I think I know what is wrong with me.

[marino]

I already know that I will have to lose weight...

You can do it Carlo. I have lost 35 pounds in the last 5 months. I feel and look a whole lot better. That's what my wife tells me anyway.

Thanks Dave, that's encouraging. I know it will be tough...

 

 

[Markay]

potato etc.

 

I just want to pipe in and say that potatoes actually got an undeserved bad rap during the Atkins craze.

To be clear I did not go on anyone's diet. I did my research, as did my wife.

 

Based on research I came to very simple conclusion that the body turns carbs into energy in the form of glucose. I am no longer processing the glucose and running high blood sugar. Carbs are a good source of energy. Trouble was I was consuming far more energy than I was burning and I was either now insulin resistant or my pancreas had only so many squirts of insulin left and had slowly over time been put me on low rations of insulin.

 

My wife decided that while we had a pretty healthy diet at home a good way to improve it further would be to adopt the thinking promoted by a chef who got type 2 Diabetes early in life

 

"If your grandmother would not recognise it as food, don't eat it".

 

That put a lot of processed food and ingredients off the menu.

 

Having adopted the regime for 6 months I got my Hba1c down to within the upper range of the current normal. A further 24 months on it is slowly falling further but only fractionally. That's why carbs and soft drink etc. are out for the rest of my life. On this basis I still have more than enough glucose to keep the brain well supplied.

[Markay]

I dropped 55lbs in 3 months.

 

Damn, Mark. I didn't even know this was physically possible. Congrats.!

See Ed, you can do it, if Mark and I can do it. Need to get your mind in the right place or it won't happen, though.

 

Thanks Dave, ironically the weight loss was incidental. I hadn't hit the obese range on the BMI scale although I was close to it, and wasn't particularly bothered about my weight. I was focussed on getting my blood sugar down. But it is a good feeling when your waist shrinks by 8 inches, your belts look silly cause you have punched so many new holes in them and you have to buy a whole new wardrobe.

 

And it has been funny when I meet people who hadn't seen me in a while and they don't recognise me.

 

And congrats on a similar achievement. I suspect folk would have graded me in the 'least likely' category to achieve this given my lifestyle but it shows we are all capable of surprising ourselves and others in a good way.

[MathOfInsects]

To be clear I did not go on anyone's diet. I did my research, as did my wife.

 

Based on research I came to very simple conclusion that the body turns carbs into energy in the form of glucose.

 

Many congrats on the action you took and the incredible results.

 

I strung a couple of thoughts together that I did not mean to implicate you in. Whatever you're doing is clearly succeeding beyond all imagination, and nothing some dweeb on a message board says should change that.

 

I was only sharing a "TIL": that "resistant starch" is not absorbed during normal digestive processes, and rather passes unscathed in the way that fiber does, and therefore potatoes--whose high carbohydrate CONTENT put them on many people's "no" list--are actually a low-carboydrate SOURCE for the body, with minimal to no effect on glucose levels.

 

I do this in person too. It's infuriating, trust me.

[timwat]

I think I've always had potatoes on my "no fly" list because I never liked mashed potatoes, never eat baked potatoes, and thus only encounter them as french fries - the potato equivalent of bacon.

 

Did not know about the Asian predisposition to sleep apnea, but that's good info. I'm currently frustrated about weight loss, and envy Markay's results. I've radically cleaned up my diet but have yet to see noticeable results. Sigh.

[Threadslayer]

Yes, sometimes it's serious medical stuff.

 

Last month, my GF implored me to get checked for sleep apnea. Not just really bad snoring, I stop breathing in my sleep, known as apnea "events". So I mentioned it to my PCP. Fortunately, I have great health insurance. He referred me to the Kaiser Sleep Center.

 

They made an appointment, sent me home with an unobtrusive testing device. Anything over 5 events an hour is apnea. Anything over 30 an hour is severe. I averaged 76 events an hour. And my blood oxygen level was dangerously low as a result. As one of my sons summarized it, I was basically suffocating in my sleep.

