Calorie Warrior

In the beginning of February I had some blood work done for some life insurance I applied to. The results came back fine by the insurance companies standards, but I looked over the results myself and noticed something strange. One of my protein levels came in on the low side. It was just below the acceptable range but still low?

These were my blood work results

Whats Globulin?

Out of curiosity I went to the Google and did some research on Globulin. The results I found were interesting. Globulins are proteins in the blood that regulate the function of the circulatory system. According to Wikipedia the normal concentration of globulins in the blood is about 2.6-4.6 g/dL. Mine were lower than this and slightly lower than the insurance rating of 2.0 g/dL.

Whats Low Globulin mean?

Low globulin levels can indicate liver disease, an inability to digest or absorb dietary protein, malabsorption, inflammatory bowel disease or Celiac disease, some sort of cancer, anemia or kidney disease. I’m thinking this is something Id probably want to look into.

After further research I discovered that you should also have a specific ratio of Globulin/Albumin. Albumin is circled in my blood work results and comes in at 4.8 g/dL.

Albumin / Globulin Ratio

You get your Albumin/Globulin ratio by dividing your albumin by your globulin. My ratio is approximately 2.52. Its suggested that the ideal A/G ratio be somewhere between 1.7-2.2. A level higher than 2.2 can indicate decreased thyroid function, low globulin, an excess of glucocorticoids or a variety of other problems.

My Thoughts

People say you shouldn’t freak out when you self diagnose yourself by reading stuff on the internet. I don’t, but I do think I should get checked out. My weight isn’t coming off as easy as Id like to these blood proteins point directly to weight related problems like hyperthyroidism or Celiac. My younger brother has Celiac but he has issues gaining weight. I think the best thing I can do is make an appointment and get checked out by a doctor, its been a while anyway.

Last night I was reminded how I’m an addict and I haven’t overcome my desire for food. Even though I’ve been doing so great I actually embarrassed myself. The hardest part about me eating better isn’t changing what I eat but, limiting the amount I eat, especially when it comes to take-out.

This Friday night we went over our friends house for dinner and ordered in some pizzas. They had some chips out and my friend offered me some beer. I thought to myself, “I got this”. I ate pretty good all day so some pizza and beer wouldn’t hurt. I sat down with my bud light and started munching on a few chips. I kept noticing that I was the only one eating the chips and my hand wouldn’t stop reaching into the bowl. Finished beer #1 and started working on another. Luckily it was time to leave and pick up the pizza.

There were four of us and we got two pies and probably two dozen wings. My friends really don’t eat to much. I started with two meatball slices, four wings and I could have been content. I knew the pizza was going in the garbage and a little voice kept saying have another slice. So, I grabbed slice #3 and dropped in like 3 more wings. Another beer….. and now I realized control was gone. Everyone was done eating and there was so much left. Figured I would clean off the table and when I went in the kitchen I saw the boxes of pizza sitting on the counter. This is where it was kind embarrassing because I grabbed a paper towel and walked out of the kitchen with slice # 4. WTF was I doing? I also knew that we had brought little ice cream cups over for dessert and I polished off one of those too.

I was pretty disappointed in myself and don’t know why I feel the need to finish EVERYTHING. Even when I’m at someone else’s house. In our house the temptation isn’t there because I restrict everything that comes in and the amount that’s cooked. I know I’ve been doing good and limiting my calories all week but a slip up like this really isn’t acceptable.

I felt really bad when I forced myself to log everything into MFP when I got home. I totally killed all the exercise I did that morning just to big out on some beer and take-out. My biggest hurdle will be learning how to stop overeating.

I was getting a little upset because I thought I’d been doing this for 5 weeks and should have made more progress.

I looked over my stats on Myfitnesspal, Fitbit and my Weigh Loss Spreadsheet. I realized that I started the spreadsheet with Week #1 when it should have read Week #0. Only because the start of that first week was a weigh-in and I wouldn’t lose weight until the following week would be more like a first week ending.

Hope it doesn’t get confusing but luckily I realized this now. I went back and changed the blog titles to read for the appropriate weeks.

I’ve been a little bit busy the last few days to make some posts but I have some upcoming thoughts id like to add to this site. I also just got my sweet header for the top of the website so now it looks like a much more professional weigh loss blog!