But I Don't Wanna Be A College Girl!

To read the first part of this doctor/weight odyssey with a little romance thrown in (and really, who wouldn't?) you need to go here.

So the doctor asks me what we're going to do about the weight problem. To be honest, I really wasn't hoping for a miracle here. But a push in the right direction would be nice. "Have you got a goal in mind?"

Suddenly I don't feel like such a failure because I do actually have a goal in mind. A good goal. After all, you can't succeed if you're not actually aiming at something, can you? And my goal is reasonable, too. I don't want to be a model. I just want to be an normal, average weight. So I tell him my well-thought-out goal.

And he frowns. And then he asks how tall I am.

What? My goal is average for my height. And my build. And my age. I looked it up. It may be a little on the high side of the range, but it IS within the range.

And then the doctor asks what I weighed in college. And once again I want to poke him in the eye.

Is he serious? I was nineteen in college. I was nineteen when I got married. I was a giggly little teenager when I got married. Now I am a mature, forty-four year old woman who has born multiple (many multiple) children. Why, why why would I want to aim for the impossible? Why are we even discussing what I weighed in college? I told him the truth. I weighed 115 back then. I didn't tell him this, but my nickname was Olive Oyl. I think that had to do as much with my clumsiness as it did with my lack of a figure, but whatever.

I hate to speculate, but for some reason he looked surprised. He actually said, "Really?" I wanted to asked if he thought perhaps I had passed that weight when I was ten. Then he said, "Well we won't aim for that now."

Well good. Who said we wanted to?

He consulted a chart and said, "If we aim for your goal, that will put your BMI (body-mass index) at ... " his voice trailed off for a minute. "It'll put it exactly where mine is," he finished.

I felt vindicated. The doctor is a normal, average weight. And after coming to that conclusion, he certainly couldn't argue with my choice. HA!

So with my goal finally established as reasonable, that still left the problem of how I was to reach the goal. After blood work revealed that I am as healthy as ... well, do I really want to finish that comparison? Anyway, I have no major problems so the doctor suggested I try the Atkins diet. Apparently it's been revamped in the last few years, with a lot more vegetables added to the initial phases. Since carbs and sugars cause problems with my blood sugar levels anyway, it is a good diet choice for me.

I've been on the diet for a little over six weeks now, and I've lost twenty-three pounds. I'm feeling pretty good about that. Plus, I've managed to control my blood sugar levels more so I'm dealing with less spikes and dips, meaning less mood and energy swings. And that means everyone's happier. : )

I am not even halfway to my goal, but people are starting to notice the weight loss, and that's a fun thing. Surprisingly enough, there are a few odd things I discovered about weight loss as well, but I think I'll share those with you tomorrow.