Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Diet Update: Entering Phase 2

Posted: November 23, 2025 by datechguy in medicine, personal
Tags: ,

I thought you might be interested in an update on the status of my diet:

There are two critical updates the first is the round of blood tests that the Doctor ordered after three months of it being in place: These tests were all drawn 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Test Progress

  • My A1C is out of the Diabetic range and now in the pre-diabetic range
  • My glucose is down but still not in the “normal” zone but I’ve moved half the distance to the goal
  • Bun is now in normal range lowest in 10 years
  • My total cholesterol is now only a single point above normal the lowest since they started checking 12 years ago
  • Triglycerides are now deep into normal better than half of before
  • Non HDL cholesterol down 15 points still over normal but the lowest ever measured in me

The big news is the A1C If I can drop it by half as much as I’ve already had I’ll actually be in the full “normal” range and given the history of heart attacks in my family the HDL number is a big deal.

These are all good signs. My next set of tests are scheduled for February, we’ll see where we are there.

Diet progress

At my last post I was at 280 on the nose. At my doctor’s appointment on the day of the tests I was at 273.4 Today I have broken the 270 barrier and am at 269.6. I’m at 63.2% of my goal under 20 lbs away (250).

This means my diet is now entering phase 2 which is what I call the adaptive phase.

Phase one was very strict. Here are the details again:

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No bread (I get two slices when I go out for breakfast that’s it) no Subs
  • No sausage (I had one piece a week ago) 1st since Aug 8th
  • No chocolate bars (had one since the 8th)
  • No candy, cake etc basically no deserts
  • No Ice Cream (I’ve had two servings since Aug 8th)
  • No potatoes (two servings since Aug 8th)
  • Salads with a meal whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • No snacks (chips , Cheetos etc forgot to include this on the original list but it’s been from the start)
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

You’ll note some of these items are in bold that means they remain the same in phase 2 that is:

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No Subs (covered by ‘no bread’ but need to clarify here)
  • No Candy cakes, basically no deserts
  • Salads with a meal whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water (always diet)
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • No snacks
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

You’ll note some items are now in italics. That’s because we’re reached this point in under 4 months of the full year I have some flexibility so here is what will change

  • No bread at home, if I’m out and it comes with a meal one slice (Toast if I go out for breakfast)
  • Breakfast sausage once a week max if I cook at home or once a week out
  • One candy bar a week if I want it (think a Cadbury bar eaten over 3 days)
  • Ice cream if I go to Friendly’s (the mini cone trio) a taste of what’s at home a week if wanted
  • If at Friendly’s a burger & fries (no BBQ sauce or bacon) eat about 1/2 of the fries
  • An occasional Market Basket Donut (FAR superior to Dunkin’s) perhaps bi-weekly.

The idea is to slowly reintroduce foods to my diet that were once staples (sausage, burger & fries) and some deserts (ice cream, chocolate bars). This is to teach me to eat them in moderation and not to binge. If this means I get to 259 in January or Feb that’s fine. The idea is to learn moderation in foods I enjoy.

As before there are no “cheat” days but Birthdays, Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) are days when none of these restrictions apply.

Once I hit 259 we’ll begin phase 3. The home stretch. When I get there I’ll fill you in on the plan.

You might ask yourself: “Hey DaTechGuy? There are now drugs that will help you lose weight? Why bother with all this dieting?”

I say. The whole point of this exercise is to not have to take medications (pills and shots) to stay alive, not to take a different set of pills and shots.

Plus if you use the diet shots & pills then but don’t change your lifestyle once you stop all the problems return. Much better to do this myself and train myself to be sensible.

Wish me luck.

I haven’t really written about DaDiet on the Blog…

Posted: October 23, 2025 by datechguy in medicine, personal

…but so far it’s going pretty well.

Basically on Aug 4th I did something I hadn’t done in years, got a physical that included blood tests.

The tests didn’t come out very good to say the least and it looked like a lot of drugs and needles heading my way when the only medicine I have every been on was for blood pressure and that has only been for the last year or so.

