Tests show progress towards health

My office phone rang May 27 and on the other end of the line was Betty Tso, Special Navajo Diabetes Project community health worker, who said it was time for my monthly check up for the challenge.

I remember when I first signed up for the challenge, for me, the realization of the state of health was unnerving to say the least, and now Tso was calling for me to have the same tests performed.

It was time to be weighed, have my blood sugar tested, and my triglyceride - a fat stored in the blood stream - levels measured again.

More than a month ago after the initial test results, I was determined to lead a healthier life, which at the time I figured would be simply increased physical activity.

At the time, I literally thought if I exercised I would not only lose weight but my triglyceride levels would fall as well.

I stated a few weeks ago that I was going to start running a trail near my home in Sawmill,  Ariz. For the first time since November last year, I started a regular routine of jogging or running first thing in the morning.

I started out running that trail in about 15 minutes, and have reduced that time to about eight minutes. That's good and I am starting to supplement the run by riding my mountain bike a couple of times a week.

My efforts paid off with three pounds lost since my initial weigh-in. I now weigh a robust 266 pounds. Though staff members were congratulating me with weight loss success, I viewed it as not enough.

Ray Louis, diabetes project public information officer, reasoned with my distraught ego.

"Muscle weighs more than fat," he said adding that initially my weight loss would be small because I'm in a stage of building muscle.

His words were what I needed to hear, which reinforced my decision to continue exercising.

What also helped was thinking back to some advice I heard awhile back, which basically translates to this thought: I have spent a lifetime living a life of excess, which included sloth and food.

Given that my lifestyle hasn't shown any great degree of discipline in terms of exercise and diet, I shouldn't expect to be instantly healthy just because I run and bike a few times a week and eat healthier.

I have to remind myself that any large instantaneous improvement to my health has almost always been temporary - the temporary good is the evil of the permanent best.

So I've made a conscious effort to eat foods low in fat and exercising about four to six times a week. Over time will, I hope my changes will become a part of my normal routine.

Some of which, I've already started.

I have gone from eating whatever I felt like to eating certain foods in moderation or rarely, such as cheese enchiladas and processed and canned foods.

Also exercising has become more regular too. So much that when I travel on weekends, not only do my running shoes go with me, I actually use them.

So in addition to losing three pounds, my triglyceride results were much more favorable than my initial reading.

I didn't know much about that number when I first received that test, but the reaction of Tso in the first month said 231 milligrams per deciliter wasn't a good number, which is classified as "high."

So the changes I've made in the past month resulted in a drop my triglyceride count to 156.

"That's good," Tso said, adding that ideally that triglyceride count should be below 150.

So, after a month and a half, I'm not running any marathons or long stretches of Narbona Pass. Nor am I reading every single food label to make the healthiest decision for food.

But I'm working with a "progresses not perfection" mindset, and the progress toward a healthier life is already showing.

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