My trip to the doctor this morning made me feel much better about my progress on the weight-loss front. After commenting on the ten pounds I was down since our December visit, I directed her to look back a page or two. She looked at me with surprise, "You've lost forty pounds since last July! That's great!" Yes, I had to point out to my physician how well I'm doing at following her instructions. To be fair, though, it's not like she expects me to follow her instructions. I haven't much in the past. And my last appointment had been one of those squeezed in between her lunch hour and another appointment to deal with my raging fever, so I can understand her overlooking my progress. I was still disappointed, but I understood. It wasn't either of our priorities at the time.

Now that I had her attention, I started by asking when we could look forward to getting me off the beta-blockers. My blood pressure has been fine the last three or four rounds and I expressed my concern that it interferes with my ability to work out effectively. She explained I was on an small dosage that probably didn't really interfere with heart rate enough to skew my monitoring results. "Is your heart rate being effected? Probably. Is it being greatly effected? Not likely." This was very good news because now I can continue using the stupid $200 watch the trainer coerced me into buying. I'll just make sure to stay on the low end of my range. (Which, btw, is turning out to be harder than one would think. My tendancy is to go full tilt when getting eliptical; thinking I'm not doing a good job unless I'm dripping with sweat like the boy next to me. Apparently, if I'm still breathing, I don't think I'm working quite hard enough.) In the end, after an even more pleasant result from a second blood pressure check, we agreed that if I can continue to lose weight and exercise, then we can start reducing my meds at the next visit.

I also discussed with her my future weight goals, specifically what my Weight Watchers "Goal Weight" should be. Their standard weight chart does not leave a lot of wiggle room for those of us who might be more statuesque, more muscular, or just don't desire to look quite so guant as their ideal. It is something that even the program itself acknowleges in that they will now let members get together with their doctor and come up with a goal weight that is right for that individual. I find it interesting that my doctor, the trainer, and I all came up with the same weight. It is a weight that is sixty pounds higher than where I fit on the Weight Watchers chart. It's also a weight I can remember feeling comfortable being. It also means looking down the road another sixty pounds instead of another hundred and twenty. (It's hard to stay with a program that seems to never get closer to the goal.)

All in all, I'd say this was a pretty successful doctor's visit. I'm feeling so much better about things. For some reason I wasn't seeing the progress I've made. There are so many benefits to what I'm doing. I guess I just needed to make myself see them.