The Next Step

Time to set some goals for the next 3 months. Anything grander is a wish and anything less will not lead to real change.

Weight

Why – This is kind of an easy one. Less weight means better A1C and easier on the body.

How – Really need to cut back on the sugar and get back into veggies leading meals. Better choices when eating out and reduce snacking. There is an exercise element here as well. Being darker makes it harder to get some disc golf and walks in during the week. Will need to keep going on indoor runs and weekend activities.

What – 15% reduction by Feb 28, 2026

A1C

Why – Too much can go wrong when this is out of range.

How – Same food elements as the weight goal. The other element is to monitoring and accountability. Two elements: Consistent glucose monitoring and keeping this blog up-to-date.

What – Simply need to get this back in the 5 range.

Winter

…a year later. Hello. Quick update, things are going well. Weight has been variable but generally blood work is doing well. I will be monitoring glucose more closely and consistently to try to get that A1C under 5.7. I’ll be thinking about what else I want to do in the journal throughout December.

Summer!

I’ve been refocued on getting healthier for just over four months. There are three main elements (1) medication (Ozempic) (2) eating the right foods and (3) moving! The Ozempic has done a good job of reducing appetite. This goes a long way to simply limiting intake. The more interesting aspect of this is what type of food I have been eating (or not eating). I’m still off fast food with the exception of a chicken sandwich once in a while. Most of my meals are from home. I’ve nearly eliminated red meat from my diet. I don’t think this has a short-term impact, but should help with overall health longer-term.

My goto meal is simply a peanut butter sandwich – either with a carb-friendly tortilla or bread. In the past, I might have 2 sandwichs at a sitting and this is where the Ozempic comes in handy. I continue with carrots but need to get back on track for eating them first for all meals. Snacks tend to be nuts. So hopefully a decent amount of protien w/o too much fat. I have continued to experiment with sweets (a donut or other tasty delight) to see how it impacts my glucose levels. As you’ll see below, the range of numbers skews a little higher than the last time I posted. Some meals (Chinese meals in particular) can really spike the level as well. I’ll have a drink occasionally, normally at home where I fully control the ingredients. The key takeaway continues to be balance and awareness. Keep grinding!

As for exercise, it’s a bit more difficult in summer. 100+ degree days combined with daily air quality advisories make getting outside a challenge. With that in mind, we look for the rare cool evening or early morning to get out and play some tennis or disc golf (new one on the list). Definitely need more of this as well as some strength training. As I lose weight, tone is becoming more and more necessary.

Still on the right track! More moving needed.

Vacation

A quick checkin with how things are going. I was on vacation for a week and these tend to be very challenging from an “eating well” standpoint. You are outside your safe food/snack zone and nearly everything involves eating out. I’m happy to report that I continued to make good choices while I was away. And it was not that painful 🙂

There were a few calculated decisions I made that were outside of what I have normally been eating, but every time was intentional and provided an opportunity to see what those choices meant in terms of blood sugar.

Overall, the plan is working. I am making the right choices on “what” to eat and the Ozempic is helping curb my appetite. I have stopped consuming alcohol for nearly two months. I have not yet decided if this will be a permanent thing or not, but will continue for now. I was drinking low-cal/sugar beverages anyway but may do some experiements in the next future to really understand the impact.

One area that has been lacking is exercising. This has dropped down from 3-4 times per week to almost nothing (hoping to get some tennis in this evening). Getting this back on track will surely keep the momentum going.

This is heading in the right direction!

Continuous Monitoring

I recently started glucose monitoring again. Way back when I was using the fingertip prick method (which was a pain) then moved to Libre 2. After figuring out I didn’t need the custom monitor and could just use my phone life was good! This required that I manually check my levels by using the NFC on my phone to scan the monitor. Slick!

Flash forward to a month ago and I upgraded to the Libre 3. The device is smaller than the prior version and does continuous monitoring to my phone via Bluetooth. Wonderful! There was feedback that this can be a drain on your battery as it connects and sends data every minute (not configurable) but I have not noticed this at all. This really changes the game on checking the impact of what I eat and drink and seeing the impact to my levels. I am using the notes feature in the app to try different foods and using that to inform better and better choices.

The app will show the current day and also a few different summaries. I like the view below which is a summary of my daily patterns. Between the green lines is good. Happy with where I have been for the last several weeks. The more you know!

Back

Coming back to the journey. The last three years have not really seen any change, more of a reversion back to the old habit which popped my weight back up. My A1C has been both up and down which is not good. The latest blood draw has me at 9.3.

I’ve been on Ozempic (0.5mg) for the last 4 weeks. That does a good job of reducing hunger pangs and helping ensure a decent food portion. Additionally, I have completely changed my eating habits. I have moved away from fried foods, most red meats and removed most all sugar. I recognize that this is a long-term journey and need to stay focused to ensure the right outcome –> becoming healthy.