follow up on victor's interview

remember my friend victor? couple weeks back, i did an interview with victor and blogged about his remarkable physical transformation?

from an extremly high risk case of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood glucose level (triple whammy), he has reduced everything done to healthy levels. also, from being over weight to ideal weight, all in all in just months!

some visitors to this blog couldn't believe what i wrote. they kept asking "what did he take to reduce cholesterol/blood pressure/blood glucose [pick your poison]?". when i replied victor accomplished this by eliminating junk, processed food from his diet and ate good wholesome natural food, coupled with some exercise... guess what? nobody's interested! ha! it's true that people only listen to what they want to hear.

All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest (hmmmm....mmmm......)  

---- paul simon "the boxer"

not only that, people are only interested in an easy solution, a magic pill that could magically reduce their cholesterol/blood pressure/etc.  no lifestyle change required, no diet change required. go on eating whatever you want to eat...   well, good luck to you!

anyway, here's victor's blood test results, which victor has kindly shared with us.

oct 2010, his triglycerides (very bad cholesterol) exceeds the limit of the measurement! although total cholesterol says 6.84, it should be higher as we don't know how high is the triglycerides reading. notice also his uric acid is very high. his liver is also working extremely hard. note the readings under LFT (liver function tests) are very high.

and in may 2011,   his triglycerides fell to 0.69! in fact, his total cholesterol fell to 3.48 which is now a little on the low side! his liver is easing up now, the readings in the LFT are all normal. this is more like it! uric acid is improved marginally but still on the high side. this takes time but as you could see, overall, everything improved!

isn't this amazing? talk about a physical transformation!

my friend victor

i salute victor. i have seen many folks who complain about poor health but wouldn't do anything to improve it. "food too good, can't resist.", "no time to exercise", "i don't eat much meat (yeah right)"...

but victor took it as a challenge and improved on his health. in september 2010, victor was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood glucose level (on track to develop diabetes). a triple whammy.

but about 7 months later, his health has improved so much. so how did he do it? what medication did he take? what method?

september 2010

 the "before" pic





 

 june 2011

 the "after" pic





here's some questions i sent his way.



1. what made you decide to lose weight? how much weight you lost in how long the time period?
Obesity always my main issue since childhood. So what made me decide to to lose weight? Well, health of cause. Mid of September last year, I was diagnosed with diabetes with a reading of 20.85 after fasting (blood test)  [>5 for after fasting is bad!]. My cholesterol was off the chart as well... At that time I was 219 pound plus minus. [that's 100kg]

After advised from doctors, they set a target for me to achieve. from 200 plus to 170 to 175 pound (approx 80Kg). I did that in 2 months managed to bring down to 175-176 pound. Then they wanted to bring down to (65Kg)143.2 pound. With this new goal it is a bit difficult to achieve and I have maintained at 175 for about 3 months....

In April, 2011 I decided to set that target and re calibrate my food and exercise... from 175 to 168 in 2 weeks. I maintained this weight till June. A week ago I decided to bring down again my weight... and now is 165pound (75Kg)...

Currently: my walk is about 4Km/hour (2.5Km flat land and approx 1.5Km trail). Workout 2 hours in total (8Km). 3 to 4 times a week.

Will continue this routine and see how it goes...


2. what was your medical test results before and after? if you still have them?
For the blood pressure before September was somewhere around 138/85 to 148/90 at times was 158/98...[normal range is 120/80]

Now around at 123/68 to 127/72 sometimes 106/60 to 110/62 (at this point I think not enough rest and my food intake was too little on that day)... with average heartbeat of 72 to 75... 

Glucose level in blood
September 2010 - 20.85 (Blood test)
October 2010 - 16.5 (2 hours after meal) (High dosage pill)
November 2010 - 10.5 (2 hours after meal) (High dosage pill)
December 2010 - 4.8. 5.7 (2 hours after meal) (reduced dosage)
January til now 2011 - 5.5 to 6.2 (2 hours after meal) (maintain at minimum dosage)

On average after exercise 5.0

3. did you have difficulty sticking to this diet? did you feel like giving up? what was the motivation to continue?
For the first one month, it was end of the world for me.

September to October 2010
1. Morning Oats
2. 10 am. Biscuits and kopi O kosong
3. Afternoon Oats
4. 4 pm Biscuits and kopi O kosong
5. Dinner 200 gm of fish (stream) and Raw Salad (without mayonnaise)

No other food beside than this...

The motivation kicked in when my eyes when blurry even at the distance of 3 feet. The vision turned white like seeing through a filter lens... after taking high dosage of pills. That was from 20.85 to 16.5 in 3 days. In my mind I am still young and I still want to live on like a healthy person. There is no way out and accept the facts that i am sick and decided to take a very drastic action and fight this war. I don't want to depend on pills only but to push my organs to function properly. To do that only through proper Diet and exercise can achieve that at this moment.

[to be honest, such a diet is quite extreme but if you got such a diagnosis, you'll start something extreme right away! good thing victor realized this diet isn't enough so he changed his diet. also please please understand that medication is not the way to go.]


4. any advise to anyone who wants to do the same?Yes:

1. read and know the contains of your food and drinks. Observe every intake of food/drinks and your body reaction. You will know when you sweat. Taste your sweat.
2. Eat in small quantity rather than large quantity at a time. With small quantity you can increase your intake 5 times a day.
3. Reduce taking white rice or replace with brown rice (taj mahal) 3 - 4 spoons per meal.

Drinks
4. Cut Off all soft drinks including 100 plus...
5. Cut off all fast food.
6. Cut off all oily food.

[this means cut out ALL fast food]

Increase intake of vegetables and fruits however. fruits that are forbidden for diabetic patients are:
1. Durian
2. Banana
3. Pine apple
4. Water Melon
5. Grapes
6. etc avoid fruits that are sweet


Take a many lemon and green apple as you can... but you need to monitor your glucose level...

You need to check with your doctor before switching your diet because every person has different physiology. Some may suffer from low sugar level....


so as you could see above, if you want to do it, you could do it. if desire/will is not strong enough, excuses  abound.

by changing his diet, taking more veggies/fruits, eliminating all junk food (soft drinks, fried/processed food etc) and incorporating exercise to his routine, victor managed to lose 60 pounds in 9 months! as you could see his blood glucose level and blood pressure all dropped considerably. he will do a blood cholesterol check later as he doesn't have the equipment to do it at home.

victor did it. i salute his determination and his discipline. i have no doubt he could maintain his weight.

once your health is good, you may indulge in those "unhealthy" food sporadically. the key is that this indulgence is the exception rather than the norm.

so... what's your excuse?