Personal stuff - diet and exercise
Dec. 18th, 2013 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossI'm not one to agonize publicly about my weight, my food preferences, how much I did or did not exercise on any given day. Really, who wants to read that? Suffice it to say that I have wrestled with said issues my entire adult life, mostly with some degree of success. I'm overweight but not obese, and I have a good fitness level (actually, for my age and not being an athlete, a very good fitness level). As I've gotten older, my motivation has shifted away from vanity to health/energy. There's a strong family history of Type 2 diabetes on my father's side. He was only a year older than I am now when he died of a stroke secondary to his diabetes.
We have learned so much about not just how to treat Type 2 diabetes, but how to prevent it. Exercise, exercise, exercise. Weight control. Healthy eating. (I'm sure not smoking is in there somewhere, but that's never been an issue for me.) Fortunately, I've always found some form of exercise I love, whether it's dancing, running, martial arts, weight lifting, hiking, yoga... So I'm not diabetic, not even an abnormal fasting glucose level, normal total cholesterol, but I do have high triglycerides and low HDL (and an "apple" shape) - all of which are markers for metabolic syndrome, the precursor to Type 2 diabetes.
For a decade, I took Niaspan for the triglycerides/HDL and it worked like a charm, but the research isn't clear whether there's an actual benefit. The studies - the ones I know about, anyway - looked at rates of repeat heart attacks and death in people with established cardiovascular disease who were also taking a statin. Niaspan didn't confer any additional protection. At any rate, my doc has taken me off it (not a bad thing, since it's very expensive and has some obnoxious side effects). Our plan is for me to work on the exercise/weight reduction and retest next year. (To the tune of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus: Mo-ti-vay-tion!!)
(When I was first diagnosed, I tried exercise and diet first, and was able to drop my triglycerides by over 100 mg/dL, but they were still too high; hence, the Niaspan. So I know this works.)
My current exercise goal is 60 to 90 minutes 6 days a week. This is up from 30-60 mins/day. That's not as unreasonable as it sounds. For the last 20 years or so, I've started my day with 20-30 minutes of yoga or light weights or light aerobics, or sometimes a brisk walk with the dog. Add to that, walking into town - a solid hour - to the bank or post office or library, alone or with the "West Park Women's Walking Association," a group of friends that like to do same and go most days when the weather permits. Gardening counts, and it's easy to put in 30-60 minutes.
The other thing that's changed is our dinner menu. I used to do soup or/i> salad as a first course, soup being the winter default, salad for summer. For the last month or so, I've been doing both, with the not-unreasonable result that I'm eating smaller amounts of the (calorie-denser) entree. It's too early to say for sure how helpful this will be, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the addition of a second, lower-calorie-density dinner course will keep satiety high and over time help me toward a normal weight.
We have learned so much about not just how to treat Type 2 diabetes, but how to prevent it. Exercise, exercise, exercise. Weight control. Healthy eating. (I'm sure not smoking is in there somewhere, but that's never been an issue for me.) Fortunately, I've always found some form of exercise I love, whether it's dancing, running, martial arts, weight lifting, hiking, yoga... So I'm not diabetic, not even an abnormal fasting glucose level, normal total cholesterol, but I do have high triglycerides and low HDL (and an "apple" shape) - all of which are markers for metabolic syndrome, the precursor to Type 2 diabetes.
For a decade, I took Niaspan for the triglycerides/HDL and it worked like a charm, but the research isn't clear whether there's an actual benefit. The studies - the ones I know about, anyway - looked at rates of repeat heart attacks and death in people with established cardiovascular disease who were also taking a statin. Niaspan didn't confer any additional protection. At any rate, my doc has taken me off it (not a bad thing, since it's very expensive and has some obnoxious side effects). Our plan is for me to work on the exercise/weight reduction and retest next year. (To the tune of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus: Mo-ti-vay-tion!!)
(When I was first diagnosed, I tried exercise and diet first, and was able to drop my triglycerides by over 100 mg/dL, but they were still too high; hence, the Niaspan. So I know this works.)
My current exercise goal is 60 to 90 minutes 6 days a week. This is up from 30-60 mins/day. That's not as unreasonable as it sounds. For the last 20 years or so, I've started my day with 20-30 minutes of yoga or light weights or light aerobics, or sometimes a brisk walk with the dog. Add to that, walking into town - a solid hour - to the bank or post office or library, alone or with the "West Park Women's Walking Association," a group of friends that like to do same and go most days when the weather permits. Gardening counts, and it's easy to put in 30-60 minutes.
The other thing that's changed is our dinner menu. I used to do soup or/i> salad as a first course, soup being the winter default, salad for summer. For the last month or so, I've been doing both, with the not-unreasonable result that I'm eating smaller amounts of the (calorie-denser) entree. It's too early to say for sure how helpful this will be, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the addition of a second, lower-calorie-density dinner course will keep satiety high and over time help me toward a normal weight.
