As it happens, I am not 5'3" as I have thought I was since probably high school. I am actually 5'4.5" tall. Ordinarily, this would be a semi useless bit of trivia. However, it has a significant bearing on height/weight charts such as the Body Mass Index. Significant enough for me to be bumped out of the Obese category. I don't know whether to feel aggravated or relieved. I guess it's both.
It was not significant enough to get me off the hook with the weight loss for the breast reduction surgery. So, there is that issue to deal with either way. Still it was nice to know that my self perception isn't completely skewed and crazy.
At this point a weight loss of only 26 pounds would put me into the healthy weight zone. I can live with that. 57 pounds was a whole different situation. Granted, that number would still keep me from falling off into underweight zone but not by much.
We talked about my overall health given the RA and my headache issues. And my fitness and daily habits for eating. I'm doing everything I can correctly according to the NP and historically, it's always worked for me. The one issue she mentioned that might be making things harder is one of the medications that keeps my headaches in check. Apparently, it can really increase cravings for carbs and high calorie, nutrient deficient ones are at the top of my guilty pleasure list.
She felt like the program would be very successful for me given my normal habits and propensity for tracking and graphing progress of everything. And she mentioned that although I probably will have less to lose than others in my group, it's often helpful to be an example for others. On the one hand, that's a nice sentiment but on the other hand I still feel kind of weird about the whole thing. She stressed that the diet would help me get reset to my goal and that my habits and the things learned in the 82 week program would help me manage it from that point onward.
Now it's about making the decision to do it or not. And the money. This program is not cheap. They estimate that a normal family environment spends about $117 per person per week on food. I feed a family of four (including the bottomless pit 13 year old boy) for about $135 per week. Granted, I make almost everything from scratch. But on the program, they estimate $90/week for just me compared to the $30ish I spend now. And that is before you add in the monthly fees and medical monitoring costs.
I'm torn. Part of me feels like its a ridiculous expenditure. Part of me feels like if I can just get back to where I need to be, I can handle it from there. All of my doctors are in favor of it. The family is completely supportive of me either way. J's comment was, "What would be a better way to invest in than myself?"
No comments:
Post a Comment