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Weight Loss Exercise

How Do You Know When You’ve Lost Enough Weight?


Losing weight is often a long process and many people struggle on their journey. However, after reaching your earlier set goal weight, you may ask yourself; ‘Have I lost enough weight?â? When figuring out if you’ve lost enough weight, there are a few things you must consider such as your BMI, body type, and more.

First things first, remember that a doctor is the most qualified person to tell you if you’ve lost enough weight, especially if you’re doing so due to a health condition. If you want an idea at home, however, then here’s how to do it.

Check Your BMI

Although there are a number of limitations with BMI (Body Mass Index), it can be a useful measurement. To calculate your BMI, just divide your weight (in kilograms) by your height squared (in meters).

The normal range for your BMI would be between 18.5 and 25, but this may not apply to everyone. For instance, if you naturally have a big structure and heavy bones, your ideal BMI would probably be above 25, which actually makes you overweight by normal standards. On the other hand, if you have a small structure, your ideal BMI is probably lower than others.


Measuring Your Body Fat

Measuring your body fat percentage is another good way to make sure whether you’ve lost enough weight, and is more accurate than BMI. Always use this to verify that your BMI is telling the truth!

There are a few ways you can use to measure your body fat with the simplest method being using a skin fold caliper. You do this by pinching your fat (usually around your waist) and measure the thickness with a caliper. You then compare the measurement you get to a body fat percentage chart which you can easily find online. Alternatively, you can also use BIA (Bioelectric Impedance Analysis) where you step on a scale that then estimates your body fat percentage.

See How You Look And Feel

The best and simplest way to determine if you’ve reached your ideal weight is to just stand in front of a mirror and see how you look. If you have lost quite a bit of weight and you feel that you look good and healthy, then you probably are at your ideal weight. Ideally you should also not feel tired and must have enough energy to go through your day.

Of course, the main reason for you to lose weight should be to ensure your health is good, and that you feel good in yourself. Therefore, you can also decide to either stop or continue losing weight depending on how you feel health-wise.


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Kidney March 2013


Kidney March 2013As many of you know my daughter Taylor has Kidney disease and it has been a bit of a struggle over the last year and a half since her initial diagnosis. We are of course coping and very thankful that we are living now, in a time when I can donate a kidney to my daughter as opposed to 50 years ago when this would have been impossible.

Even though we believe we have a way to help Taylor, many people are not nearly as fortunate as us. In Canada alone 100,000 people are waiting for a Kidney transplant and the line just gets bigger and bigger.

Often when faced with issues like this we can all feel powerless, not knowing what to do and how we can make a difference. But my wife and I have found a way and that is by taking part in Kidney March 2013.

What is the Kidney March?

During the weekend of September 6-8 Michelle and I will be taking part in the annual Kidney March. The Kidney March is a 100 kilometer walk over three days where we get an opportunity to do a couple of things.

First we get to raise money for a cause that is near and dear to our family and that is Kidney research, of all the major diseases that researchers are trying to cure, Kidney Disease is one with the best chance of being cured in the next few years.

Secondly we will be raising awareness of Kidney Disease. Thousands, actually millions of people suffer from Kidney disease but sadly most people don’t realize it until it is too late and they need to go on dialysis as this is a very silent disease with almost no symptoms until it is too late.

How Can You Help?

Kidney March 2013

Kidney March 2013

I have never been any kind of fundraiser in the past but I am super passionate about raising the money and awareness for Kidney Disease and this is a passion that I hope you will help me to share.

I am asking for two things. Please please please donate anything that you can. Be it $5 or $500 any amount will add up to make a huge difference, also I ask that you share this message with your friends and coworkers. If nothing else they can get a simple blood test, a creatinine test that can show if there is a heavy load on the Kidneys and how well they are working.

Thanks so much. You can visit my information page for the Kidney March now and if you have any questions or comments please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks, Bill.

Kidney March 2013, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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My Daughters Kidney Disease


You may have noticed that I have not been as active this year as I usually am on the blog and there is one pretty big reason. My daughter is sick with Chronic Kidney Disease and I think I am finally ready to write about it, come out and talk about it. This is the first time that I am writing about my daughter and her Kidney disease and what is going on within our family as we struggle and work through this.