 

They provided this small, silent web-enable CPAP machine. It took a minute to get used to sleeping with it, but it cured my apnea. I now average 0.5 events an hour - essentially normal. It sends all the night's data to the mother ship every morning and summarizes over a secure web portal. Cool stuff. Kaiser paid for everything, zero deductible.

 

I feel way less fatigued, much more alert, a lot more energy, and starting to bike and walk to chip away at this spare tire I have (need to lose 30 lbs).

 

Sometimes it's medical stuff, and sometimes it's serious enough to kill you. Get checked.

 

Tim

 

Hi Tim. Good news on the CPAP solution. Which one do you use? I have the Resmed Airsense 10 and it has been a life changer.

[timwat]

Yup, same one - Airsense 10 Autoset with humidifier. Very happy with the little guy, still can't decide between the "pillows" or "nasal" masks. Didn't have a choice on the unit, it's what Kaiser gave me...but no complaints.

 

[ProfD]

CEB, I hope all goes well with overcoming your dilemma.

 

Two months ago, I got a complete physical exam. Doctor wants me to lose 70 lbs. We split the difference and agreed to 35 lbs.

 

That will take me down to 225 lbs. That way, I'll be around the same weight as Mike Tyson in his prime and maintain the crucial left hook too.

 

All of my vital signs are normal and I have no high blood pressure or diabetes. My cholesterol is usually a little too high. I'll get it down.

 

Through a sleep study, I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea a few years ago. But, I refuse to use a C-PAP machine...well because...my ladies...don't judge me.

 

I believe losing weight will help with the sleep apnea too. So, I've cut out the junk funk, modified my diet and eating habits and I now exercise on a regular basis.

 

I see and feel results in terms of weight loss already. I expect to reach my goal by the end of summer. I'll report back whether folks still claim I snore louder than a busy train station.

 

For those of us in middle-age and older, do take care of yourselves. Younger cats heed the advice and warnings.

[MathOfInsects]

I think I've always had potatoes on my "no fly" list because I never liked mashed potatoes, never eat baked potatoes, and thus only encounter them as french fries - the potato equivalent of bacon.

 

Ha! This is actually how I learned more than anyone should know about potatoes. I started making french fries at home for the kids (baked with a little bit of olive oil rather than fried), and even got a pretty nice potato press/slicer to make them with. At dinner one night, one of the kids said, "are potatoes good for you or bad for you?" I said, I think they're fine as long as you don't eat a lot of them. My son wanted to know why. I Google-fu'd and discovered...actually, they're lo-cal, lo-carb, hi-protein, little vitamin nuggets, and we've had them wrong all these years because we didn't know about resistant starch until relatively recently.

 

At least that's how I justified the expense of the french-fry cutter, and I'm sticking with it.

[Threadslayer]

The thing about potatoes is that you really need to prepare them skin and all to get the maximum nutritional value. Most of the good stuff is on the interface layer just inside the skin and a lot of the fiber is in the skin itself. This is fine with me because the skin is my favorite part anyway.

[GovernorSilver]

Yes. I need a script for glucophage. I get the bike out I should drop the numbers.

 

Good luck, man.

 

I bike to work twice a week, just over an hour each way. It's a great alternative to taking our Metro, though IMO both Metro and bike commuting beat driving as a commute mode between VA and DC - when possible of course. My previous job was located in a place that didn't have good Metro access and would have taken me more than 2 hrs biking each way.

[Joe Muscara]

I'm currently frustrated about weight loss, and envy Markay's results. I've radically cleaned up my diet but have yet to see noticeable results. Sigh.

It can take a while. How long did the weight take to put on? That didn't happen right away either, I'm betting.

 

I admit, it can be tricky. Do you wait to see results, or do you make another change?

[CEB]

A lot of my physical decline I chalked up to getting old was probably blood sugar related. I feel better now than I did Friday. I've brought the numbers down by about 50 points. At noon I'm down to 264.

 

The doctor got me in this morning at 9:45. He has written some script and I got some blood work done after my appointment.

 

My diet doesn't totally suck but I have been tightening things up since Friday. I'm eating one additional meal but much smaller portions. My weakness is ice cream. Now I know why a hot fudge sandae makes wants to put me to sleep.

