Irony

Sometimes life can be funny...not necessarily in a good way, but not necessarily in a bad way.

You always read, hear or are told that "before you begin any weight loss/exercise program check with your doctor"...Oddly enough, things worked out that I had a dr's appointment on January 9 this year and after asking the 2 questions that I had the appointment for, my dr. asked if I needed anything else. I casually mentioned that I needed to schedule a physical, I told her about wanting to loose 100 lbs this year, and my annual exam, ect. Dr. Bailey says..."We can do the physical now!" Uh??? OK?

30 minutes and a UA, a complete blood work up and dr's release to exercise later,  I leave the dr's office kind of wondering what had just happened. About a week later...Dr. Bailey's nurse called me...that's NEVER a good thing.

There were a couple areas of concern. My cholesterol is high...I'm 300+ pounds, of course my cholesterol is high...duh. The shocker though, my glucose levels where high. All these years my fasting blood sugars have been textbook perfect, around a 70 or 75. Apparently, the guidelines for diabetes have changed...

My cholesterol is 231, LDL is 157...apparently this is not a good thing. My HDL is 74, apparently this is not high enough.  My historical glucose is 6.1, high normal is 5.7...long story short...I got to go see a diabetic educator/dietitian today...

Rachel, the diabetic educator/dietitian, was very observant. She complemented the knitting I was doing. An enterlac bag for a class I'm teaching at Mockingbird Moon starting on Feb 18, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm and there will be 3 follow up classes for questions and finishing. I'll post a picture of the class sample in progress tomorrow...

Anyway...I ask if I am going home with a glucometer, thankfully no. Apparently, I have to have my historical glucose tested again April 11 and if I can get it under 5.7 I'm in the clear, if not...well, then the glucometer comes home.

So I told Rachel about my resolution to loose 100 lbs this year. She looked at me kind of funny, I explained that 52 weeks, 2 lbs a week...it's doable. She thought for a minute and got this funny look on her face and smiled really big...and asked me how she could help!!! I was gobsmacked!

We talked for almost an hour and I came home with a food plan for 1500 calories and 2 weeks of sample menus, PLUS a sheet showing me how many servings of each food group I need a day with recipes!  I am so excited about this. I told her about using sparkpeople.com and we talked about what I was eating. I explained that I was kind of lost, that I knew the basics but needed some direction.

Rachel made me an appointment to check my glucose and cholesterol on April 11 and she is going to see me every 3 months to help me stay on track and adjust my calories as I loose.  I think that was really cool. She did not laugh at me. She didn't chew my ass. She ASKED how she could help me.

I hope that she realizes that asking that question helped as much or more than the food plan she created for me...

Gotta make a grocery list...and read...TTFN