Friday, September 11, 2009

Why I started this blog...

It is time I started talking about the "thing" that made me want to start this blog in the first place...

Okay, I'm a bit overweight. Or, more accuarately, morbidly obese in my doctor's vernacular. I'm 168cm (5'6"), and on my doctor's scales in February I weighed in at 135kg. That equates to a Body Mass Index (BMI) of almost 48. Quite reasonably, she has been gently trying to convince me to take some measures to reduce my weight for years.

In my favour, my weight has been steady for years. In the doctor's records, my weight hasn't changed for at least three years. And long ago, my weight was stable for years at 12 stone (that's 168 lb or 76kg). Before I broke my ankle and it went undetected for eight years, and I stopped moving because it hurt too much.

I've been to a dietician before. We worked together for three years and I lost over 30 kg (66 lb). But the focus on the food started to get very negative for me, and the three health professionals that I told this to ignored me. So I went into my own little tail-spin and stopped going - and of course put all that weight back on over time, plus more.

Fast-forward to this year, and my doctor tells me about a scheme being run by the local district health board where they pay for people like me to see a health psychologist, and would I be interested in that? I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a look, so in short order I was contacted by the guy and we made an appointment for me to see him.

More next time!..