some notably smaller pants, skivvies, undershirts, and shirts. I even need smaller shoes since mine are flopping around on my un-swollen feet like clown shoes.

I give all credit to my soul mate. She has made managing our IP journey her career for the past month and her culinary creations with the IP foods are most notable.

Don't wait until you are in trouble folks. Take care of yourselves. I want to be bitching, moaning, and laughing with all of you for a long, long time to come.

Take care.