This is a continuation of a series of articles. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t already.

Progress

This was a big month as I had a doctor’s review. I’m glad to report that my plan continues to exceed expectations.

Here is the comparative report:

There is a very high chance that in the next assessment, I will be free of medication, giving back autonomy and control to my body.

Body Composition

While my cute little weighing scale and the companion app have given me continuous indication of my progress in weight loss and body composition, they are approximations nevertheless. Dexa scans, however, provide a lot more accuracy and detail.

In comparison:

According to this, my compound goal of losing weight while increasing muscle mass has been achieved. I’ve lost over 6KGs while adding over 2.5KG of muscle mass.

Internals

My initial diagnosis also revealed that I had Grade 1 Fatty Liver. The changes in my diet + my active routine has taken care of the liver fat. My liver is now completely fat-free.

My resting heart rate is between 50 and 70 and blood pressure is at 110/70. All of these are good indicators of a system working well. My waist circumference has decreased significantly giving a visual indicator of progress in reduction of visceral fat.

Workout Routines

I mentioned in my previous article that I will share my workout routines. I’m currently in the process of experimenting with quite a few variations and will publish them after I gather more data and complete the experiments.

One thing that I am proud to share is that alongside the rowing machine, I’ve added treadmill runs to my cardio routines. My reduced weight and increased muscle mass in my legs have helped me run after 24 years. My lifting strength is also progressively increasing.

Diet, Tools & Tracking

I’ve now upgraded to Accu-Check Instant Glucometer with Bluetooth integration and the companion my sugar app. I’ve been tracking my sugar level almost on a continuous basis over the past month to understand how my body reacts to different foods at different times.

Furthermore, I’ve also increased the quantity and richness of food. I eat 3 whole eggs before workout and 4 egg whites after, along with more protein enrichment throughout the day. I’ve also added a generous amount of desserts with dates for sweetness prepared lovingly by my wonderful wife.

Diabetes Defeated?

Diabetes is a warning sign from the body to alert an inattentive individual. When you receive an alert, you respond with care. So, “defeating” does not make much sense from that perspective.

I’m immensely grateful that I got the alert as it helped me make 3 vital connections.

1. Body connection:

   I’ve practiced active disconnection from my body as a way to deal with chronic pain. Diabetes forced me to alter my diet, increase my protein consumption and hence reconnect with my body. It has been a rewarding journey so far, and I believe that I’m in quite possibly the best shape I’ve ever been in.

2. Root connection:

   My rigorous workout and tracking routines have connected me to the roots of this land, to times when people experimented with their body to understand how it works, how to build, maintain and tune it to perfection.

   They innovated new practices and came up with arts such as Yoga, Silambam and Kalari. I have been forced to go through a similar journey to understand my body, create routines that work best for my purposes and add a generous amount of available and custom-built technology to the mix.

   In acknowledgement of this connection, I finish my workouts with child’s pose(balasana) dedicated to those trailblazers that embraced both their child like wonder and the power of their intellect to seek truths and create new things.

3. Science connection:

   While I’ve dabbled with health science a long time back, diabetes forced me to delve deep into anatomy, exercise science and biology to get things in order. This has taken me into fascinating rabbit holes that I will dive into in future articles.

Next Steps

My past couple of months of research and effort have taken care of all my short-term goals and needs. I’m running a few experiments to convert my learnings into sustainable long term routines and continuous improvement goals.

In terms of goals, I have about 1 more KG of fat to lose and a lot of muscle to gain. But this is not part of the boot camp type dietary / workout regimen that I have been imposing on myself. A longer term, living goal that I will continuously tweak and tune as my body adapts to the new reality.

I will also be experimenting with eating more normal (moderate - high carb) food and desserts to see how my body reacts. I will publish my detailed workout routine for those that are on a similar journey towards diabetes recovery or general health.

Stay tuned for some interesting announcements in this area and others.