Meet Phil Poppenpill. At the relatively young age of 58 he has very gradually accumulated a significant amount of excess weight. In fact, at 5 feet 8 inches tall and 210 pounds, he is 40 or 50 pounds ( or about 30%) over his ideal weight. He also has the misfortune of having inherited a tendency toward adult onset or Type 2 diabetes. His doctor first diagnosed diabetes for Phil a year ago. Phil’s diabetes problem has brought along with it the usual sidekicks of high blood pressure (his is 170/100), high uric acid (gout), and high cholesterol. To top it off, Phil attempts to relieve work stress by frequent cigarette breaks between customers. Phil has probably a 30% chance of having a heart attack in his 60′s
Let’s follow Phil through a typical day. Phil is running late this Monday, but he does remember to grab his pills. Let’s take a quick analysis of what he pops in his mouth.
Glucophage (metformin) for his blood sugar
Glynase (glyburide) also for his blood sugar
Zestril (lisinopril) for his blood pressure
Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ for short is a water pill, also for his blood pressure
Allopurinol for his gout.
Lipitor for his cholesterol
He gets a late start this Monday morning and stops for a sausage croissanwich at Burger King on his way to his job as a car salesman. His job is a tough one especially with the recent economic slowdown. Phil often doesn’t have time to pack a lunch, so a burger and fries are often the only convenient choice. He blames his high stress job for his smoking habit, but he has cut back to a pack or so a day.
Phil’s only exercise is 18 holes of golf about twice a month. With a cart. But if you ask him, he’ll tell you he is active, indeed his feet kill him from walking around the car lot all day.
Yes there are to paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road your on. Led Zepplin, Stairway to Heaven
Phil has two paths he can choose from here:
Path One:
Continue the same way he has been going. He will soon need insulin as his Diabetes progresses and he will gain more weight if he takes insulin and doesn’t improve his eating. He has well over a 20% chance of a heart attack in his 60’s. And that doesn’t even count all the other health problems he will have.
Path Two:
Phil can change his health dramatically. I didn’t say easily. I did say dramatically. Phil has spiraled into a totally unhealthy lifestyle. it will take some time to dig back out. Some of these things will sound familiar.
Activity: Probably the most important improvement for Phil to make is start increasing his activity level. He feels tired from work , but it is more psychological than physical. He needs to buy better shoes an start walking before or after work. He should walk fast enough to get breathing a bit harder. He will probably have to start small, like 10 minutes a day. Before work, after work, whatever works, but it should be 5 days a week. When the 10 minutes starts getting a bit easier (it will take 3 or 4 weeks), he should increase to 15 minutes per day. Eventually he should get up to 50 minutes per day to lose weight and keep healthy, maybe as little as 30 minutes per day to stay healthy and maintain weight later on.
If Phil can get his wife or a friend (probably a male friend or he will start a new problem) to walk with him, his chances of continuing will improve.
Oh, and forget the weather excuses right now. Heat, rain, cold. You go Phil.
NBSP;
Eating:
This is not as hard as you think. Mostly it involves eating more healthy food, which will push the junk food into the trash bin. But first, some things should just go. If Phil is drinking empty calories, like soda pop, I have two words. Quit and It. Energy drinks, juice drinks and gatorade etc are no better.
Ok, what is healthy eating? You have probably heard it all before, you just haven’t