Dr. Livingwell, I presume?

I had an appointment with the doc yesterday. It was a long day. I woke up, went to class, went to the surplus store, picked up some bandanas (several for me, one for the dog) and a new duffel, came home, put a leash on the dog, took a 5 minute walk, chased the dog for a bit when she got off the leash, walked back home, greeted the dog at the door when she returned 2 minutes later, put her leash on again (and made sure it was on good), took a real walk for about 30 minutes, walked back home and dropped her off, hopped in the car and headed to the office, arrived 30 minutes early, updated my information for the new year, waited, got brought into exam room, got weighed, got BP'd, waited, waited, waited, spoke to a medical student about my huge list of questions and concerns, waited, spoke to the doctor, got all my questions answered, got a couple new scripts (more on that below), got some blood drawn, went to the pharmacy, waited, picked up my scripts, headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night. World record for longest runon ever?

This is my first visit since October. That was 40 pounds ago. At that last visit, I had lost 25 between visits. She didn't even notice until I pointed it out and that was a tad disappointing. Imagine my elation when she walked in the door yesterday and the first words out of her mouth were "Forty freaking pounds?! Good job!" I'll have to wait a couple of days for the results on the tests, then we'll figure out if the metformin is gone or reduced. Sadly, I wasn't able to convince her I'm not hypertensive. I've had a 140/88 and a 135/90 two visits in a row, so she prescribed an ACE inhibitor. Feh. Now it's my goal to get off both of these. We discussed a couple other minor things and I was pleased with her answers, then I asked the question I've had in mind since I started this journey: "what is my goal weight going to be?"

If you asked Weight Watchers, they'd defer to that 19th century sociologist, who thinks I should weigh at max 179 pounds. She told me she agreed that on my frame 179 pounds would be not only difficult but likely strange, even sickly looking. She suggested a goal of 185-210. I was pretty happy with her response and agreed wholeheartedly. I'll still keep 225 as my "official goal," but for end-game, I'll press on from there to between 199 and 210. I'm not terribly concerned about reaching onederland like some Polish-surnamed chefs (grats, btw), so that 199 may very well never happen, but I'll get within spittin distance of it. It's almost scary to realize how close I'm getting and how soon I'll be there. This journey seemed so daunting 90 pounds ago. Now, it's just keep doin what yer doin and I'll get there in a few more months. This was a huge NSV for me because as an obese person that was very used to gaining 10-20 pounds a year every year since I was 13, I've never had a doctor praise me on my weight change from one appointment to the next.

BTW, I walked in the office at 1 and left at a quarter of 4. Crazy, right? There was a lot of waiting involved, but to be fair, I wound up talking to the student, then to her for a good 90 minutes altogether. I was surprised they let me take up that much time, but I guess it's patients like me that make them run so far behind their schedule, huh?

So this morning is weigh in. As has been my MO for the last several weeks, I couldn't sleep. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning on Saturdays. I wake up very early, thinking about how I did that week and postulating how it'll be reflected in the scale. I tried to go back to sleep and finally gave up at 5, hopped out of bed and took a sneak peak at the Wii Fit. I won't ruin it for you, but unless it is absolutely wrong, this has been a really good week. I'll update this post when I get back. I still have 40 minutes of waiting before I head over there.

**** edit ****

BOOM! 3.6 pounds. Now, I'm off to do some produce (and possibly bison meat) shopping at city market.

Progress so far: 93 pounds.