NOTE: Looks like it was in 2010 that I first started entering my weight data on the Fitday site. Although I did not “religiously” enter my weight most days, for several years, I did keep a more accurate record by manually entering my daily weight in the annual calendars that were provided by Marine Federal Credit Union. It was only in the last couple of years that, because I didn’t get a calendar from MFCU, I had to rely on entering my weight online. There are quite a few days that I weigh myself, but then don’t enter it online… or sometimes, I’m sure, don’t enter it accurately.
Not sure of how many years ago, perhaps 2010, that I had gained weight and was about 295 lbs. I started work at Fayetteville State University in August 1995 and weighed about 210 pounds then. But, I seem to recall that I gained about 5 pounds a year, every year, while working there.
In January of 2012, I awoke early one morning, and realized that I had “peed” on my bed. There was a small rectangular wet spot on my sheet. This was minorly traumatic, because I recall at the time rehearsing that I did not recall having ever peed on my bed, even when I was a child growing up. I did not have a personal physician, and it took several weeks before I could have an appointment to see one.
I knew something was wrong, and it felt like my stomach (on the outside) was warm as if something were burning inside. But, not knowing what was wrong, I did possibly the worst thing I could. I started drinking a lot of fruit juices. I drank orange juice, grape juice, apple juice, and I might finish off a couple of these each day. So, by the time I saw the doctor and a few days later was told that I was pre-diabetic, I had drove my blood sugar level up to incredible heights. I recall the doctor looking at a report, and saying something to the effect that my BGL was over 400, and she didn’t think that was possible. I remember thinking, to myself, that if she knew how much fruit juice I had been consuming, that 400+ number was probably correct. *These high levels had started affecting my vision. I recall stepping out of my apartment and looking a short distance up to a street sign, and I couldn’t focus on it. After I got the blood sugar under control, the vision returned to normal. **I just remembered that when my blood sugar levels were off, I suffered from severe depression. And, during that time I craved a lot of water. The body’s way of trying to flush out all that extra sugar.
You can also see that I made a gallant effort to control my weight and subsequent diabetes in 2012. I lost almost 60 pounds in seven months. I think I got down to about 228 lbs. before I started to gain again. And, my A1C dropped to fantastically low levels. *This was the second time that I had lost about 60 pounds of weight over about the same time period. The first time that I lost this much weight was when I was about 49 years old. It was definitely easier, before I had to figure in diabetes, to lose the weight because there was a wider variety of foods that I could eat. I once said that I ate vegetables from A to Z… and I could easily name: apples, asparagus, avocado, basil, beans-green, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage-green/red, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chickpeas, cilantro, corn, cucumbers, dandelion-greens, eggplant, garlic, grapes, kale, leeks, lentils, lettuce, limes, mushrooms, okra, olives, onions, oranges, parsley, peaches, pears, peas-garden, peppers-bell, pineapple, plums, potatoes-white/sweet, pumpkin, radishes, ramps, rutabagas, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnips, … zucchini. I also drank a bunch of water during the first time of weight loss.
I’m not sure of how to get into the mind-set, but when I was in it, I lost about 2-3 lbs. of weight each week. Because my metabolism had been increased, I ate a lot of food each day. I was never hungry. I was NEVER hungry. And periodically, I could “cheat”. I could eat a large plate of pasta with spaghetti sauce, or I could eat a whole large carton of ice cream. But, as long as I returned to my eating pattern, I might gain 2-3 pounds for a day, but by the end of the week I had lost 2-3 pounds of weight.
But, here is an observation. At the bottom of my 60 lbs. weight loss, both times, and somewhere around the 230 pounds mark, my weight loss floundered… and in about two weeks of hovering around the same weight, I would start a slower climb back upwards. Graphically, I would lose weight at about a 45 degree angle downwards, and gain it back at about a 22.5 degree angle upwards. *The last time, I had even bought clothing “the next size down”, and it never was worn with my subsequent weight gain. **I have worn a size 42 waist pant, for about 10 years, except for the extreme weight loss time. I think I bought pants, a size 28 waist, that I never got to wear.
When I lost weight in 2012, my doctor had also started me on Metformin (diabetes). With the great weight loss, and the higher dose of medication, my A1C dropped under 6, and many days my BGL was around 125. The doctor thought this was excellent and reduced the level of Metformin. That was a mistake, because by the next time I saw her, my A1C had gone back up, and I never got it back down to those really good levels. *Until now [12/13/25] and I’m at 240.3 lbs. this morning but my RBG number was 104 and has been below several days this week, due to a change in what I eat. I’ve lost about 12 lbs. in the last year and down 50 points toward RBG.
