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The Skinny

Healthy doses of reality

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published November 1, 2005

Let's face it. I'm not following a diet plan, just eating better, but all most people care about is one number: the weight.

How many pounds are you today? How much have you lost? How much do you want to lose?

With each week, the number determines my success. I never meant to buy into it, because this was a bigger issue for me than a few (dozen) pounds, but I did.

Besides, it had a better ring to it than: This week on The Skinny: John's fasting blood triglycerides drop another point!

When the weight came off, people applauded and I felt good.

When it didn't, people encouraged me to try harder.

When it stalled, people chimed in on the blog and in e-mails and a few hand-written letters that I had failed. One letter went as far as to call me an "incessant whiner" and a self-pitying fool.

"You are fortunate to have the editors you have," the letter went on. "I would have stopped you after the third installment."

And miss all the incessant whining, particularly in the fourth and seventh installments?

It was all a little disheartening.

And then I remembered something. This isn't about anonymous posters or vitriolic letter writers, nor is it all about my weight. It's about living a healthy life.

The good news, confirmed by my doctor, Margaret McKeena, last week, is that I am getting healthier every day.

I last saw her in April, after I spent most of a night in the hospital with a heart attack scare, and she warned me I was headed down a dead-end road. She wanted me to run on a treadmill and take a stress test, cut out carbs and sugar, and maybe, with some hard work, steer clear of diabetes. "You need to be careful," she said.

Her words meant so much at the time that on the way home I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, a bagel and cream cheese, and two apple spice doughnuts. No joke.

It wasn't until July 1 that I decided it was time for a change.

In April, my blood sugar was 100. The safe range is 65 to 99, and at 124 you have diabetes, which runs in the family and plagued my grandfather until his death.

Last week, it was 81.

In April, I had many of the seven risk factors for metabolic syndrome, or insulin resistance syndrome, which leads to coronary heart disease, strokes and Type 2 diabetes.

This time, I had one - low HDL or good cholesterol, a genetic malady I will need medication for, apparently.

My blood pressure was down, my weight and body mass index were down, and my bad cholesterol was perfect.

I walked into the doctor's office convinced I had let my blood sugar get too high and genetics had already decided my fate. I truly expected the doctor to tell me, "Hey, nice try, but it was too late, you are a diabetic."

Instead, I walked out of there like a giddy schoolboy who just got straight A's and couldn't wait to get home to tell his Mommy. Then I remembered I had my cell phone so I just called her.

On the way home this time, I drove right past that Dunkin' Donuts, flipping the bird as I whizzed by (for the driver in the red Nissan Sentra waiting at the drive-through window, I'm sorry, that wasn't meant for you).

My doctor's words played over and over in my head: "We get lots of people in here like you," she said. "Few ever do anything about it. Good job."

It's amazing that a week ago, though I had lost a lot of weight, some had tried to convince me I was failing and had no chance.

They were obsessed with the wrong number. And I was right there with them.

But not only is my weight down, my blood sugar is in a wonderful place (I can't express my relief enough), my blood pressure is dandy, my cholesterol is fine and I'm back wearing size 38 pants (and with a belt, no less).

Those are my important numbers.

Oh, and by the way, here's that other one: 220.5.

Weighing In, John C. Cotey's column about his effort to lose weight, appears Tuesdays in Floridian. His starting weight on July 1 was 250 pounds. To read previous columns and his Web log, The Skinny, please go to www.sptimes.com/skinny

[Last modified November 1, 2005, 08:39:02]