Pig out

After our first meeting with Dr. Amos (2014), we started on supplements, healthy lifestyle and trying to make all good choices. We would become as healthy as we could be.

After Rick quit playing live music, because the music industry changed, and he wasn’t making enough money to support himself anymore. Many of his band mates enrolled in computer classes. He decided to join them. Writing computer code is a lot like writing music. He and all his musician friends attended Computer Learning Center together and they all became programmers and were placed after graduation in high paying jobs.   

As a programmer his lifestyle became much more sedentary than jumping around on stage. People say that IT people are overweight and nerds but the IT the culture makes them this way. The companies provide all kinds of unhealthful snacks to keep them working at their desks all day and they don’t get hungry for hours while sitting in front of the computer.

We usually met for lunch. We didn’t work close but we met half way. We went to nice restaurants sometimes but most of the time we ate fast-food inside the car. He parked, jump into my car and we went to Del Taco, Taco Bell, McDonalds etc. And we were happy. That’s all that mattered to us. We were being together. I miss that time.

It was probably 15 years that we were overweight but as a result he got Type 2 diabetes. I learned that you have a 50% chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease from having Type 2 diabetes. It is only until recently for instance, in 2015, that Rick got really skinny again and reversed his diabetes with diet and exercise. He did IT! It took us one year, so you can do it too! I am a lot thinner than I was, but I have my families genes and I am always fighting the scale.

I think one reason that Rick and I both got fat was we loved to pig out and have our own pajama parties and watch TV. He wasn’t very sociable. I wanted to have more friends and meet more people but I always did what he wanted because I wanted to please him. I was very happy just to be with him. We loved fried chicken and mashed potatoes. We also ate any fast food, Delicious! Hmmm…it is mouthwatering. Sometimes when we are driving around the city we see some of our old haunts. Rick points and says, “Good stuff.” It was good times. We would get chips and dip and pizza and Entemanns chocolate cake and a whole tub of  ice cream. We loved comfort food and ate and watched TV and we were the biggest couch potatoes.

Rick’s mom used to say “Ricky, you are so fat!” and he would respond “fat and happy!” I think it was after he got the diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes that he became really strict about avoiding carbs and sugar. He was so smart and determined that even I couldn’t have any carbs anymore, Shucks! Also, he couldn’t have any artificial sweeteners because they affected his memory. Uncle Bob used to say to Rick don’t use any artificial sweeteners because they affect us in a bad way. Guess what? Uncle Bob has Alzheimer’s also. So Rick cut down on carbs and sugar and lost a bunch of weight. It was difficult. He tried going Vegan and then tried just protein and vegetables. I couldn’t do this, I love carbs. We also tried low fat diet and a lot of other methods. Rick tried a starvation diet too where he just drank coffee but he would get really sweaty and shaking and his blood sugar would drop too low or be too high. I know it was crazy but he wanted the diabetes to disappear, so he was trying anything get rid of it. He won.