A year ago, I did a full bloodwork analysis with the help of my university health plan. The hospital billed me $3,641, which was fully covered by insurance. The number from the results that scared me was my glucose level, 105, above the preferred 100 max. The Hemoglobin percentage was only 5.6, putting me below the 5.7 max. Thus, I was not yet pre-diabetic. My cholesterol was an amazing 165, well below the 200 that would have been too high. Oddly, despite eating a lot of meat and dairy, my protein and calcium levels were a bit low. After carefully researching the meaning behind each of the tested indicators, I set out to correct the problem areas.
I am now fully self-employed via my Anaphora publishing company; thus, I have decided that I cannot budget for the potential health complications associated with obesity. I was 247 pounds when the above tests were taken. I had never been on a diet before. By eating normal food, I maintained a weight around 165 (with fluctuations by twenty pounds in both directions) up until 2009 or so. That year, I started my PhD program, while also teaching and opening my publishing company. My work week jumped to as many hours as were available in the day. I tried to minimize cooking and shopping time by buying a lot of frozen products that could be heated up in the microwave or stovetop in a few minutes without extra preparation. Since I was living on my own, I typically had to eat a whole pizza or a whole package of shrimp and pasta in a sitting to avoid generating leftovers. I was not eating fast food or sweets, but the sauce-covered frozen chicken wings and other goodies were equally fattening. My weight jumped up to around 247 that year, and remained there.
Up until seeing the glucose level results, I did not feel as if there was anything troubling about my weight. The majority of academics and publishers I know are overweight. It’s almost a badge of honor to be chubby, and makes one look older, wiser and more fit for mind-work. I was exercising more in these overweight years than previously, frequently doing more than an hour of aerobic activity daily. My blood pressure was spiking to extreme levels at times and I was losing breath during these trials, but it didn’t bother me.
From Texas
The Food Science Solution for Weight Loss
by Anna Faktorovich, PhD