From the Editor’s Desk: Halfway (Premium)

Last Monday, we flew home from Mexico City. And last Tuesday, I went back to my doctor's office for a very different kind of appointment than I am used to.

(I promise this column isn't going to turn into Paul's health weekly. But this was kind of a big milestone.)

A quick recap: in early June, I visited my doctor with an agenda: I had been overdue getting complete blood work done, and with those results in hand, I went in determined to advocate for myself and do the right thing for my health. Key among my concerns was my blood glucose levels, which had been borderline high my entire adult life, and I wanted to get a continuous glucose monitor so I could see which foods triggered the worst glucose spikes and avoid them. I was also planning to continue my intermittent fasting (I skip breakfast most days) and transition to what I think of as a "healthy low carb" lifestyle, and see how different foods things impacted my glucose, and, more generally, my overall health.

I wasn't able to get the monitor because our broken healthcare system requires us to have a disease, in this case diabetes, before qualifying for such a thing. So I eventually just paid out of pocket by joining a service called Veri for three months that would prescribe me the monitors. And then I set out to lower my blood glucose, which is measured continuously by these monitors (each lasts two weeks) and then (normally) once every year via an A1C test at the doctor's. Using the actionable data provided through the hardware and an online service, I at first experimented by just eating normally. And then I started on my so-called "healthy low-carb" transition, which is basically keto (high-fat, low-carb) with healthy greens/vegetables.

(I also read Gary Taubes' excellent The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating during this time and recommend it to anyone who has trouble losing weight.)

And then we went to Mexico. This is an interesting place if you're trying to avoid carbs, given the population's fixation on Coke, sugary processed foods, and tortillas. But I don’t eat those kinds of things that much anyway, and my adjustments were minimal. I got a few raised eyebrows and one outright laugh, but my requests for food "sin pan" (without bread), "sin papas" (without potatoes), "sin tortillas" (you get the idea), and so one were all granted. Hamburgers without bread. Tacos without tortillas, just on a plate. Skirt steak with the mole sauce but not the tortillas. Guacamole with a fork. Whatever.

Something interesting happened. My daily average blood glucose levels went down from just over 100 mg/Dl to the 90s. And then even into the 80s, though I'm now kind of back in the low 90s. My wife commented that I looked thinner, and then said something she had also said back in 2017, when I lost 35 pounds on keto: "I can feel your ribs." My belt tightened by one loop. And then two. My shorts kept starting to fall...