Introducing….My Brother and His Journey to Lose Weight and Kick Diabetes to the Curb | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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Today, I bring you a special post….very special to me.  See, my brother Greg has embarked on his own weight loss journey and asked if he could write something up for Shrinking Jeans (that’s us up above).  He wanted to write his story and be accountable to others, in addition to himself. I may have squealed with delight!  Our family is big on hugs and pats on the back, but we don’t get much into the deeper stuff.  I want to say right now to you, bro’, how incredibly proud I am of you for taking this very important step FORWARD.  We love you and want you to reclaim your health and to live the life you deserve.  Everyone, meet my brother Greg and make sure to give him some *love* in the comments below!

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Hello, my name is Greg and I am Lisa’s older brother. This is my first ever attempt at blogging so bear with me as I learn the ropes.

To start off I’ll tell you about who I am and the things I like to do.

I’m 43 years old and am presently a substitute teacher in Houston. As I mentioned,  I am Lisa’s older brother, and I adore my nephews and niece. I do wish I could spend more time with them, but I enjoy immensely the time I do get with them. Lisa, please hurry up and get your new house built!

I’m a casual sports fan in that I will follow the teams that I support. One team would be the Houston Texans. I have been a season ticket holder since day one, and let me tell you there were some mighty lean years!  Some years it was hard to make myself get up and go to the game but this year has been much better.  I am also a big fan of the University of Houston Cougars and hope that they continue their upward climb from the dark days of the dissolution of the Southwest Conference.

My main hobby is scuba diving. I love to travel to Mexico, and specifically to Cozumel to scuba dive, and visit the great people of la isla. I wish I could go more than once a year, and hopefully will soon get back to going at least twice a year. I’m also hoping to one day become certified to dive cavern, and who knows maybe even cave diving could be in my future.

Just a little about my problem and how I got to the point I am at now. I have been overweight to one degree or another most of my life.  I have been a diabetic since the late 1990’s. During this time I have not taken care of myself. Yes I have had short periods or bursts of watching what I eat and exercising followed by long periods of eating whatever I want and being lazy.

Well as they say, the chickens have come home to roost.

At my last doctors’ visit, my A1C, which is a 3 month average blood glucose reading, was 9.8. The goal is to be under 6. I’ve been taking oral medications for the diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol since I was diagnosed in the 1990’s. With this visit, the doctor wanted me to start taking insulin and was not happy when I said no. I told him that I wanted to try and manage my glucose with diet and exercise first, seriously this time.  He agreed to work with me- scheduling me to see a nutritionist, a pharmacologist and the diabetes management clinic.

Where am I going? Glad you asked! I’ve got my plan and I’m going to stick to it. The alternative is not where I want to go, and that is on insulin or worse. About a week before that doctor’s visit, I took a blood sugar reading and what I saw scared me into action.

That was 6 weeks ago..

I’ve started to eat better by cutting way back on the carbs and eating a lot less. The day I started I weighed 346, and lost almost 10lbs the first week. Since then I plateaued and fluctuated a few lbs. I’ve been walking nearly every day for 30 minutes. On February 12, 2012, I went to the gym to swim laps. This was the first time to swim laps in forever, and it felt good. I love swimming, and it will also give my shin bones a break. I’ve seen my daily sugar readings drop, and am looking forward to my next A1c test knowing that I will have dramatic improvement.

At the beginning of this journey, January 15, 2012, I weighed 346lbs.  I am 5’9″.

Today,  I weigh 326lbs.  I have lost 20lbs in 6 weeks.  I hope to lose a total of 30-40lbs by my next doctor visit on April 27th.

I’m looking forward to keeping everyone updated on my progress periodically- I could use all the support, motivation, and encouragement that you guys could spare.

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