You can see that I have been losing weight this year (2022) but the individual increments have been chaotic, fluctuating up and down greatly. But lately, I have noted a change in how I enjoy foods that I have loved “all my life.” e.g. Arnold’s bread. I like their multigrain bread. It is moist and has good flavor. Lately, I don’t enjoy this multigrain bread. I can’t have it with a hamburger, or a deli meat sandwich. It might be okay with some peanut butter & jam. Hamburger, by itself even tastes a little “off”. I am hoping that the butcher is adding something to the ground beef that changes it’s flavor. **Yesterday, I did fix some cream of mushroom soup, with onion & asparagus, and half-n-half, and the end product was delicious.
I just realized that I haven’t had breakfast today, and it is now almost 1:30 pm. This morning, I did try some Starbucks coffee that I bought at WalMart recently, and it was close enough to that “good” flavor that I have been missing since I ran out of the gifted Cracker Barrell coffee, during the Pandemic. I normally like to buy “whole bean” coffee and grind a little as I go, but the Pandemic stopped most groceries from offering whole bean, where you could pull down the lever and get however much you wanted. **The gifted, already ground, Cracker Barrell, coffee changed between the time I got my gift and when I was able to get out (end of the Pandemic, for me) and buy some more at a local Cracker Barrell. It just wasn’t the same. And, it is expensive buying different coffees at $9+ a shot, just to realize that, “nope, that’s not it either.”
NOTE [10/05/22]: Last night I fixed a hamburger, a very small baked potato (in microwave) and sauteed some onion & sliced jalapenos on the stovetop. I ate almost all of the hamburger (with some catchup, mustard, and raw Vidalia onion), most of the very small potato (just haven’t wanted them as I have for the past several years) and forced myself to eat all of the jalapenos & onion (with a little sweetener & some Salsa Ranchera sauce). The jalapenos had very good flavor, although I oddly found myself forcing it all down.
Part of me is wondering if my age has finally started to show in my diet. I’ve had a problem with “portion control” most of my life, but what I have fixed for the past 15 years or so is relatively healthy… switching up between chicken (not much lately), pork (not much lately), beef (a little more than chicken or pork, but not that much) and lamb. I have gone nuts (but not lately) for a “round bone” lamb chop, cooked on the stove top, and served with a couple of sides such as glazed carrots (with sugar free maple syrup & margarine), souped up beets (with Balsamic vinegar), a tomato chutney, etc. Even the lamb and sides I have not done much of in the last couple of weeks. *I do not feel bad, or sick, but my hunger is severely abated. For all of my life, breakfast was an extremely important meal. I rarely missed breakfast, and for many of them the meal included: eggs (scrambled or over medium – ‘a couple’), meat (bacon, link or patty sausage, country ham), grits (or rice, or potatoes) and whole wheat toast or a biscuit (at the Rainbow Restaurant) and coffee or hot tea (sweet with sweetener & creamer). I do like pancakes and waffles but when eating at a restaurant, I found that it was normally expensive to have both eggs, sausage and pancakes at the same meal. *Well after I retired, I found that Zorbas Restaurant had a choice with their basic breakfast (eggs, meat & grits) to have either toast or 2 pancakes. All those times that I could have had eggs, bacon & pancakes, wow. **”a couple of eggs”… I found another young, waitress, she was Negro, at Cracker Barrell that must have thought the word “couple” meant the same thing as “a few”. When I’m asked, “How many eggs would you like,” my response is normally, “A couple.” I don’t expect the waiter or waitress to respond, “And how many will that be, two or three.” I’ve never thought that the word “couple” meant anything other than “two,” because when you talk about human relationships, especially a man and woman dating, I would never think if someone said, “They are a couple,” to respond with the question, “And is there a third or fourth person in that relationship.” I have found several (more than a couple), but still only a few waitresses that I have to remember to respond, “I would like two eggs, over medium.”
Age being one possibility as the cause for the change in my hunger… but I also sometimes wonder if maybe I am suffering a COVID side effect. I’ve never been tested, or thought that I had COVID, but the sense of taste is one side effect.
This morning I weighed 258.4 lbs. which was down from the previous day’s result of 258.8 lbs. If you Iook at my weight graphs at the top of the page, you will see it has been several years since I only weighed 258 pounds. If I am not terminally sick (and I do not feel such), losing the weight will mean that my blood glucose numbers should become more manageable and at some point, even without medication, I should be able to eat more normally.
Bill Gibson, II 