 

I'm only in one band now so I have time to workout. My weight is 225 which is only 15 pounds more than my physical prime but the weight is shaped totally different than it was back then. Skinnier arms and legs and bigger belly.

[timwat]

The thing about potatoes is that you really need to prepare them skin and all to get the maximum nutritional value. Most of the good stuff is on the interface layer just inside the skin and a lot of the fiber is in the skin itself. This is fine with me because the skin is my favorite part anyway.

 

Let me make sure I get this:

 

1) make sure I eat the potato skin and interface layer

2) take the rest of the potato and fry it in bacon grease

3) wash down the fried potatoes with chocolate donuts and scotch

 

equals massive weight loss, clearer skin, better action with the ladies, crush your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentations of their women.

[CEB]

Krom !

[GovernorSilver]

Bikes are great. My pride and joy is a custom Steve Potts titanium 29er MTB.

 

I haven't been on it in a few weeks as I'm back at running 6-7 days a week now. I definitely need to take a couple of days next week from the run and get back on it . I really miss it.

 

But riding on the road can be a dangerous activity, depending on where you live and ride. If you are going to ride on the road , seek out side streets and less traveled routes. If you have dirt roads, trails or rails to trails type of network, even bike paths (but heads up on those) - I would recommend that as opposed to the road competing with cars.

 

Put the widest tires your bike will accommodate for better control , especially if it starts raining - which it never does here. They do add more resistance but heck you get a better workout if you go out for 60 -90 minutes.

 

The gravel grinders as they're known (road bike with relaxed geometry that will handle wide tires for both road and light trail) and hybrids keep growing rapidly in popularity because even the hard core roadies are sick of dealing with the cars and seeing their friends get hurt or killed.

 

Dirt/gravel roads, trails. Dirt/gravel roads , trails. No cars.

 

Carlo mentioning Rome reminded of when I visited there 20 years ago. It was by far the worst city for running I've ever experienced. I would start at 7 AM and it was the "calm before the storm" but by 9 AMforget it. The streets were insane ! I can't imagine trying to ride a bike there.

 

Best with it all.

 

It's kind of ironic that so many Italian names are iconic in cycling history and culture (Campagnolo, Pinarello, Bianchi, Il Pirata/Pantani, etc.) yet Rome is not considered a bike-friendly city.

 

My first bike (as an adult - dunno whatever happened to the bike that was given to me, then quickly taken away when I was a kid) is a Breezer Uptown 8 - kind of a mashup of hybrid bike and Dutch-style city bike. My 2nd bike is a gravel grinder/adventure road bike - the Jamis Renegade Expert. I got it because of the cyclist equivalent of GAS - "N+1" (derived from the rule "The optimal number of bikes for a person is N+1, where N is the number of bikes currently owned").

 

Most of my bike riding is commuting to/from work - a mix of asphalt/paved bike trails and street riding. I won't lie and claim it's safer than commuting by Metro, but the DC area is pretty bike-friendly. A fair number of streets have bike lanes and some of those are even curb-protected so that cars can't park in them.

 

We have a lot of cyclists who are into racing and such - they train on roads because it is unsafe, for various reasons, to ride at a 20 mph pace or faster on the bike trails, which can carry fairly heavy pedestrian traffic in the afternoons - runners, stroller pushers, dog walkers, etc. Riding that fast on sidewalks is also impractical. We have a fair selection of back roads and such for cyclists to train on in this area, though I think some cycling teams train at night to reduce encounters with car traffic even more.

[CEB]

I've always wanted a Bianchi in that classic celeste color with Campagnolo drive train. It is such a classic style. But I've always ridden Shimano, .... mostly Trek. I like the local dealer. My mountain bike is a Gary Fisher but not a 29er which I got from the same dealer.

 

Tried racing once but Category 5 is nuts with the newbs trying to hold their lines in group turns. I'm too allergic to road rash and decided just to stick to club rides or lonewolf it. Everyone tries to advance out of Cat 5 as soon as possible because Cat 5 is dangerous.

