I’ve detailed my adventures with alcohol (part 1 and 2) in the past, and since it’s been over 5 years since I wrote those posts, I thought I’d share a health update. As of this writing I’m 44 years old. The weight I lost by both getting off my butt and walking regularly, as well as quitting alcohol, has unfortunately returned! That’s due to my diet more than anything (dang sweets!), because I still walk regularly and haven’t touched alcohol since Nov 2020.
Last year in 2025 I did a physical / preventative health checkup visit with a doctor. The visit itself went well, but my labs came back with quite a few tests outside of range. Not in a crazy way, but enough to alarm me a bit and cause me to make some changes. My doctor recommended I look at a Mediterranean diet. So did some research. I felt a couple of key things with a Mediterranean diet that differed from my basic American diet that I could live with were eliminating red meat and eliminating deep-fat-fried foods. With a couple of exceptions, I did pretty well with that and was looking forward to seeing my cholesterol being positively impacted by these changes.
Within the last couple of weeks of this writing, I had my 2026 yearly physical; the appointment itself went pretty well, and I had labs retested. The results were a bit mixed for me. On the positive side, most of the tests that came back abnormal were resolved, except for my cholesterol and A1C. My triglycerides dropped by ~60%, which was gratifying, and Gemini mentioned that was due to diet modification. The cholesterol got minimally worse, which shocked me a bit. Upon doing some additional research, it looks like Metamucil (or specifically the psyllium in Metamucil) can help get cholesterol under control. I’m strongly reticent to start latching on to medications in general, and while I will start it if I have to, I would rather change other aspects of my life to improve my health.
My doctor also recommended I get a heart scan to see how much calcium buildup is around my heart, and it’s time for me to get a colonoscopy. The current medical recommendation is for men (who have a low risk for colon cancer) to get a colonoscopy at age 45, so it’s time to get it on the books! Since I’ve started the Metamucil, it should take a couple of months for it to impact my blood. So late October I will get a blood draw; in November I will be getting a heart scan (cardio CT scan), and probably in January I should be scheduled for my colonoscopy. Yeehaw!
I’d like to be around a good long time; hopefully these small things I’m doing will help nudge my health to have a higher quality of life a bit longer!
