Goodbye Little Debbie, Hello MyFitnessPal!

Good Bye, Little Debbie… Hello, MyFitnessPal!
My Personal Journey to weight loss and better health…
By Greg Templeton
March 22, 2013

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2006 when I was 34 years old. I had been very healthy up to that point in my life, and never really gave my health much thought. Diabetes does not run in my family, so I had no reason to believe that I was genetically predisposed to develop the condition. It had never really occurred to me that something like diabetes was even a possibility for me. This diagnosis was a direct result of everything I was doing wrong with my health. I was overweight, mostly sedentary, and eating all the wrong foods… Let’s just say that Little Debbie had been a REALLY good friend of mine for a number of years! She was there for me when nobody else was, and never let me down… Well, except those times when I discovered an empty box in my pantry!

The diagnosis was made from a routine physical that I had when I started seeing a new primary care physician. He ran the typical “routine physical” lab tests, turn your head and cough, most of you know the drill… The next day, the nurse called me with the results. I’ll never forget the words coming from the other end of the phone “Mr. Templeton, your fasting blood glucose was 380, you are diabetic and need to start medication immediately!”

I was a deer in headlights!

For the first time in my life, I was faced with a real health crisis, and so began:

Shock & Denial: I was in complete disbelief (and by disbelief I mean complete and total denial!) “Do What? No way this could be happening to ME! The test results must be wrong! I demand that the test be performed again; there must have been something wrong with the testing instrument, the blood sample, or anything other than the fact that the results must be accurate!”

Anger: “How could this new doctor DO this to ME? I’m just going to find another one!” Which was eventually, and more rationally, replaced with “How could I HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN?”
Bargaining: “Come on Doc, let’s not jump to conclusions here. Can we hold off on the diagnosis until I have a chance to lose a little weight and break up with Little Debbie? It’ll be okay, I am really good at fixing things, I can do this. Once I get the blood glucose under control, I am no longer diabetic, right doc?? I can take a pill and everything will be OK, right doc?”

Depression: I felt pretty low after coming to the realization that no amount of denial or bargaining was going to “fix” the issue… And the realization that the only way I was going to be able to “fix” this was to get off my *kitten* (literally and physically) was just too overwhelming to deal with. There were so many unanswered questions… Will I have to inject myself with insulin? And with my overall dislike of needles, well, I will likely end up with a concussion when I pass out, fall, and hit my head! Would I lose my eyesight to this disease? Would I lose my feet or have other serious complications due to this disease? I was depressed enough already with the diagnosis, can you imagine how angry and depressed I would be if these complications occurred?

Acceptance: Finally after a period of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, I arrived at acceptance… This was where I embraced my own inner strength, knowledge, and physical ability to manage the diagnosis… I attended an education session for newly diagnosed diabetic patients, was compliant with my medication, measured my blood glucose several times per day, introduced some form of physical activity into my life each day, watched my diet, and yes, even broke up with Little Debbie (which, by the way, was the toughest part of all of these life changes!)… I still bump into her occasionally at the grocery store, and the loss of that relationship is no better today than it was in the beginning… 

With the introduction of these positive changes in my life, my blood glucose slowly tapered down to a normal range, I felt better, lost quite a bit of weight, had more energy, and felt overall pretty proud of my accomplishment. I felt very in “control” of it all and realized that Diabetes is a condition which can be successfully managed. I actually began to see the diagnosis as a wakeup call, one which likely saved my life, or at the very least added many years to it.

However, as we all have done at different times in our lives, little by little, I began to revert back to my old bad habits… Less physical activity, larger portions of the wrong foods, and yes, even the occasional visit with Little Debbie… Okay, who am I kidding here? Those visits were more FREQUENT than just OCCASIONAL. My weight increased, my clothes got tighter, I had less energy, I was even measuring my blood glucose less… But, despite all this, my blood glucose readings were still normal, even GOOD, so at least the medication was working… LIGHT BULB! Aaaah, OK, I see how this works! I don’t have to hold up MY part of the bargain, the medication will do all the heavy lifting…. SWEET! Little Debbie, Here I come! Are you following me here? See how this is leading to a downward spiral??

So, fast-forward to the beginning of 2012… I was, again, at the doctor’s office for my annual routine physical. This day turned out to be yet another eye opener for me when the doctor said “Mr. Templeton, according to your age and height, you are less than one point away from Stage 1 Obesity according to the BMI chart”… “Say What?? You’ve got to be kidding? I’m not obese!… Oprah Winfrey is obese!” (No offense to Oprah, I respect and admire her success) However, truth of the matter was, that my weight that day was just ONE pound less than what Oprah Winfrey “says” was her highest weight ever! How could this be? How was I the same wight as Oprah?? Well, as she would say, this was a real “Ah-Ha Moment” for me…

So, being the kind of person that I am, I immediately went into “let’s fix this mode”… I had done it before, I can do it again… But, keep in mind, this is now 6 years later, and my 40th birthday is staring me in the face! I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as before, but I was committed… Not only did I want to get back to my previous “good” habits, but I wanted to go further and introduce “even better” ones… So, I started eating a healthy breakfast every morning (steel cut oatmeal is my favorite, and Panera Bread has some of the best, with strawberries, no nuts or cinnamon sugar), walking in Centennial Park just about every day after work, replaced chips and sodas with healthier snacks and water. And yes, you guessed it, broke up with Little Debbie, again! You’d think she’d get the message by now, huh?

