Halfway there!

For the last two days, my weight has been below 220 pounds. This is Goodness! This means that I have lost a little over 40 pounds since I diagnosed myself with type II diabetes, and have another 40 pounds to go before I’m at the “healthy” weight as defined by insurance tables. When I reach that point, I will try discontinuing my medications, and see if I can maintain my blood sugar levels using only diet and exercise. I accidentally was forced into trying this experiment 3 months and 15 pounds ago when I forgot to bring my meds to the San Antonio Usenix; I was off the medications for two weeks, and my blood sugar levels remained stable after being off my medications (Avandia and Glucophage) for two weeks. Hopefully this means that I caught things early enough, before my pancreas was too far gone, and when I reach my goal weight, I’ll be able to go off the medications long-term, so I can pass the physical required for the private airplane pilot’s test. (There are some interesting preliminary research results that indicate that the pancreatic cells in mice may be able to regenerate/recover given time and when they are put under less stress. I’m hoping this turns out to be true for me as well, since I hope I never need to go onto insulin therapy…)

So far, the weight loss has been slow, but more or less steady, at least over the long term. It averages about five pounds a month, with some plateaus in between. However, I can live with this. I didn’t gain all of this weight in a few months, and I’m not going to lose it all in a few months, either.

Just yesterday I found some old suits and jackets from when I was in high school. They almost fit me again! They’re still a little tight, but another 10 pounds or so should take care of that. Now all I have to do is find a tailor who can modify some of my current suits, including a custom-made suit which I got in Singapore, during the days of the dot com boom, when VC’s were gullible and money flowed like water….