It’s official – I’m not fat anymore!

I had my physical with my doctor yesterday.  After my exam, and after many questions about the program, he says with a smile, “I see we’ve got a morbid obesity alert on your file – I guess we’ll have to change that!”  (On a side note it’s surprising to me how little most doctors know about the Ontario Bariatric Network programs.) 

On the doctor’s scales I weighed 154 pounds.  That means that I am officially not overweight, based on body mass index.  At 154 pounds (daytime), I am in the ‘healthy’ range - (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9 – even if just barely.  The BMI number is kind of an artificial number, but I started this health journey with the goal of increasing my health.  I never imagined that I would be able to get down to this weight, but now that I have this 154 weight will be my upper limit, my alarm bell so-to-speak.  It may be a little silly, but this number represents health to me; so if I can manage it, I'd like to stay just a little under - maybe 150 pounds, doctor's office.

Practically speaking, what this number means is that my metabolic syndrome (aka flubbergut + high cholesterol/high triglycerides/ high sugar) is gone, and I am at much lower risk of developing many nasty diseases – diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s and respiratory disease.  More important than the possibly longer life expectancy is the likelihood that I will be able to enjoy my life with less medical complications and more fun/freedom – yay!

On the other hand, I am no longer ‘normal’ – the most recent directly measured Canadian statistics reveal that 61% of Canadian adults are considered either overweight or obese.  Hmmmhh – does that mean that I will stand out in a crowd as the freak?