Difficult
I ran into a post on Escape From Obesity about how the writer's doctor jotted down "start walking 30 minutes" and "drink 8 glasses of water" on her d/c instructions for an unrelated visit. The blogger wasn't especially offended, although she's already exercising quite a bit more than that and drinks vast amounts of water. She linked to another experience where the blogger appears to be quite a jock though presumably not a small one. The doctor refused to believe she was doing as much exercise as she claimed: "You'd be a lot smaller."
I've run into this before on the Net-- not so much in real life, as people are more cagey in talking about such matters. I've heard (usually self-assured types) declare that staying trim is a matter of determination. If you're not lazy, you won't get fat. If you are fat, it's because you're not doing the right things. "No one's fat in a concentration camp." End of story.
The problem being, many of us know someone who survives on a can of tuna and a 2 mile treadmill walk daily to lose weight at an agonizingly slow pace. Many people who are obese eat terrible food and avoid exercise. But some eat really well, or at least as well as their slimmer friends, and exercise a lot, and they're still fat. Waxing judgemental about someone's body fat should be Right Out.
Still... being overfat is unhealthy. It can be deadly. I've never had a doctor talk about my weight except for my first ob/gyn, who ended up in jail (another story). He felt I was gaining too fast and put me on 1800 calorie diet. His bedside manner was unfortunate, but at least he tried. That was the last time anybody ever addressed my weight even though I have bounced around the 29-30 BMI mark and suffered gall stones and elevated blood sugar. They assumed, correctly, that I knew what to do. Talking about weight is so painful for so many people, and there is so little time in an average doctor visit. What doctor is in a hurry to say something potentially offensive to a patient? And yet the upshot is there's a whole host of obesity-linked diseases-- heart disease, diabetes, vascular disease-- with all their evil tentacles, and current scientific knowledge seems to suggest that if we got away from the pancakes and hot dogs, and onto the fresh whole foods, so much could be avoided or postponed. If there was a good way for health pros to raise the subject-- maybe with questions-- "Are you engaged on an exercise program? Tell me about what you ate for breakfast," "doctor's orders" could be motivating and powerful.
Well, on to other subjects. Neither Spouse nor I has missed a workout, except I gave myself a pass on colonscopy day and if anybody's going to question THAT, I will personally deliver them 64 ounces of Trilytly to enjoy with my compliments. We will be at 2 weeks on Wednesday. Spouse can't read the tiny numbers on the scale (bad eyes) so I bought a Taylor digital one and the damn battery was no good. So he's probably shrinking drastically in that annoying way men have but I don't have to get all competitive about it. I am down some pounds and feel sleeker. Better still my body feels more South-Beachy and is not begging for licorice nibs. When my dad brings his glucometer I will check to see if I've managed to get my fasting sugar below 100. My 10% goal if you go from my weight last fall would be 195-19.5= 175.5, or only ten pounds, yay! Or I could go from the start of this effort, 190-19=171. Probably should aim for the latter. Aim high, you won't shoot yourself in the foot, etc.
I've run into this before on the Net-- not so much in real life, as people are more cagey in talking about such matters. I've heard (usually self-assured types) declare that staying trim is a matter of determination. If you're not lazy, you won't get fat. If you are fat, it's because you're not doing the right things. "No one's fat in a concentration camp." End of story.
The problem being, many of us know someone who survives on a can of tuna and a 2 mile treadmill walk daily to lose weight at an agonizingly slow pace. Many people who are obese eat terrible food and avoid exercise. But some eat really well, or at least as well as their slimmer friends, and exercise a lot, and they're still fat. Waxing judgemental about someone's body fat should be Right Out.
Still... being overfat is unhealthy. It can be deadly. I've never had a doctor talk about my weight except for my first ob/gyn, who ended up in jail (another story). He felt I was gaining too fast and put me on 1800 calorie diet. His bedside manner was unfortunate, but at least he tried. That was the last time anybody ever addressed my weight even though I have bounced around the 29-30 BMI mark and suffered gall stones and elevated blood sugar. They assumed, correctly, that I knew what to do. Talking about weight is so painful for so many people, and there is so little time in an average doctor visit. What doctor is in a hurry to say something potentially offensive to a patient? And yet the upshot is there's a whole host of obesity-linked diseases-- heart disease, diabetes, vascular disease-- with all their evil tentacles, and current scientific knowledge seems to suggest that if we got away from the pancakes and hot dogs, and onto the fresh whole foods, so much could be avoided or postponed. If there was a good way for health pros to raise the subject-- maybe with questions-- "Are you engaged on an exercise program? Tell me about what you ate for breakfast," "doctor's orders" could be motivating and powerful.
Well, on to other subjects. Neither Spouse nor I has missed a workout, except I gave myself a pass on colonscopy day and if anybody's going to question THAT, I will personally deliver them 64 ounces of Trilytly to enjoy with my compliments. We will be at 2 weeks on Wednesday. Spouse can't read the tiny numbers on the scale (bad eyes) so I bought a Taylor digital one and the damn battery was no good. So he's probably shrinking drastically in that annoying way men have but I don't have to get all competitive about it. I am down some pounds and feel sleeker. Better still my body feels more South-Beachy and is not begging for licorice nibs. When my dad brings his glucometer I will check to see if I've managed to get my fasting sugar below 100. My 10% goal if you go from my weight last fall would be 195-19.5= 175.5, or only ten pounds, yay! Or I could go from the start of this effort, 190-19=171. Probably should aim for the latter. Aim high, you won't shoot yourself in the foot, etc.
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