Early last year my daughter Taylor, who is now twelve, went for a normal annual physical and her blood testing came back with higher than normal levels of Creatinine. This was not too much of a worry to our family doctor as she was just slightly out of range but he still sent my wife and daughter to a pediatrician and some more testing. While time went by and we waited for the appointment a few weeks later I did a little Googling around and found that this could be a sign of some kind of kidney issue but it was really vague to us at the time.

My wife and daughter went to the pediatrician a couple of times and then got sent to a specialist and then finally to our children’s hospital for more testing and everyone was very indecisive about what was happening.

Getting the Diagnosis

Finally at one meeting last November that just Taylor and my wife Michelle went and had more testing and the doctor let them know that Taylor has Nephronophthisis and would have her kidneys fail and need to have a kidney transplant. Not good news and I still feel bad that I was not at the doctors appointment.

Nephronophthisis is a genetic condition so Michelle and I are both carriers of a bad gene and because of this there was a 1 in 4 chance that either of our kids would inherit the two bad gene halves. Taylor did, we think Jaiden or son did not. This form of kidney disease affects kids between the ages of 8 and 14 and the odds are really low, about 2 kids out of 100,000 would get this, and of course you don’t catch it, you are born with it and it just shows as you get older.

How Our Family is Dealing with Kidney Disease

Happy TaylorSo since last November we have been learning a lot and had a lot of hard times with Taylor’s kidney disease. Taylor is a bit scared of course like any 12 year old should be. My wife Michelle is always looking far ahead and nervous about what the future holds, and I am day to day. Every day that Taylor feels well I am happy and every day that she is feeling unwell I feel terrible for her.

So far since the Nephronophthisis diagnosis Taylor’s kidney function has dropped from about 45% to 28.6% and as we watch the kidney function drop we get more and more nervous but the doctors stay level headed and are keeping us informed on the next steps for us and Taylor and meeting with us on a monthly basis. Here in Calgary Alberta we have a Nepherology clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and so each monthly meeting there we meet with a psychologist, a dietician, a pharmacist, and the kidney doctor. They are fantastic and I feel like we are in great hands.

So far we have not had to change Taylor’s diet at all (no sodium restriction), and she has to take a few vitamins and on Sunday nights she get the good fortune of having me give her an Eprex shot. Also Taylor has to drink a ton of water as her kidneys do not keep her water level where it needs to be and she dehydrates easily, so easily in fact that we have had to take her to hospital three times in the last few months for dehydration.

Next Step – Kidney Transplant

So now we are getting close to our next step. Taylor will need a new kidney sooner rather than later. As the kidney function drops Taylor’s kidneys will not clean blood, regulate vitamin D or calcium very well until finally none of this would happen and she would need to go on dialysis. So the first step was for my wife and I to get ready tested as transplant donors. We went for blood testing and the living donor clinic (independent or our doctor or us) have decided to start testing me to donate a kidney. I have a 24 hour heart rate monitor on right now as I type and then there will be a full day of testing in a few weeks to test me and see if I am a good match.

As for kidney transplant itself, a transplanted kidney will last for 10 to 15 years and then Taylor will be shopping for another one. The surgery seems to be common and the doctor that we spoke to earlier this week say that they do about 50 kidney transplants every year with only about 5 being done for kids. If all goes according to plan I will donate the kidney, Taylor will get the kidney put into her body and hooked up, and we will be out of the hospital within a few days. People live completely normal lives with just one kidney and the only suggestion that our transplant doctor gave me was to not eat protein powder because of the pressure it puts on the kidney. Diet and exercise should be the same.

So as you can imagine this as been a really trying time for our whole family. We are worried for Taylor and hoping that everything is done before she would have to go on dialysis but for now we are day to day with this thing struggling, praying, hoping, and just living through it.

I know that I may have missed a lot in this post, in fact I expect to write a few posts on the subject as we are becoming pretty well versed in kidney issues and health of kidneys. Fire away any questions that you want and Michelle and I will answer them for you.

My Daughters Kidney Disease, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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