If Drew Carey can do it...

I was somewhat blown away when I saw the photo of Drew Carey on the cover of Parade magazine on September 26th and read the article. I felt like it was talking about me... same age, exact same weight (at the start), heart stents, diabetes, out-of-control eating, etc. And he lost 77 lbs. and is still going strong! I hope I can stay on track and do as good..

So far? I've lost 15 lbs. and the last 3 Saturdays I've walked about 5 miles each and about a 4 mph pace. Becky and I have committed to walk/run in the St. George half marathon in January! Whoo hoo! That is a goal to shoot for and a good reason to keep up the walking and exercise and the weight loss. I have a long way to go to get in shape but I'm slowly making progress.

This past week has been a bit challenging. On Monday, I pulled a calf muscle in my right leg so I took off a day of walking to recover. I did a short walk on Wednesday (2.5 miles) and felt pretty good so I walked again Thursday and pulled a muscle in my left calf!! So I took Friday off so I could get ready for Saturday! I think I need to do more stretching and warm up! Also, I need to do some cross training and work on strength training. Biking would also be good but I need to get a bike. I think I'll go shopping this week and see what I can find. Or, I could just ride my unicycle! I wonder if they would let me ride that in the half marathon! Only it's much harder than walking until you get better at it than I am now! I'll post a video when I get a little better so you all can laugh at seeing an old balding fat-man riding a unicycle!

I did go in and have a stress test and had a bunch of pictures taken of my heart. They inject you with a dye or something, take some pics at rest, then put you on a treadmill and inject you again when your heart is pumping at 85% of maximum. Then they take pics again to see if your heart is getting the blood it needs to function properly. I also went in and had my carotid arteries checked (ultrasound) and my legs checked out. I want to make sure I'm okay to continue working out and preparing for St. George. I go see the doc again in a couple of weeks to get the news about all of the tests. One good thing is that after the tests, they let me go home! If there was something terribly wrong, they would have kept me there or sent me straight to the hospital. That's what they did 5 1/2 years ago when I had a stress test and found my heart problems. They didn't let me go home and after an extremely painful shot in the stomach, the doc sent me straight to the hospital where the next morning I had two stents put in the artery feeding the lower half of my heart. The surgeon said I was extremely lucky as it was 98% blocked and that I could have had a massive (and probably fatal) heart attack any day. I don't think it was luck, I think someone was watching over me.

Eating is still the hardest challenge for me! Or should I say controlling my eating is the hardest thing! I don't seem to have any trouble eating whatsoever! I do pretty well if I pack a lunch to take to work. If I don't, I go out for lunch and always seem to eat like its my last supper! I've got to stop that if I'm going to continue to lose weight. Exercise alone isn't cutting it, I've got to stop eating!

Looking at the positive, I'm still walking, I've lost 15 lbs. so far, I'm off my beta-blockers! I've dropped 2" off of my waistline and I'm feeling a lot better! So now, I just need to keep going!