What Metrics Am I Measuring When it Comes to My Health [PART 1]?

This weekend will mark the 19th anniversary since the sudden passing of my dad. For those of you who don’t know, my dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 62. He was at the peak of his career as an optometrist and had not missed a day of work in his life. By all accounts he seemed very “healthy.”

His sudden passing is not terribly unique when it comes to heart disease as 60% of the time the first symptom is a heart attack. What we didn’t know about my dad is that he also exhibited signs of metabolic syndrome (learn more about it here) and ultimately it was insulin resistance that developed into type two diabetes that damaged the arteries in his body. 

This is a big reason why I am not just concerned about metabolic aspects of my health, but why I also need to be extra diligent in a few key areas if I want to create the longevity that I desire. 

1. Weight & Body Composition

I do watch my weight but more importantly I am tracking my body fat percentage because it is more accurate than just my weight or my BMI. I am within 1-2 pounds of the weight that I was in grade 12, but I feel like my body is still getting stronger in certain ways as evidenced by my recent workouts (thank you to Matt from One Up!). 

When I’m talking about things like body composition or belly fat, please understand it is not coming from a place of vanity, but from necessity. This unwanted visceral fat is problematic for a number of reasons and will most likely lead to chronic inflammation creating a host of other health problems. This is an area of huge importance that I will be talking about more and more in the weeks to come.

Important indicators

If you don’t have a fancy scale or access to a way to monitor body fat, I suggest you use a tape measure and get a baseline reading of your waist size.

For men the goal is to be under 40 inches and for females the goal is 35 inches or under. You can also look at your waist to hip ratio where you divide your waist measurement into your hip measurement. The goal is for this number to be under 0.85 for women and 0.90 for men.

Susceptible to weight gain 

Growing up I can remember that a healthy weight was not something that came easily in our household. The slight changes in my routines at the onset of COVID proved to me that I have to be very diligent when it comes to activity levels and food intake. Since I was cooking for the kids, I did less fasting. By taking online courses, I was doing more sitting and because I was not at the clinic all day I had less overall movement each day even though I exercised daily. This combination led to some weight gain and all of it was around my waist.

Maintaining a healthy weight composition

About three years ago, I really started experimenting with my body in terms of low carbohydrate diets, intermittent fasting, high intensity exercise, hot/cold therapy, the ketogenic diet, and multiple day fasts - both caloric and non-caloric.

These concepts may seem very advanced to some of you and for others I know you are either doing it or working your way toward it. They all had a positive effect on my body composition which I will report on in future posts.

2. Blood Sugar Levels

The next thing that I follow very closely is my blood sugar, specifically my hemoglobin A1C (HA1C)

HA1C is basically an average of your blood sugar over a 2-3 month period. Physicians will use this, as well as other blood sugar measures, to determine someone’s metabolic health. In Canada, if this number is between 6.0-6.4, you are considered pre-diabetic and if it is over 6.5, you are considered type two diabetic.

With my current low-carb eating protocols and consistent fasting routines, my last HA1C was 5.4.

There are a few other things that I am doing such as high intensity workouts that also help with modulating insulin resistance, but I have it very much under control as this number is better now than it was 10 years ago.

Lifestyle & insulin resistance

I can remember at that time sitting with my Naturopathic doctor and he was concerned that at a normal body weight my HA1C was 5.7. This was an indicator, along with my dad’s history, that I have a certain amount of genetic insulin resistance; however, I refuse to accept this as my destiny as I KNOW that lifestyle factors have a huge influence on your genetics.

This is the real reason why I started on this journey and discovery process. I wanted to figure out how I could change this one thing (insulin resistance) which will ultimately change the direction of my future health.

So what is your action step? 

For 2021, my desire for you is to pick one area of your health that you need to focus on and get to work. We all have work to do in certain areas so while it’s important to get clear on the area you need to focus on, it’s equally important to take action.

Remember even small steps are better than no steps. Your routines do not have to be perfect for you to get healthy, you just have to start and as you start to see progress, you will feel motivated to keep going.

If you are struggling with motivation, remember that your daily habits and actions determine your long-term health and that there are people that will be depending on you and would love to see you stay healthy year after year. 

This article was written In Memory of my father, David Plotsky. Thank you for the best life lesson possible.