I didn’t know I was T2 Diabetic for yrs

I'm not diabetic/IR (through no credit to my behavior history), but I went through a similar thing with cholesterol/triglycerides (blood lipids) and blood pressure.

In general, I'm an engaged consumer of health care, always requested copied of blood test results, reviewed them, could see what was flagged as high or low. I knew what counted as borderline to high blood pressure.

For years, like over a decade, those blood test results were flagging high cholesterol, and before that I could see that those values were inching up close to that point. I knew that blood pressure above 140/80 was not great, flirting with too high if not already too high.

Looking back, I think: Why didn't I pay attention to that? It seems so dumb, frankly, looking backward.

I could've saved myself a bunch of health problems that I guess I sort of saw as "normal aging" (because they happened to so many people around me). I'm talking about things like a compromised, cholesterolized gallbladder that had to be removed, among other things, maybe even the cancer I developed (statistically more likely if overweight, maybe also with systemic inflammation). Those things were happening, or more likely to happen, because I was fat Those, plus joint problems, mobility limitations, skin appearance issues, . . . I could go on and on.

I thought I was taking care of myself, in that I took my vitamins, ate whole grains and veggies . . . heck, I'd even been vegetarian for decades. Every year, I took active canoe camping vacations. Sometimes, I walked at lunch hour, or even went to the pool occasionally. I mean, not anything remotely close to every day, and only when it was nice weather, and pretty off an on over the years, but . . . .

On top of that, I wasn't the fattest or least active person I knew, by far. Fatter and less active people were common around me. (I was 5'5", BTW, 180s-190s pounds, which - objectively, by medical definition - is class 1 obese.)

Being fat, being inactive most of the time, those seemed normal to me. Looking back, they're not normal in the sense of OK or inevitable, they're normal only in the sense of being statistically common. Overeating, sitting around nearly all of the time - looking at it in retrospect - were clearly bad lifestyle, clearly bad choices on my part.

Even along the way, I had a loose notion that I was fat because of my own choices, that if I ate less I'd lose weight or stay at a reasonable weight. For whatever reason, I didn't do that. I had bunches of good excuses, I figured: Stressful sedentary job, family crises to deal with, I deserved a treat, there was a party, everyone does this, etc. Ditto for being active: Clearly, I didn't have time or energy for that (though I did manage to squeeze in some time for things like TV and other sedentary hobbies, not to mention eating).

I thought I couldn't lose weight (can't lose weight in our 30s, 40s, 50s, amIright? (well, no).) After the cancer, I started working out a lot, 6 days most weeks, even competing as an athlete. That made some health improvements, plus a good lot of improvement in quality of life.

Yay, taking care of myself! Not really: Still the bad blood tests, borderline to high blood pressure. I kept ignoring them. Figured I must have a "slow metabolism", working out that much, not losing weight. Heck, I was hypothyroid: That's weight loss doom, right? (Nope.)

When I finally committed to lose weight (with my doctor threatening statins, and spurred on by the appalling pathology report about my gallbladder), gosh, guess what: I could lose weight. In fact, I could kick myself for not doing it earlier, because it was so much simpler than I'd ever imagined (not easy every second, but straightforward as to methods). Not only that, the benefits - in terms of quality of life - were huuuuge, much bigger than I could've imagined. Literal decades of my life could've been healthier, happier, too . . . if I'd made smarter choices.

I was dumb. It was my choices. I wish I'd been smarter, earlier. It's too late to save myself from some of the bad consequences that had already happened, or that were already triggered, but it wasn't too late to improve my future (lots), as it turned out. Better late with the better choices, than never, I guess.

I still don't understand why I ignored those warning signs. The information is out there, so much so that it almost takes effort to ignore it. I ignored it.

Just my story, not anyone else's.