I saw the results on MyChart and read them to my wife who gave me the bad news before the nurse-practitioner could call me. At that moment I resolved that I would try to take care of the problem myself, no shots, no pills, no cutting out half of my stomach.

I called the nurse-practitioner on the Feast of St. Myron of Crete (August 8th) and told the doctor that I was going to give myself one year from that date to get myself in better shape and if next year on that date my blood tests were still horrible I’d submit to whatever medication she would prescribe but I got myself into this problem so I want to try to get myself out of it.

On Aug 3rd I weighed in at 303.3

As of 15 minutes ago (Oct 23rd 6 am) I’m at 280 on the nose. My goal is 250. I choose 250 because all my old clothes will still fit me at 250 if I go below that weight I have to buy new stuff and nothing becomes more discouraging than losing weight, buying new clothes and then slowing growing to big for them again.

For those interested here is

DaTechguy’s Personal Diet

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No bread (I get two slices when I go out for breakfast that’s it)
  • No sausage (I had one piece a week ago) 1st since Aug 8th
  • No chocolate bars (had one since the 8th)
  • No candy, cake etc basically no deserts
  • No Ice Cream (I’ve had two servings since Aug 8th)
  • No potatoes (two servings since Aug 8th)
  • Salads with a mean whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

I don’t have “cheat days” but what I do have is a rule that if there is a birthday or a holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving) all these rules are suspended for the day but I don’t go nuts.

That and I’ve added walking when possible and the elliptical twice a week when It’s not.

I’m on track to hit my goal by Valentines day but I do have till aug 8th so It’s looking good and the NP has scheduled a blood test next month to check on the progress.

Wish me luck

The Reality of this Election $10 vs $20

Posted: October 16, 2024 by datechguy in economy, election 2024, personal
Tags: , ,

D J Giles: Just a minute. You’re selling horses to Maximilian in preference to your own country’s army?

John Henry Thomas: No, I’m selling horses for $35 in preference to 25.

The Undefeated 1969

There are a lot of really stupid arguments being made by a lot of people who think they’re very smart concerning what this election comes down to.

But for all the idiocy that’s being spewed by “experts” let me break it down to one simple thing.

The best fish in the city of Fitchburg Massachusetts is at the 5th Street Diner. This has been true since they opened in the year of the great Ice Storm. It was true when Ed and Tina ran the place as husband and wife and it’s still true now that they have broken up and Tina works the morning and Ed the evenings. No matter how you slice it they have the best fish and chips and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

But if you want to understand what his election is all about I can’t think of a better example then the fish and chips at the dinner.

Four years ago when Donald Trump was president I could go down to the 5th street diner and get my fish and chips and a diet coke with a ten dollar bill in my pocket (they don’t take plastic)

When I got the same meal today four years later, it cost me a $20.

That is what this election is about.

Choose wisely

Assorted Thoughts on Lunch with My Brothers, Dinner with My Son Under the Fedora: Marriage, Money, Traps and the value of Time and stuff Under the Fedora

Posted: May 18, 2024 by datechguy in American Success Stories, culture, personal, under the fedora
Tags: , ,

Yesterday I went to lunch with my two older brothers. The oldest of us is 74 the middle turns 70 this December and I’m bringing up the rear at 61. We are all very different but we have one big thing in common, one marriage very long. I’ve been married 36, the middle one 39 years and my oldest 54 years. That’s a combined 129 years of being married without a divorce.

I’ve failed at a lot of things in life, but marriage is something all three of us have aced.

Of the three of us my oldest brother is the best in managing money and avoiding debt. In fact he said he had done so well lately he insisted on paying for lunch only asking for a fiver to make the tip come out right. He’s not what anyone would call “rich” but he’s doing OK and his children, grandchildren are pretty much set. He was once been asked what was the secret of his ability to make smart financial decisions and avoiding debts.

His answer, getting married at the age of 20 and having a daughter at 21 forced him to be prudent with his cash and make good decisions to keep his family going.

