Yummy Lunch
Copyright Fiona C Yeo @ Cartoon Lagoon 2015
Yes, the shop served it in paper on a mini tray to me. Now that I look at the pic, I think back and realise that others were eating off plates! OK, I over ate because there was a cause for celebration. I had gone to the doctor's yesterday for the results of my blood and urine tests done a week ago.
Practically every reading has gone
DOWN!!!
I say 'practically' because although the doctor didn't think it was alarming enough to point it out to me, I noticed that my potassium level has gone up. I should try to look into this and see what is causing it. As a typical quack-internet-doctor-wannabe, I googled it and saw the word 'kidney'. OMG.
Also, the thing that my doctor DID point out to me (and he was genuinely concerned to ask me what I was up to) is my KETONE level. I registered a positive 2 reading (+2). He said that in itself is not cause for concern but he asked me how long I had fasted the night before my blood and urine tests. The tests were done in the morning and all I did was have dinner and not snack any more until the tests were over the next morning. He pointed out that it was usually an indication that I was dehydrated. Actually, when he had pointed to the word 'KETONE', I was jumping for joy inside. I'll explain why but let me finish with the doctor first. I explained to him that I was eating 'normally' and he insisted I tell him examples of what I was eating. When I mentioned that I sometimes had salads, he wanted to know what else I was eating. I thought of the first word that came to my mind and said, 'Chicken'. LOL.
I think he was concerned enough to find out if I was starving myself. So I blurted out that I was trying to lose weight and I was exercising and limiting my carbohydrate intake. He sort of relaxed then and took a look at my records in his computer. He did a quick calculation and was surprised that I had lost 5 kgs since my last visit (ok, 5 and not 6kg because although my 'magic number' had hit a new low, meaning I have lost 6kgs it is still in the 'fluctuating' mode and has not settled completely in the low number! That process should take 2 weeks). The doctor said that was very good because it was no mean feat to achieve that. I told him that I was very happy that my BP Diastolic reading was in the 80s that day. I said I'd been trying to bring it down from the 90s. So I was happy.
Generally, I left the office feeling very, very happy. Ok, let me explain about why I was happy to see a positive reading on my Ketone level. In simple layman terms, my body should be burning carbohydrates to draw energy. However, because I have been restricting my carb (my usual rice) intake, my body is drawing on fats for energy. So, for the moment, I am well-pleased. Hehe. I know it sounds crazy to have a 'bad' reading from the doctor's point of view but if you're on a journey to lose weight, you will know, it's not such a bad thing after all. I know for a fact that I'm not registering a positive 2 (+2) Ketone reading because of any other disease. I did not register a positive on the Ketone reading in my previous blood and urine test done 3 months ago. So it coincides with my new eating and exercise habits.
On the other hand, my potassium level has gone up. It was already high at my last test before I had actually started to exercise seriously and now, it has gone up a bit. If it goes up again, then I will be over the threshold and that should be a cause for concern. I don't know why the doctor hadn't pointed that out. Could be because it was still within the desirable range.
Apart from the 2 readings mentioned above, my blood and urine analysis say the readings are in the optimal range. Not just satisfactory but in the optimal range. Yay! Good job, me!
My cholesterol was already in the desirable range (4.69 mmol/L) and it was lowered yet again (4.13). My triglycerides were lowered considerably! (from 1.51 to 0.96). Then a bunch of medical jargon I have not bothered to figure out but HDL-C (1.23 lowered to 1.22), LDL-C (lowered from 2.80 to 2.50). Chol: HDL Ratio (lowered from 3.83 to 3.39). Glucose fasting went from 6.1 to 5.3.
Ok, so there. It makes it all worthwhile, the very many nights of exercising when all I wanted to do was pig-out. I took all this information home to share the joy with hubs and I could see that it did affect him (a little). His dad was in hospital a few days ago and hubs said that a young lady (who looked like she was in her 20s) was crying in her bed the whole night. She had suffered a stroke. I felt really sorry to hear that. Hubs said the young lady was obese. We all think the same way don't we? That the obesity probably caused her to have choked arteries or choked something and lead the way to the stroke. The thing is, my father (and now my father-in-law too), had suffered not one but two strokes. There is no turning back the minute it happens. You can improve the situation with a steely determination and therapy but you can never get back to the state of health prior to it. There is no reversal. So if you think I am trying to lose weight because I want to look nice, well yes. That is true but it was not the reason that I felt compelled to start my weight loss journey. It's because I worry about bleeding internally too. It's not that a less fat person will not suffer a stroke but all that I can do is make myself healthier and try to prevent one. The rest, I leave it to God.
Have a good weekend, peeps!
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