[GovernorSilver]

I've always wanted a Bianchi in that classic celeste color with Campagnolo drive train. It is such a classic style.

 

It's one of my N+1 candidates - I'll figure out where to put the 3rd bike when I cross that bridge, lol.

 

Well, specifically, the new Eroica model matches that description. Unlike the cheaper Bianchi models, this one is Italian-made, and designed to qualify for L'Eroica rides. I have no practical reason for getting one, and don't even have experience with downtube shifters, but I want one anyway, just because of the looks.

 

http://www.bianchiusa.com/bikes/road/all-road/eroica/

 

 

[MurMan]

My diet doesn't totally suck but I have been tightening things up since Friday. I'm eating one additional meal but much smaller portions. My weakness is ice cream. Now I know why a hot fudge sandae makes wants to put me to sleep.

 

Everybody is different, but based on some reading and a conversation with my doctor, I decided late last year to cut out sweets and white carbs. Sugar is addictive to me and once I start eating sweets, it's difficult to stop. Strangely enough, I don't have too much trouble going cold-turkey. I've done it twice. After about two weeks, it loses its appeal altogether making it easy to stay away from the stuff.

 

My weight is in a good range now and all of the sugar high-lows are gone.

 

Maybe cutting out sugar is too extreme for some, but if it's a problem for you like me, you might want to consider eliminating it.

[El Lobo]

Blood sugar numbers that high are worrisome. I'm Type 2. I mainly control my blood sugar with diet - which means limiting white carbs and sugar. I fall off the wagon all the time, but I get back on when I check myself on the meter and the blood sugar is up in the high 100's or even in the 200's. Then I start paying attention to the carbs again and get it back down to the low 100's or even below 100 if I'm being really good. I'm not on metformin and I really don't exercise much. My a1c is right on the margin of diabetic. If I really limit the carbs for an extended period of time, the a1c goes down. I can really see the difference.

[marino]

It's kind of ironic that so many Italian names are iconic in cycling history and culture (Campagnolo, Pinarello, Bianchi, Il Pirata/Pantani, etc.) yet Rome is not considered a bike-friendly city.

Driving a bicycle in Rome is guaranteed to put you in trouble. The roads are horrible, and in the Center many streets are paved with the traditional square stones ("sanpietrini"), which really tax the car's suspensions, let alone a bicycle. Plus the traffic is pure chaos and very disorganized, and car drivers tend to behave like psychopaths. As icing on the cake, there are plenty of ups and downs.

 

Italy has plenty of bicycling tradition, just not in Rome. The place my family comes from, the Adriatic coast between Romagna and Marche, is in fact one of the centers of that tradition - both for manufacturers and diffusion of bicycles among people. It's also where the Italian tradition for motor sports and racing comes from (Ferrari, Ducati) *and* the center of the - now pretty much defunct - electronic instrument industry (Elka, GEM, LEM, Farfisa, SIEL, Roland Italy, etc.). Only Fatar/Studiologic (and a few smaller brave ones) are left to witness that bit of greatness.

[Doerfler]

Only Fatar/Studiologic (and a few smaller brave ones) are left to witness that bit of greatness.

 

Well, at least we still have that.

[John Tweed]

I was diagnosed as Type 2 a couple of years ago. My Hba1c is now stable as I adopted a low GI diet. Glycemic Index is a measure of how fast a carb breaks down to sugar. Potatoes, while they may be wonderful in many ways, are considered high GI, as is white rice and quite possibly a few of your other favourites.

 

We now eat lots of veges, and carbs too - pasta is low GI, as is brown rice. I stopped eating sugar and don't miss it. Eating out can be a challenge, but nowadays I salivate at the thought of a nice salad.

 

I did lose a few pounds initially and slowly the weight is coming off without me making any real effort. Probably I should cut down on the beer and exercise more (I walk most days), but my doc says I should just keep doing what I'm doing.

 

Good luck to CEB and all you forum folks with these issues that sneak up on us as we get older.

[Doerfler]

Probably I should cut down on the beer

 

God forbid.