So many people run away from responsibility at 19 and 20 saying they have their whole life ahead of them but the reality is that if you run toward responsibility when you are young you won’t end up living with your parents with a bunch of college debt and no prospect to have a house.

It’s ironic because that’s the trajectory of George “Georgie” Cooper in Young Sheldon. He ends up getting married before 20, having a child before twenty and having to, while raising his own family help keep things together for his mother and sister with his fathers sudden death and eventually grows up to be, as the older Sheldon describes him “A loser who sells more tires than anyone in Texas”.

My brother never got rich but he also only had the one marriage, advantage Tony.

One of the reasons why neither of my brothers are rich is that both while civil servants who worked for the state for decades were incorruptible. Both had plenty of opportunities for graft if they had chosen to take them and had temptation put out in front of them in terms of money and women etc but turned it down.

They were wise enough to recognize these temptations as traps because once you cross that line those who know you did or find out you did own you. I suspect this drives a lot of the corruption in both the state and federal governments , people crossing the line, people who want favors using that to gain more favors. That’s how a Joe Biden and a Nancy Pelosi become multi millionaires on a member of congress’ salary.

I also suspect this is why Joe Biden and the left is so determined to crush the middle class out of existence. A person who is content with a middle class life isn’t owned by others and can’t be easily manipulated.

I arrived second for our lunch yesterday and found one of my brothers sitting outside in the beautiful day for us and sat with him. I had just had a VERY annoying experience in solving a problem that shouldn’t have existed that had put me off and relished the chance to vent about it to my brother outside of other people’s hearing. It was just what I needed at the time.

One of the hardest things about being the generation whose turn it is to die is you start to run out of people to vent to. You don’t have parents or elders for advice because you’re the elder and the number of people who you’ve known all your life decreases with age as people start dropping dead.

I suspect I won’t have both of my brothers for more than a few years at most. So I plan on taking advantage of this and having regular bi-monthly lunches with them while we still can.

My youngest son realizes this dynamic as well. He walked over to the house after his work yesterday and we spent a hour chatting and then hitting the local 99’s to watch the Bruins be eliminated from the playoffs on a late goal with under 2 minutes (their specialty) It was two hours of talk, chat and company and I found myself talking to him about the times my dad would drive me to the nearest comic book store in Harvard Square which was 60 miles away (this was in the 70’s when such stores were rare) those were good times. My youngest is a lot like my father, gregarious, cooks up a storm and seems to be loved by everyone around him and he seems to recognize the value of this time we get together while it’s still in play.

That’s wisdom.

One of the few really bright points about the cuts and work and my current shift. My best mass window is the 6 PM mass right after work on Sunday which happens to be the mass my sons attend together weekly. So I am spoiled in terms of time with them lately. Of course at the end of a 10 hour day that starts a 5:17 AM I’m not up for much

Today however I have off, alas my wife will be working but both sons are free so we’ll be heading up to Manchester on a road trip to the Tycoon Arcade (we talked about them during my Pintastic ne 2024 coverage)

While my youngest is into the pinball scene my oldest oldest isn’t a big arcade guy but again it’s the time together that is of value. Last weekend DaWife and I went with him to help setup at a New Hampshire Renaissance Fair where he was volunteering to spend time with a friend. The time together was of great value and as he grows closer to a decision on a vocation within the church these times together become of even more value because if that what he is called to such times will likely cease to exist.

That’s also one of the advantages of not actually having a machine, it gives an excuse to do something and makes such a trip more enjoyable. Because when it comes down to it no matter what you have, whether it’s pinball machines or games or anything else it’s pretty much stuff and how much of the stuff you have do you really use on a regular basis? One of the best parts of getting older is the realization that stuff does not bring happiness. It can be the basis for a pleasant memory but it’s the memory, not the stuff that produces the smile.

I made some pleasant memories with my brothers yesterday. I’ll make some pleasant memories with my sons today. Take my advice and if your day is free or if you have a free day coming up, use it to make pleasant memories with people you like while they are available. It will pay a higher dividend than any of the stuff you aquire.

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