I've been avoiding the dreaded blood work for almost a full year. Being diabetic I'm supposed to be getting my A1c levels checked every three months. For those of you who aren't diabetic and have no clue what an A1c level is or why it's important let me explain. Most people probably know that diabetics are supposed to check their blood sugar regularly. I do not. Never have. The A1c measures how your glucose (blood sugar) levels are been overall for the last three months. An average non diabetic person should have an A1c of 5.7 or less. A little over three years ago my A1c level was considered out of control at a 7.2. As I started exercising and eating healthy I was able to drop that from the high of 7.2 to 5.6. That was in the non diabetic range.
Last year around this time I finally got up enough nerve to check my levels and I was at a 5.8. I felt like I dodged a bullet. Yes, it went up but I wasn't taking my medication and I had stopped eating healthy. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for me to change my ways. In fact my eating got worse and my exercise has been is stops and spurts over the last year do to various injuries. Needless to say I was afraid to see what I had done to my blood work. Many people tried to let me that avoiding the tests wouldn't change the results and it was better to know but I didn't want to hear it.
Last year I was at the start of my slide back into my old ways and my blood work came back really good. My cholesterol was good. My blood sugar levels were good. I never thought oh good I can just keep doing what I'm doing and I'll keep getting these results. No, my blood work went from excellent to just good in a relatively short amount of time. When I started on my weight loss journey all of my blood work was horrible. Logic says if I go back to my old ways the old horrible blood work will return. I knew that but I couldn't make myself care.
Over the last year I've gained 50 pounds. Over the last two years I've gained 90 pounds. I had lost exactly 100 pounds and then the very next week started gaining the weight back and haven't stopped. Statistically speaking I guess I'm doing better than a lot of people who lose weight. It has taken me two years to gain 90 pounds instead of a year of less to regain all of my weight and then some.
Back to my A1c levels. They are now at 6.8. My new family doctor says that's good. I'm a well controlled diabetic but as I told him that is not good. I was in the normal range for a non diabetic and now I'm just 0.2 points lower than the 7.0 or less they want to see for a diabetic. That's not acceptable to me. I worked my butt off to get my levels down to non diabetic range. Oh and my cholesterol? High once again. I was scolded at my last cardiologist appointment for having just good cholesterol so I can't imagine this is going to go over well.
That's the back news. The good news is now none of this matters. It's that the big question that I'm avoiding and fearing the worst. What matters is what I do for this moment on. You can bet I'm not happy with what I learned today and it will motivate me to do better. The good news is I've already started doing better. A few blog posts back I said I was going to stop trying to lose weight and I have. I'm improving my lifestyle choices and it finally seems to be working. In the last week I've lost 5.6 pounds. I haven't done anything special. I haven't worked out one time. I haven't counted calories. I've simply started being mindful of what I'm eating, why I'm eating it, and how much I'm eating.
I'm choosing to get my blood work redone in 3 months like I'm supposed to. You can bet my blood work will be better. I'm tired of avoiding my life. The only way I'm going to get where I want in my life is if I'm active participant in my life. Up until now I've mostly just been a passive observer. No, that's not right I've been an active avoider. I've known I haven't been doing the right things for most of my life but I've used food and other things to help me avoid thinking about these things. No more!
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