Some Healthful Takes

As you may know, the past two years have seen a great transformation in my health.  From that checkup about a year and a half ago where the doctor told me to improve my health to now is quite the change.  For review, here was me before the intervention:

Someone say, double chin?

So I changed quite a bit from that time.  Largely thanks to Medifast, I've lost about 45 pounds since that picture.  Here's the result a year later:

A bit of an improvement, I would say.

I have been able to keep that weight off for over a year now.  I feel great, my biometric figures really improved (cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, etc.) and I feel high energy much of the time.  At last assessment I was measured at about 15% body fat, a vast improvement of the over 32% body fat when I started on Medifast. 

Over the past year, I seen many of my habits change.  Here are three in particular that have helped me maintain where I'm at.

-  I gave up soda.  Soda has excess sugar, preservatives and sodium that retains excess water and causes organs such as the liver and kidneys that causes weight gain and diabetes.  I thought that I would have a hard time resisting soda but I don't really miss it at all, which is surprising because I use to drink two cans a day or that or some other sugary beverage such as Hawaiian Punch.  Now I can't stand Hawaiian Punch and I drink soda very sparingly. 

- I drink lots of water.  I mean A LOT of water.  At work I usually drink 64 oz through two fill ups of my large Nalgene bottle.  At home I have water, sometimes with a Medifast lemonade additive that I really like.  So I probably get about 70 or so ounces of water a day.  Drinking water regularly maintains body fluid levels (60% of the body is water), which energizes muscles because cells that don't maintain fluid levels shrivel and causes muscles to fatigue.  Plus, drinking enough water optimizes kidney function, which you can guess why that is the case.

- I have notably increased my intake of fruit. In the morning as I drive to work I'll eat a banana.  During the work day I'll eat another banana and snack on an orange.  In the evening I'll have Greek yogurt with fruit.  Although now I have figured out that I can even increase my fruit intake more through smoothies, which excites me.  The opportunity to combine fruit with protein additives such as protein powder and Greek yogurt feels like an efficient method to further increase my fruit and protein intake.  That is a good thing.

So there are some reflections on my changing health habits, along with exercise, that I have been doing over the past year.  Hopefully I can keep it up through the help of the Almighty.   That would be a good thing.