[CEB]

Drink Stag beer.

[Dave Ferris]

It's kind of ironic that so many Italian names are iconic in cycling history and culture (Campagnolo, Pinarello, Bianchi, Il Pirata/Pantani, etc.) yet Rome is not considered a bike-friendly city.

Driving a bicycle in Rome is guaranteed to put you in trouble. The roads are horrible, and in the Center many streets are paved with the traditional square stones ("sanpietrini"), which really tax the car's suspensions, let alone a bicycle. Plus the traffic is pure chaos and very disorganized, and car drivers tend to behave like psychopaths. As icing on the cake, there are plenty of ups and downs.

 

Italy has plenty of bicycling tradition, just not in Rome. The place my family comes from, the Adriatic coast between Romagna and Marche, is in fact one of the centers of that tradition - both for manufacturers and diffusion of bicycles among people. It's also where the Italian tradition for motor sports and racing comes from (Ferrari, Ducati) *and* the center of the - now pretty much defunct - electronic instrument industry (Elka, GEM, LEM, Farfisa, SIEL, Roland Italy, etc.). Only Fatar/Studiologic (and a few smaller brave ones) are left to witness that bit of greatness.

 

One of the most revered custom steel builders in cycling is Dario Pegoretti. And he's a huge Jazz fan. Monk, Trane, Duke, Bird, Bud, Dizzy and the modern guys.

http://www.dario-pegoretti.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Pegoretti

 

I rode his Duende at a shop in Burbank and was this close to going for it. The ride was other worldly. But in the end I went with the Potts Ti MTB. I didn't want a bike I could only ride on the streets of LA.

 

I live in a much less dense traffic area then say the Valley, the Westside or Hollywood but I still take very specific less traveled *bike* routes to avoid cars whenever I can. Even still, I've had my share of close calls - mostly Beemers, Mercedes, Audis, black pickups and SUVs. Enough to sour my appetite for riding on the road as my main activity, as opposed to running. You can never let your guard down for a second around here on the road. The trails are SO much more relaxing.

 

I do have an '02 Litespeed Classic (with Ultegra) when they were still being made in the US. So it's a pretty decent road bike.

 

We live right at foothills of the Verdugo Mts here in Glendale , so trail access is a mile from my driveway. If I didn't live so close to trails I probably wouldn't have sunk the big bucks into the MTB but more of a cross bike/gravel grinder type.

[MathOfInsects]

I do have an '02 Litespeed Classic (with Ultegra) when they were still being made in the US. So it's a pretty decent road bike.

 

I have a Merlin titanium. Ti are the best-feeling frames, IMO.

 

When wife and I were in the midst of the divorce talks, she started pulling items off the mental shelf and throwing them at me. She said, "And that bike, you could probably sell it for 5 thousand dollars. What's it doing other than hanging on the wall?" I said something along the lines of, "You mean, right next to yours?" and that was not good and now I no longer have either of my two (2) balls.

[Doerfler]

MOI, not good. You will need them in the future.

[MathOfInsects]

MOI, not good. You will need them in the future.

 

Believe me, they are an integral part of our custody negotiations.

[Dave Ferris]

I do have an '02 Litespeed Classic (with Ultegra) when they were still being made in the US. So it's a pretty decent road bike.

 

I have a Merlin titanium. Ti are the best-feeling frames, IMO.

 

Could never have afforded one. The Litespeed was the poor man's Merlin. I paid 2K for it. Merlin in its day, along with Serotta were the sh*t. Merlin first went out of business maybe in the early 2000s and Serotta just in the past 5 years.

 

Most of the Ti sales today are the custom boutique builders - Moots, Eriksen, Potts, Kish, Holland, Bedford, Seven, Indy Fab, Spectrum, Firefly, etc.

 

The Ti road bikes aren't as popular as they used to be. Carbon is the thing with the young hard core racer roadie types. All I see on the road around here is Specialized S-Works.

 

I've alway been a Ti guy but having rode that steel Pegoretti Duende was like an epiphany ! Similar feeling to the first time I played a Fazioli .