After a couple of months of these better habits, I wasn’t losing as much weight as I had expected, or hoped to… “The scale was telling me lies! What’s going on here? What was different?” I had turned 40, that’s what was different! Losing weight, and keeping it off, wasn’t going to be nearly as easy this second time around…

Around the same time, on a visit home to visit my family, my brother was showing me his new Andriod SmartPhone… I’m an iPhone guy myself, so I wasn’t really that interested, and I was just humoring him by acting interested… But, an app on his phone did catch my eye, and my brother was telling me all about it. Hello MyFitnessPal!! I downloaded the app for my iPhone and started setting up my own personal information and health and weight goals… The app seemed pretty easy to use, so figured it couldn’t hurt. MyFitnessPal works on the concept of logging (counting) calories consumed versus calories burned. Just about every kind of food imaginable is stored in the MyFitnessPal database, so logging daily food and calorie intake is extremely easy. There’s even a cool barcode scanning feature that will automatically pull in all of the nutritional information from packaged foods with a simple scan… It’s basically fool-proof!

What an EYEOPENER this was for me… Even with modifying my diet to include mostly healthy foods, I had no concept of the number of calories I was consuming per day… Based on my own personal weight and health goals, MyFitnessPal calculated that I should be consuming somewhere close to 1750 calories per day… Well, in just a couple of days, I learned real quick that I had been consuming WAY more than 1750 calories! CLICK, LIGHT BULB! HERE IT IS! This is the KEY I’ve been missing… I may be eating healthy foods like a lean chicken breast and fruits and veggies, but if I’m eating 3000 calories worth per day, then my weight wasn’t going to budge… In fact, it was likely going to continue BULGING!

Once this concept clicked with me, I was off and running, or “losing” I should say… Using MyFitnessPal became fun, and just a part of my everyday life… I entered everything that I was consuming per day into the app, as well as any physical activity that I had performed. MyFitnessPal has built in some pretty good averages for calories burned for different activities such as different types of cardiovascular or even just simple housework. It’s not a perfect measurement, but have I found it to be a good gauge… At the end of the day, I would click “Complete This Entry”, and like a great big reward, MyFitnessPal would say things like “GOOD JOB! IF EVERY DAY WERE LIKE TODAY, IN 5 WEEKS YOU WILL WEIGH 165 LBS”… Just the kind of motivation, encouragement, and positive reinforcement that I needed…

After about 8 months of my new relationship with MyFitnessPal (which I actually consider more like My Fitness HERO!), I have shed 50 pounds, 5 inches off my waist, and am at the weight that I was in high school… The most incredible part of this entire journey is that my doctor has discontinued 4 medications that I was taking to control my blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol... And so far, all indications are that I can remain off these medications as long as I’m maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle…

MyFitnessPal has helped me become aware of the foods which offer the most bang for their calorie intake, and which ones to simply steer clear of! I bet many of you didn’t know that just two tablespoons of peanut butter contains 190 calories, did you? And c’mon, how many of us only two tablespoons between two pieces of bread?? Not many, I’m sure!

This whole journey for me has really been life-changing… Anyone that asks how I’ve done it, I immediately whip out my iPhone and give them a full-on demo of MyFitnessPal. Seriously, I think the developer of this app should pay me to be their spokesperson, I believe in it that strongly.

I’ve learned to set myself up for success by buying only those foods that I know are nutritious and lower in calories. I own the fact that I don’t have the kind of willpower it takes have unhealthy snacks in my pantry and NOT eat them! I stock up on healthy snacks such as apples, pistachios, or microwave popcorn (Publix brand Sweet & Salty Kettle Popcorn is the BEST, and lowest in calories that I’ve found) and keep them handy at my desk or in my backpack during the day. At the end of 2012, I began exploring the idea of becoming vegetarian, just to see if I could do it. It actually wasn’t difficult at all, and so on January 1, 2013, I officially became a vegetarian. For me, eating meat is not a moral issue; it’s simply a health issue. Not everyone has to go to this extreme, but for me it seems to be working.

As far as physical activity goes, I actually don’t enjoy doing things that are overly strenuous… I’ll never look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, nor would I want to really… I love a really brisk walk, a long hike through a local park or nature area, or doing some light weight resistance training… I have even began running, and recently ran for 5.5 miles continuiously without stopping, for the FIRST TIME EVER IN MY LIFE! I belong to a gym close to my home, so no excuses not to go. I joined a community center around the corner from my office for those days when I need a change of scenery. I keep gym clothes and athletic shoes in my car, ALWAYS, so I am prepared and don’t make excuses. I have taken a few yoga classes, and have really enjoyed exploring different types of physical activities that I had either never done, thought I wouldn’t enjoy, or quite simply couldn’t do when I was heavier…

By sharing my story, I hope I have been able to motivate a few of you to make just a couple of healthy changes in your life, simple ones, easy ones. And, maybe you’ve gotten a chuckle or two as well, or can relate to my on-again off-again relationship with Little Debbie…