Maintianing... New to MFP.

Hello, All!

My name is Ken and I'm already at the end of a long journey.

I started at 245lbs (I'm 6') after peaking at 250lbs. I was in my late 30's. I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver, and Sleep Apnea. I went on a CPAP machine and started a diabetic diet and meds. I thought it was the end of the world. I couldn't eat the foods I loved. No more baked potatoes, Italian foods, fast foods, etc. I was miserable. It was only because of a good and loving wife that I kept going. Otherwise, I probably would have eaten myself to death.

I lost about 10-15 lbs simply from the restricted diet. I was still out of shape. I started walking, then we took up a hobby that got us out of the house and into the woods.

Got me down to around 225lbs

Then a nearly crushing event occurred. I took stock of my life and decided I wanted to become a police officer. A radical change in direction, yes, I know. Most everyone supported me in my choice, if not my choice of department considering its reputation as a dangerous, if not hardcore, agency.

I got busy working out and got down to 200lbs so I could pass the Physical Aptitude Test. The PAT was hard for someone like me, but the rest was easy. At 46 years old I became a cop.

With that goal met I wanted to get off all prescription medications and the CPAP machine. The doctors advised they would re-evaluate if I got down to 180lbs. Before then my base numbers continued to stay low even while my primary care physician kept dropping doses. A1C in the mid to high 5s. Lipides all good. She refused to take me off all meds until I did a Berkley Heart Health test. It's a DNA test. Unfortunately, it can back positive as having the indicator of the gene that elite athletes that drop dead of a heart attack have. I'm still on a heart med and a baby aspirin, but nothing for the diabetes.

The sleep test indicated I no longer have sleep apnea. I was told I didn't even snore. The bedroom is quite for the first time in over a decade.

That goal met. At 174lbs I'm done!

Not quite. The weight started to creep back. I came to the realization that if I don't have a goal to work toward I slide. I can't maintain. I either gain or loose ground.

I've never been a runner. I was always last in the 600 yard dash. Many times I was the only person on the field for long minutes before I finished. My lovely wife finally gave up smoking and to combat a feared weight gain she took up running again. So did I. I still suck, but today I ran for a solid 20 minutes and covered 2.3 miles. I've run a 5K at [embarrassingly slow pace]. We did a mud run a couples weeks ago and didn't do too bad.

Part of my weight lost was due to me using a program on my iPod Touch called Tap-n-Track. Similar to the app here. I didn't put anything in my mouth that didn't first go into the app. This helped. Then I stopped using it. I've found that my days off are hard for me because I tend to snack. I don't know what I'm consuming. This is part of my weight gain.

So, here I am. I'm using a different program, because I'm now on a Droid. I like this program much better due to the user confirmed figures for the items. Everything so far has been right on. I'm loving it.

So, You won't be seeing any huge loses in my weight as I'm only about 6lbs over a very loose goal.

I do have a question. Is there a thread that explains all of these abbreviations and acronyms? I figured out MFP, but NSV? Depository of such terms?

Thanks,
Ken