Yet more benefits of weight loss

My recent blogs have mentioned my plan to come out the other side of Christmas and New Year the same weight as I was on 3 December. That weight was 83.5kg, and I wanted to go into the Christmas period below that, to give me a little wriggle-room. Last week it was 83.3kg, and this morning it was 82.3kg, which is good news. Maybe I can shave a bit more off before the day itself.

That is all fairly detailed stuff, but something else happened this week to prove the general benefit to me of losing weight. About twenty years ago a blood test showed that the level of uric acid in my blood was high. This could have increased my risk of getting gout, especially because my father suffered from it, and so I started taking a daily tablet to help prevent getting this nasty condition.

When I got to my target weight, earlier this year, the doctor - who had already taken me off several blood pressure tablets - suggested that I might be able to stop the gout tablets as well. I had a blood test, to see what my uric acid level was, and it was normal. I then stopped taking the tablets. This week I got the results of a follow-up blood test, which was to check that my uric acid level was still normal, despite taking no medication. And it was still normal, so my uric acid level is now the same as it used to be with some heavy-duty daily tablets!

As if that were not enough, last week's blood test was also to check whether my blood sugar was really as good as the last blood test suggested. (One of the many reasons I needed to lose weight was because I was heading towards being diabetic). The news was very good - my 'bad' cholesterol is still down and my 'good' cholesterol is still high.

All in all, when people ask me where I get the motivation from to keep watching my weight so carefully, the answer is probably obvious - it's great health news like this. Now I just have to watch my step over Christmas!