Blood Tests NSV!

It's been just over a year since I received my T2 diabetes diagnosis- it was the end of March, 2022 but I suspect that I had it for quite a while before because of all the little symptoms that didn't mean much separately, but added together were resoundingly symptomatic of diabetes. My A1C that day was 7.0, my cholesterol was high, my blood pressure was high, and of course I was extremely obese with a BMI of 49.9.

I just went in for my every 3 months' bloodwork this week and got my results. I am... (drumroll please)... resoundingly NORMAL! My A1C was 5.2 which is not diabetic, not prediabetic, not even at risk- just plain vanilla normal! My cholesterol is normal. The only test that came back flagged is my vitamin D- apparently even with supplementing, I'm still deficient. And while I'm still obese, I have made a lot of progress this past year, as you can see on that weight loss ticker above- now I have a BMI of 37.8, which well not ideal, is one heck of a decrease.

This medication is literally saving my life. While I still have diabetes because you can't really undo the damage that has been done, having it controlled will help lower the risk of developing further related conditions.

But it's not just the medication. Credit where credit is due- I am saving my own life. I can't take back the poor choices I made in the past, but I can make better ones going forward. And thankfully, the Ozempic makes it so much easier to make those good choices. It quiets the food chatter in my head. It allows me still to enjoy all my favourite foods without gorging on them, and still being satisfied by what I'm eating. It gives me space to work out my food related issues because I don't have the gnawing, insistent hunger that feels like I'm starving even when I'm not.

I haven't had any tests run on my heart, but I can see that I've dramatically improved my cardiac health as well since I started exercising. It's been over four months now, and there is measurable improvement there too in my strength and my stamina. Last year when I checked my cardiac fitness scores on my Fitbit, it always told me Poor. That was pretty disheartening even when I started walking and there was no improvement. Now- my fitness tracker has me right at the dividing line for Below Average and Above Average! I have never been so happy to be normal as I am today!

Not to mention that I am a smaller size than I was at this weight last time, so I know the exercise is building muscle and shedding inches. While I've never tracked inches because I just find it to be too much effort, I can see the difference in my clothes and it's exciting! I still have to stop myself from flinching when I take my jeans out of the dryer because I'm afraid they won't fit anymore but they still fit perfectly. I just don't feel like this is really my size yet! Hopefully by the time I do, I'll be onto the next lower one.

Baby steps... if you're moving in the right direction, you're doing it right!