It's official...I'm in perfect health!! After losing 45 pounds, keeping it off for more than a year, I am healthier than ever and there is evidence to prove it.

I am in perfect health!

After a recent trip to the doctor, I thought to myself, "I feel well and healthy". But "Am I really healthy?" was the question really that I should be asking.

So I went to the doctor again. I told him that I wanted to have blood work done. This was a tremendously fearful decision for me as I have fainted in the past from blood tests and even TB tests. But I decided to be brave. I thought to myself, the need to know how my health was, trumped my fear of passing out. I told the doctor that if he was going to take my blood he might as well run all the tests and be able to have a complete workup of what is going on in my body.

Although I cannot remember the names of all of the tests, I do know that it included cholesterol, A1C, CBC, thyroid, PSA, and I think a couple of others. I wanted to know everything related to my health.

Well, the results came in, only a couple of hours ago actually. Every item on the list was in the normal range except for one and according to the doctor, the variance in that one subset was insignificant. What a blessing this is! I thank the Good Lord for His grace and mercy and blessing.

You see, at one point my cholesterol (LDL) was over 350.  And my triglycerides were over 790. It was either 790, 860, for 960. I can't remember. Suffice it to say, it was really crazy high and I was very unhealthy.  And my A1C was high enough to be basically considered diabetic.

Now these numbers have all dropped.  My LDL went from 350 to 182.  182!! It has never, ever been that low.  My triglycerides fell dramatically as well.  And my A1C dropped to a place where I would be out of the diabetic spectrum.  WOW, can you imagine!!

Amazing to think that just through two months of being tough on myself and drinking nothing but soup broth, (which in hindsight was a pretty simple and low price to pay for good health) I have such a tremendous health. An enormous blessing that I never expected to see.

I am telling you. Losing this weight has changed, and saved, my life in ways that I never could have imagined. Truthfully, it was the catalyst to change so many other areas of myself.

So with that, I can say that I lost 45 pounds, quickly, and I have maintained it, easily, and have improved my health.  Outstanding!! Let's rejoice together.  I hope that this gives others motivation to make changes in their own lives to IMPROVE!!

Nearly 25,000 posts. WOW!!

Ok so if you have been following you might know this, but here's the deal in a nutshell.
I lost 30 pounds in less than 2 months.  I've kept it off for more than a year, and I'm healthier than at any point in my life. And almost 25,000 people have read about this from all over the world. Crazy huh?

As the great old hymn says, "I love to tell the story.."
I love to tell the story of successful, and maintained, weight loss.  A very nice lady came into the restaurant where I work last night.  We had a conversation so similar to those I've had with many others.

So this lady came in but I want to share with you a bit about my job.  I work as a waiter at a great restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara called Benchmark.  (look it up, it's pretty cool).  Anyway, I find that I walk a lot there.  I mean a whole lot, and very quickly, for about 5 hours.  While walking all over the place, I find myself carrying plates that are very thick and overtly heavy for their size. And with hearty portions of food aboard.  It is a very physical job, but a job that I love.  There is no way, that I could have performed this job before.  I would have been exhausted.  I don't know how far could one walk, at a good clip, in 5 hours, but it has to be pretty far.  That's what I do probably 4-5 days a week.  But often before or after my shift, I can often be found walking around the pretty and well decorated shops on State Street.  And what about the plates, and glasses of water, and the dish racks of glasses, and the buckets of ice.  And do you have any idea how heavy large trays of butter knives can be?  I mean why with all of our technology can we not manufacture hollow butter knives?

This work load has had a significant effect on me physically.  For the first time in my life...ever, I actually have muscles in my arms.  They're not huge, but I'm not a huge guy.  But they are bigger than they have ever been before that's for sure.  And I'm fit.  That statement, "I'm fit" is one that I haven't been able to say that in good faith for well over 25 years.    

So, back to telling the story of the lady at the restaurant..... Last night I had an opportunity to discuss my recent weight loss with a customer.  I told her that I lost the weight fast while fasting on soup broth and she brought up a familiar and common question.  Weren't you hungry? And her friend had another common question to ask as a follow up to my response.

I asked them if they were hungry before they came into the restaurant just now.  Obviously they were.  And so to stop their hunger from overtaking them, they sat down and ate.  But surely they would be hungry again, unless they ate again. They would only be hungry when they didn't consume some form of sustenance.

The soup broth diet was the same way.  I was only hungry when I didn't consume some delicious, well flavored, nutritious soup broth.  But when I was hungry, I consumed my homemade broth.

Following up with my answer her "dinner date" (love that old midcentury term) wanted to clarify that she got this right.  "So, nothing but soup broth, 3 times a day, for a month?" she asked.  I told her that I'd have it like 10 times a day, or 20 times, or whatever.  There really wasn't a limit on how much I could have. No prescribed time of ingestion.  I was only hungry out of choice or of my own neglect.

I'd drink broth as others might drink coffee I guess.  Oh, or pardon me, perhaps I should say "tea" for those who might live under the Royal Britannia.  And if I had the broth often enough, I wasn't really hungry.  Every time that I had a mug or bowl of soup broth, any hunger that I had was satisfied completely.

It's a quite amazing story if I do say so myself.

Well, I'm literally leaving for "Benchmark eatery" as we speak.  I'l be sure to write more and perhaps have a surprise for my 25,000th anniversary.  "Come and see."

The Journey continues: Part 3 Improvement sees all different forms

Talking about weight loss, losing weight, and being in a state of actually losing weight, is a past, present, and future idea.  People "talk" and "think" about the possibility of future weight loss.  The hope that it will provide for them a new life.  But it is so hard to accurately judge the future, it changes all of the time. Sounds very much like something Yoda would say.


The journey continues with the improvement of my mental faculties and my attitude