Fatman to Fitman: Update 5 “the Doctor”

A smart man would have gone to the doctor before starting a website to set a baseline. I am not a smart man and my “blogger” insurance plan only allows me to drive slowly past the doctor’s office while they scream test results out the window.

I figured after a few years it was time to get back to a physical…and the doctor won’t give me any of the cool pills anymore without visiting. So I made my way to see the doc and here were some selected results.

Perfect Specimen

To look extremely selectively I am in perfect health. Much like looking through broken eye glasses at an eclipse shows a perfect picture of the moon and sun. The truth is, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. My blood pressure was down to a normal level for the first time in about 8 years. Many of my levels were average! Hey, the Fatman strives for average so that was thrilling.

Then came the talk.

The doctor mentioned cholesterol and asked about my diet. We were both stunned that the numbers could be high.

I sat there just absolutely racking my brain on how I, of all people, could have elevated cholesterol.

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I immediately thought that the numbers were wrong and wondered what it might cost to do a recount? It would make sense if maybe my blood sugar was high…

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… but the blood sugar wasn’t high, I was really feeling like the cholesterol number must be some sort of mistake. Can anyone imagine how in the world these numbers could be high?

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Since there was clearly no explanation for a high cholesterol count we decided to retest in 6 months.

The Right Path

In all honesty, the numbers were high but at the borderline level. My doctor, who is very good, was impressed with the lifestyle changes that I had made over the past 6 months. I have (humble brag time) hiked over 550 miles, over 100,000 feet of elevation and have gone on more than 75 hikes.

While it was enough for a lot of the health numbers, it wasn’t quite enough. It really goes to show you how much diet and exercise work together to help out. I could just start taking some pills and not make any other changes but that was the old me.

Weight Loss Journey

The new me just see’s this as one more mountain to climb. I’m not going to give up having good food after hikes but I am going to do a better job of balancing my diet to go along with my exercise. It is one thing to have an amazingly delicious triple cheeseburger with bacon and cheese after a 15 mile hike. A completely different story to have one after sitting on the couch for 12 hours.

I am pretty sure that my doctor stopped reading after the humble brag paragraph and did not read the triple cheeseburger part but I should probably end this now before I get myself in more trouble.

The right path to healthy living doesn’t happen in a day, a week, or a month. It is just a series of mountains to climb. While they are a pain from the base, they are wonderful from the top and that is where I hope to get!

More updates are available on my Thoughts page. You can also find some product reviews, Getting Started Tips, and more of my ramblings from the mountains there. If you have have any comments feel free to email me at fatmanlittletrails@gmail.com or you can follow me on any of the below social media platforms. Happy Hiking!