My doctor has been after me to lose weight and exercise for several years, possibly six or seven. I am a hard headed old man and comfortable in my skin so I ignored the doctor's good advice. This last trip I topped the scale at about 265 I believe, but I really didn't pay a lot of attention. But when my lab results came back and he contacted me because of high (not extreme) A1C levels he got my attention. I started modifying my eating slightly, mostly portion control (I am a boring eater) but I also cut out sugars and most bread products. Maintained through Christmas, and my wife makes great cookies, pies, and candies. Got a bike for Christmas and started riding (not last two days because of rain but every dry day since 12/27/12.

I don't weigh on a regular basis but I got on our scale today and it read 235. Wife tells me that the doctor scale reads five pounds higher than ours. That would be a loss of twenty-five pounds since mid-November with minimal effort on my part other than starting to ride the bike. When I go back for a follow-up in February, especially if I can lose another five or ten pounds, I expect the doctor will have a heart attack over my weight loss since he knows I won't follow his advice.

I also cut soft drinks, diet type, down to one a day (usually four or five) and replaced them with flavored water.