Health update

This will be, by accident, the third year I will have written such a post.

And this year, its altogether more positive.

I have lost something like 30kg in weight, which is the most important thing.

I have done this by eating less, or had been, then along came summer and holiday. But the straight and narrow beckons next weeks as the new month and autumn rolls round.

Drinking alcohol only on phys days, two meals a day, still going to the gym, and increasing what I do there. More walking.

In doing regular, near forty minutes on the bike, four times a week, its just not my weight that's improved.

My skin is no longer dry and flakey. My scalp no longer itches.

My feet no longer swell.

They no longer swell much at all, before the holiday they'd only swell on really hot days when I didn't go to the gym.

I can feel my legs and feet. The decline had been so slow that I hadn't noticed, but I can climb stairs, by choice, and walk without numbness or pins and needles all the time.

The ulcers on my shins are still there, but much improved. The skin on my calfs has repaired itself, but mostly they are returning to their natural colour. Some way to go, but much better.

I no longer struggle to get up from the sofa, I can put socks on without having to hold my breath. I no longer cough for hours at night as my lungs struggle with the pressure of my weight. I used to drink a bottle of Gaviscon a fortnight, but not any more.

Of course I am no longer out of breath all the time. And after exercise my recovery time is much reduced.

So, one last thing. At my last blood test, I had reduced my blood sugars to almost not being diabetic. Probably will be about the same next one, but I can and must do better.

Anyway, I feel a decade younger than last year, and as Jools put it, fit for retirement.

The other thin I should point out is that I no longer have a bad back. And my knee is mostly pain free. I get up from a chair or the sofa and expect pain and to have to make a noise to amplfy the pain, and there is no pain.

How good is that?