So when I was in to surrender my semiannual tube of blood last week, I told my doctor I was ready to get aggressive on my weight. “Good for you!” she said. “What are we thinking about? Lap band? Prescription?”
I said “no, I want to try just setting regular goals with you first.” So then she jumped out there, smiling her big smile, and said “all right, there is absolutely no reason you can’t lose ten pounds your first month.”
(Yipes. I thought she’d say five.)
She spent ten minutes with me at my lab follow-up this morning giving me guidelines for good nutrition, and outlined an exercise program for me. I appreciated that, but of course, my problem’s never been that I just don’t know what to do. I don’t need more knowledge. I need discipline. I need to step on her scary-ass scale once a month. See, when the interval is just thirty days, there’s never any “oh, I’ve got plenty of time” mentality. I’m always just about to go back to the doctor.
I think I resisted asking for this because there’s something about it that feels phony to me. I need to get back to a healthy weight for me, not for my doctor. Now my thinking is “dude, you’re quite literally dying here. Whatever works.” I’ve recently demonstrated that I can lose 32 pounds on my own, but I’ve also recently demonstrated that I can give almost half of it right back. Let’s see what I can do with three or four monthly physician visits as Part One, and we’ll figure out Part Two on the other side of them.
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It’s funny what we are willing to do when we know other people are watching that we won’t do for ourselves.
Good luck!
Have you thought about hiring a trainer? Even if it’s just for a few months, it may help you get over the consistency hump. I hate to exercise, and have no motivation other than I know I have to do it. I hired a trainer 6 years ago, and have been working out with him twice a week ever since. Yes, it’s a financial commitment, but it’s really the equivalent of a monthly trip to Costco. I’ve found that having that standing appointment – knowing that someone is at the gym waiting for me – makes my lack of motivation completely irrelevant.
I’m down 28# since the last time you saw me. I’m doing the weight watchers online. It’s painfully slow…but so was putting the weight on. And just tracking what I’m doing helps me to pay attention. I fully understand what is needed to lose weight….if you expend more calories than you take in, you lose weight. if you take in more calories than you expend, you gain. Got it.
I did the WW meetings for awhile, and while the accountability of stepping on the scale was helpful…I found that the meetings themselves were not. They seemed to be full of whiney-ass people that blamed everyone and everything but themselves for being overweight & for their inablity to lose. I have a full grasp on what my problem is:
I like food that tastes good. I do not like telling myself “no.” I just am not enthusiastic about getting my heart rate up and sweating unless I have a pretty firm assurance that there will be an orgasm at the end of it.
Even though I haven’t been thrilled about my appearance for several years, what finally got my attention is my blood pressure being up. I hate eating responsibly and exercising…but I also don’t want to, you know, die.
MrsDragon, thank you very much. I’ll take all of the well wishes!
Jenny, you and I share a resentment of exercise, but I don’t see that working for me. I think I’m going to try to get into a regular Wii Fit habit again.
Marianne, I’m very impressed. Congratulations. And good for you for getting after your blood pressure. I’m hoping to drop from three antihypertensive drugs to two this year. (Mine is really, really bad.)