Back on track with another 2.8lbs week!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, which usually means I haven’t made much progress. That is both true and not.

During the flu bug and blood pressure issues I reported, I was unable to exercise or fast. I did try to get back to fasting, but a natural side effect of a fast is that your BP drops, which was just too risky until I was sure my pressure had stabilized.

I did the smart thing and took a complete rest for well over a week. Over the last week, I gradually started back with swimming, as it is the lower-impact exercise option. While I’ve dropped my swimming back to 1km (4*250m) after the layoff I’m feeling much stronger now. Having re-established a routine there, I finally reintroduced running this past Sunday (8th Feb), again taking it a bit easy but still managing 2 mins run / 1 min walk (7 sets), and I felt ready to get back on track with fasting.

I completed my first 36-hour fast in two weeks this morning. I must admit yesterday’s fast was a little bit taxing, and I seriously contemplated not going for my Monday swim as I was feeling lethargic – but I persevered, pushed through, and am glad I did.

During my illness, of course it’s no surprise that I put back on a few pounds. One of the issues with low blood pressure is low blood volume, which can result from dehydration and the flushing of electrolytes. As I discussed, one of my medications, Indapamide, is a diuretic. Its sole purpose is to keep blood volume lower, thereby lowering blood pressure. As I was over-medicated, it was a major contributing factor to my fainting episodes. Once I dropped that medication, I saw a corresponding increase in weight. I know this was just water weight because I didn’t change my diet at all. No more Indapamide now, I’m free of that forever, which means my hydration levels will no longer be an issue.

My weight peaked at 17st 6.2lbs (244.2 lbs) on 4th February, so on paper, I’d put back on 4.5 lbs during my illness – but most of that happened after my medication change which means it was water weight.

Now, with just a couple of days of my regular running and fasting regime, I’m at 17st 3.4lbs (241.4 lbs), so I have lost 2.8 lbs in less than a week. I didn’t change what I ate in that time and there was only one fast, which at best could only account for less than a pound of body fat loss. The rest is simply my water levels readjusting.

Here’s my updated weight ticker.

It will take another week to get back to my pre-illness weight, but losing a couple of weeks to an unexpected illness is no big deal.

I’m really pleased with myself for not using that illness as an excuse to fall back into old eating habits that could have seriously sabotaged my efforts. It’s probably a first for me to not ‘eat my emotions’ or eat badly while feeling sorry for myself.

And let’s not forget—I still have cause to celebrate! Part of the reason for that illness was, paradoxically, my weight loss success. I’ve now halved my blood pressure medication precisely because I’ve lost weight so quickly.

My blood pressure has been fine since. I checked again today and my seated BP was a healthy 113/78 (74 bpm). My standing BP was 106/74 (102 bpm). That’s a tiny drop compared to the 30-point crash I was seeing before, and my heart rate and BP recovered within a minute.

Everything is looking good. I’ll just need to keep an eye on my BP as I increase my fasting and exercise, especially once I lose another 10 lbs or so. It’s quite likely that I’ll reach a point where I’m ‘over-medicated’ again as my body adapts. I’m now very confident that by the time I reach March for my next diabetic check-up, my HbA1c will be back to at least the ‘pre-diabetic’ level, if not ‘normal,’ and I’ll be able to look at dropping the last of my blood pressure medication.