My annual physical in early March came back with some numbers that weren’t exactly alarming, but weren’t nothing, either. Glucose at 102 when normal tops out at 99. LDL cholesterol at 133. Total cholesterol at 205, just over the 200 threshold my doctor uses as a soft line in the sand.
Her take was something like “it’s not a crisis yet, but let’s keep an eye on it for next year.” Which is a perfectly reasonable position for a doctor to take, and a perfectly reasonable position for a patient to ignore while continuing to eat, fast food, chips and Goobers.
This time, I didn’t ignore it.
I’m not sure exactly what the difference was this time, though I am pretty certain it has something to do with the recent passing of my father, and my ensuing conscious and subconscious thoughts about mortality.
I’ve had high-ish numbers before and told myself I’d do something and then didn’t. I developed the fat tire around my belly years ago, and always wanted to do something about it, but never did. Maybe it was a combination of factors. Maybe I was just ready. Whatever the reason, I decided to actually sit down and think through what I was eating, figure out what the problems were, and build something I could follow without losing my mind.
I had tried dieting before, counting calories, getting in shape, accomplishing some successes here and there, but nothing that ever stuck and nothing that really dove into the core set of problems.
I turned to Claude for help. I know some people are going to roll their eyes at that, and I get it. But I went in with a very specific request: I don’t want to count calories, I still want to enjoy a cold beer (or two) or a cocktail (or two) on the weekends, and I want meals that actually feel like meals.
I needed a framework that addressed the actual problems while leaving enough room to live like a normal person.
Introducing The FULL Diet
What came out of that conversation with Claude is what I’ve been calling the FULL diet. It is an acronym because I apparently cannot resist a good acronym, and it is a reminder of what this diet is all about:
F is for Fiber.
U is for Unprocessed foods.
L is Lean (or Low) fats.
L is Low sugar.
Fiber, Unprocessed, Lean fats, Low sugar. FULL.
The elevator pitch is: low refined carbs, low added sugar, high protein, high fiber, healthy fats. Just swapping the junk out for things that actually do something useful. There’s no calorie counting, no macro tracking app, no points system. Just four things to keep in mind when I am standing in a grocery aisle trying to decide between two crackers.
Tequila on the rocks still clears the bar (my new go-to cocktail is a Ranch Water). Dry wine does too. The framework is clear about what the actual villains are, and a beer with my wife on a Friday isn’t one of them.
The four things I decided to actually eliminate were refined carbs, added sugar, saturated fats, and heavily processed anything. Those four categories cover most of the damage.
Specifically, white flour, anything with an “-ose” early in the ingredient list, fatty red meat and processed meat, anything with an ingredient list that goes on for three lines. If it’s got all of those things working against it, I will not be partaking.
The practical changes weren’t actually that hard once I figured out the swaps. Chips became fruit, nuts, or lentil crisps. White rice became basmati, which has a lower glycemic index, or riced cauliflower when I wanted to go further. Regular pasta became Chickapea chickpea-lentil pasta, which has 13 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber and honestly tastes fine. Earth Balance instead of butter. Unsweetened almond milk.
I was used to a rotating cast of Girl Scout cookies, M&Ms and other things I don’t need to publicly itemize. I learned that Barebelle and Quest protein bars have a great variety of flavors that satisfy my sweet tooth cravings.
How AI Helps
I really didn’t want to have to get bogged down in calorie counting and diet apps on my phone to track my weight. Those things failed to stick in the past because they were a huge pain in the ass . Once I built out the FULL framework using Claude, I was able to quickly assess whether or not things fit my diet.
It’s as easy as taking a picture of an ingredients list on the side of a box of crackers and uploading it to Claude, or even snapping a photo of a menu or sending Claude the URL to the menu on a restaurant’s website. Claude recommends what I should eat, any substitutions I should request, and gives me options that fit the diet and are enjoyable.
It makes it really, really easy.
Success
I started at 189 pounds at the physical in March (I have been as high as 204 lbs in recent years). By mid-April, about six weeks in, I was at 178. By late April I was at 175.8. That’s 13.2 pounds in roughly seven weeks, which was not something I was expecting. I wasn’t starving myself, and I wasn’t eating tiny portions. I was just eating different things. Good things.
The tire around my belly became noticeably smaller. I felt great about that!
A few things surprised me. The dessert cravings went away around week three. They were actually gone. That was strange to notice. I’d eaten something sweet basically every night for as long as I could remember, and then one day I just didn’t want it. I don’t fully understand the why, but I’ll take it.
The other thing I didn’t expect was that my tennis elbow improved. I had been dealing with that for about six months, tried most of the standard treatments, and it had been stubbornly present regardless. Within a few weeks of changing how I was eating, it got noticeably better. The working theory is reduced systemic inflammation from cutting sugar and processed food. I can’t prove that’s what happened, but the timing is hard to ignore.
My general achiness in the mornings improved, too.
Digestion improved significantly too, which makes sense given how much fiber I added, but it’s worth saying. TMI, perhaps, but being regular is a great feeling.
To Summarize
As I write this post today, I have dropped 23 pounds and I’m at a cool 166.6. I plan to keep going and just see what happens and see where I level off, but for now, the scale keeps declining and I keep losing pant sizes. I’m feeling healthy and looking leaner than I’ve looked in many, many years. The fat tire is deflating.
My next bloodwork/physical is in March 2027. That’ll be the actual test of whether the LDL and glucose numbers came down, which was the whole point. I feel better, I have dropped a pant size (or more), and I am having to buy new clothes (a good problem to have). The data will either confirm that the food changes are doing what I think they’re doing, or they won’t.
Either way, I’ll let you know what happens.
