At 42, I’ve had enough – I will get healthy, even if it means I lose my “bear” status. I’m going to talk about it, so this month’s column is going to be a little personal, and I hope a little inspirational, both for me, and for you dear reader.
Bears are known to be big, and be able to eat like it, and although I love to eat delicious things as much as the next big guy, I’m paying the price for it. Due partly to genetics, and due partly to my using food as a bandaid for EVERYTHING (I happy eat, I stress eat, and worst of all I bored eat – I can’t escape it) – I have Metabolic syndrome. In my case, that amounts to weight related type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides, low testosterone, and possibly sleep apnea (Sleep study will probably happen shortly). All because, or made worse by my weight, and at the same time several of those conditions make losing weight that much more of a challenge. I had been on numerous diets, in the last 2 years, and the pattern was always the same. Drop 15-20 lbs in about 2 weeks, and then start gaining it back while still dieting. I was so discouraged that I began the process of getting approval for weight loss surgery, which or my insurance includes 6 calendar months of visits to my Dr. for weight loss purposes. I needed to see him about an insurance change to my testosterone therapy anyway, so I brought up the surgery to him. He didn’t flat out say no, but he really doesn’t want me to go under the knife for it. It’s something he wants to deal with once we get my testosterone re-figured out (thank you insurance for no longer covering the product that worked just fine).
In the meantime, the boy and the bear tried out “the 21 day fix”. They each lost in the neighborhood of 20 lbs in the 21 days on this “diet” and they both claimed they never did eat all of the food allotted to them. So after a week off, all 4 of us started it. After a week in of round 2 for them, and round 1 for me and the cub I have lost 19 lbs, the bear is down almost 10, the cub about 7, and the boy is down another 5 (where his skinny ass is losing weight from is beyond me, but there it is). It’s true that most days I don’t eat all of the food allotted to me, and depending on which version of this diet you look at, I’m possibly eating 2 levels lower than the formula has me at. My cravings have been minimal, and much more along the lines of “during my week off I want sesame chicken”, I know the cub wants spaghetti during the break. That’s another nice thing about this diet, it’s suggested you only do it for 21 days at a time, so our plan is 3 weeks on, a week off (which is really more of a relaxed we’ll allow ourselves a few cheat meals during that week), and then back on.
I know I’m only a week in, but so far this has been the best diet I’ve ever been on, and I would urge any of the heftier bears reading this to check it out, whether you’ve hit the point you’re experiencing any of the parts of metabolic syndrome or not. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Until next time,
Bear hugs and butt grabs!
Mike is a 40 something bear in the great Metropolis of Fort Wayne, IN. He lives with his 3 partners and works in the retail home improvement industry. He has been active in the gay community in Fort Wayne and online for 20+ years, having volunteered for a gay/lesbian helpline, been involved in multiple LGBT community groups, and worked as a DJ in multiple gay clubs. His Gay Open Poly Bear quad blog can be seen at http://gopbqfortwwayne.blogspot.com/.
