Oct 16 - Follow Up Results

  I had my doctor's appointment today to get my test results back.  This is the test results after the first three months of hard work from me.  Admittedly, I've had plenty of fun it that three months too, but the weight loss speaks for itself; I've been doing way better in this last three months than I have for the past 15 years before that.  Happily, the test results also confirm that.

• Blood Glucose Fasting Result - (Drum roll please).... 5.1!
  Smack bang in the middle of the desired range of 4.0 and 6.0.
• Cholesterol - My total cholesterol is down to 4.9 mmol/L  (previously 5.3) and there has also been improvement in the balance between the "good" HDL and the "bad" triglycerides and LDL.  Still room for improvement but everything is within the desirable ranges now.
• Iron Levels - All within the normal ranges still.  My ferritin levels are still at the lower end of the normal scale but have gone up slightly to 39 ug/L (last time was 36) but to give you perspective, the normal range is between 15 and 165 and back in 2008 I was at 56.
• Kidney function all checked out again which is a big plus.  Hopefully I won't have to do this test again for a while.  I hate peeing in a jar.
• Vitamin D - Last time I was slightly deficient at 36 nmol/L so the doctor put me on two capsules of Ostelin Vitamin D supplement a day.  I am now up to 78 nmol/L which is a normal level (anything over 50) so she's cut me back to one capsule a day and get some sunlight now that there is sunshine to be had!

  My doctor was pleased with the results over all and with my progress and so was I.
  She lent me a book to read called Eat Right For Your Type by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo.
It's based on his principle of diet based on blood type ie. if you have blood type A (like me) you should be a vegetarian, engage in 'gentle' exercise like yoga or golf, meditate to handle my stress, and if I eat incorrectly 'for my type' my risk of cancer and heart disease will increase.  Is anyone else's bullshitometer needle going crazy?
  I am going to say outright that the concept sounds ridiculously hocus pocus and too much like a quick fix, which we all know are never real.  I'll also confess to googling both book and auther and finding several assertions that there is little to no scientific evidence to support his claims.  I also checked PubMed and peer-reviewed articles by him or on the topic were suspiciously absent.
  I admit that I am raising an eyebrow at her offer of this as a source of information but given her support, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and at least start to read it.  All bets are off if it starts to sound even vaguely mystical.  It's not the first eyebrow I've raised at a suggestion from her so I'm definitely going into it with skeptical eyes wide open.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was yoghurt with berries, All-Bran Fibre Toppers, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
• Morning snack was an Afourer mandarin.
• Lunch was a Mission Wholegrain Wrap spread with 27g of Philadelphia Exra Light Spreadable Cream Cheese then topped with 96g of sliced chicken breast , cucumber slices and rainbow salad (beetroot, carrot and broccoli stalk).  I also had five Perino snacking tomatoes.
• Afternoon snack was a large not quite ripe banana.
• Dinner was a serve of my veggie heavy chilli con carne with a sprinkle of Mainland Finely Shredded Light Tasty cheese on top.
• Blood sugar after dinner was 5.2 
• Exercise was 40 minutes on the cross trainer.  Giles got turned into a demon!

  That's it for me tonight.  The shopping centre has it's annual fire evacuation exercise tomorrow morning so I have to be in a little early so I'm off to bed.  I hate doing it, it's noisy and the pretend fire always seems to be in my area, but I acknowledge that it's important to make sure we all know what to do in the event of an emergency.
  Jess