Warning, rant incoming.
I have come to the conclusion that the next time a healthcare professional feels the need to sit me down and lecture me about my weight/eating habits/exercise, I may be forced to punch them in the face.
Let's recap, shall we? I am 5'5", I weigh 177 lbs, and I wear a size 12-14 in US terms. Is this heavier than I'd like to be? Yes. Is it grossly obese? Um, NO. Do I exercise? When I can, when other health problems are not interfering. Whether I "exercise" each day or no, I definitely DO walk every day, somewhat briskly, to and from the bus which is 4 blocks from my house, and then another 2 long downtown blocks to and from work. This is a step up from walking out the door and directly into a car, I dare say.
Oh, but I have high blood pressure! And high cholesterol! And high blood sugar levels! I'm boderline diabetic and in the red for all sorts of things and then, like clockwork, out comes the "you're obese, you eat bad, you don't exercise, you must drink/smoke, you have to make sweeping lifestyle changes!" lectures.
Some more recap. No, I don't smoke. No, I don't drink, unless you count maybe a shotglass of schnapps once a month or so. I usually have one cup of coffee or less a day. I don't drink soda. In fact, I have no taste for sweets and don't eat desserts or candy or other sugary things. Carbs? Ok, you've got me there, I like bread and french fries and pasta. But let's take a look at a typical eating day for me, shall we? Breakfast - burrito made of one scrambled egg, two spoons of refried beans, and a bit of cheese, in a corn tortilla. Lunch - cucumber/tomato/bell pepper/romaine salad with feta cheese and italian dressing. Half a pear. About a third of a cup of cottage cheese. Small snack bag of potato chips. Dinner - panko breaded pork chop with peas and buttered garlic noodles, and maybe another small side salad.
I kind of want to grab the lecturer, shake them, and demand if THEIR daily food intake is that healthy. And don't even talk to me about overeating - last I clocked myself, I'm supposed to be at around 1600 calories a day, not for maintenance, but for actually losing weight! When I clocked myself I came in around 1400-1500 every day, and that's if I forced myself to snack more than normal.
Hypertension? Yeah, well, Mom's got it too, so chalk that one up to genetics. Cutting out salt has never done a damned thing for it. And they've been telling me my cholesterol is bad since I was SEVENTEEN but have never suggested anything to control or reduce it other than - oh yes! - the everpresent "eat better/exercise more" magic combo.
I will note that when I was seventeen I weighed 115 lbs soaking wet and ran a mean sprint in track. I don't think weight loss and more exercise was really the answer, do you?
....in case you can't figure out by the disgruntled cat in the corner, I got the quick and pat cookie cutter lecture AGAIN today, from a new doctor, because OMG UR BLOODPRESSURE IS WAY TOO HIGH. (149 over 100, for the record.)
Gee, and you know what? I was seeing a new doctor who I had NO rapport with, in an office I'd never been to before, which I had to DRIVE to during rush hour traffic and was then going to have to drive home from in more traffic, and have I mentioned that driving to places I don't know, in city traffic, is right up there with large hairy jumping spiders on the list of things that freak me right the fuck out? HAVE I? Because gee, I dunno, but the fact that I was shaking by the time I got out of the car might have had a HELL OF ALOT MORE to do with my through the roof blood pressure than anything my diet or exercise might contribute.
That's just a guess. Y'know. Based on the shaking and sheer unadulterated rage and fear that inner city driving provoke in me.*
Not that you can tell a doctor that. Not when they can point at the twenty or so extra pounds you're packing on your hips and raise the all purpose witch-hunt flag of "obese! diet! exercise!" v______v
On the plus side, other than the hypertension he said I was completely unremarkable and the weird anomaly on the EKG is probably just an anomaly - apparently it's a somewhat common thing on women's EKG readings. (recap - They did an EKG on me when I was having problems breathing last week. The breathing thing was because of a rather acute sinus infection, which has cleared up once they gave me the meds for my nose, but shortness of breath = EKG Just In Case. And then there was a weird anomaly which my regular doctor couldn't identify, so she sent me to a cardio specialist for a consult. The cardio specialist was today, and they still want to do resting and treadmill tests on me to compare, but he's pretty sure it's nothing to worry about except for the freakish hypertension.)
....There's a bus that runs out there. I'm going to take the bus next time, THEN we'll see where my blood pressure is. =P
* I own a car and a driver's license because I was, at one point, living in places where that was the ONLY option for mobility. Now that I live in a place that has mass transport, I DO NOT DRIVE. Driving has NEVER been fun for me, it is a necessary evil, and requiring me to do it frequently can desensitize me to it but it remains high on my list of DO NOT WANT and NOT FUN.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. ::
bunnies - Feed a bunny
Let's recap, shall we? I am 5'5", I weigh 177 lbs, and I wear a size 12-14 in US terms. Is this heavier than I'd like to be? Yes. Is it grossly obese? Um, NO. Do I exercise? When I can, when other health problems are not interfering. Whether I "exercise" each day or no, I definitely DO walk every day, somewhat briskly, to and from the bus which is 4 blocks from my house, and then another 2 long downtown blocks to and from work. This is a step up from walking out the door and directly into a car, I dare say.
Oh, but I have high blood pressure! And high cholesterol! And high blood sugar levels! I'm boderline diabetic and in the red for all sorts of things and then, like clockwork, out comes the "you're obese, you eat bad, you don't exercise, you must drink/smoke, you have to make sweeping lifestyle changes!" lectures.
Some more recap. No, I don't smoke. No, I don't drink, unless you count maybe a shotglass of schnapps once a month or so. I usually have one cup of coffee or less a day. I don't drink soda. In fact, I have no taste for sweets and don't eat desserts or candy or other sugary things. Carbs? Ok, you've got me there, I like bread and french fries and pasta. But let's take a look at a typical eating day for me, shall we? Breakfast - burrito made of one scrambled egg, two spoons of refried beans, and a bit of cheese, in a corn tortilla. Lunch - cucumber/tomato/bell pepper/romaine salad with feta cheese and italian dressing. Half a pear. About a third of a cup of cottage cheese. Small snack bag of potato chips. Dinner - panko breaded pork chop with peas and buttered garlic noodles, and maybe another small side salad.
I kind of want to grab the lecturer, shake them, and demand if THEIR daily food intake is that healthy. And don't even talk to me about overeating - last I clocked myself, I'm supposed to be at around 1600 calories a day, not for maintenance, but for actually losing weight! When I clocked myself I came in around 1400-1500 every day, and that's if I forced myself to snack more than normal.
Hypertension? Yeah, well, Mom's got it too, so chalk that one up to genetics. Cutting out salt has never done a damned thing for it. And they've been telling me my cholesterol is bad since I was SEVENTEEN but have never suggested anything to control or reduce it other than - oh yes! - the everpresent "eat better/exercise more" magic combo.
I will note that when I was seventeen I weighed 115 lbs soaking wet and ran a mean sprint in track. I don't think weight loss and more exercise was really the answer, do you?
....in case you can't figure out by the disgruntled cat in the corner, I got the quick and pat cookie cutter lecture AGAIN today, from a new doctor, because OMG UR BLOODPRESSURE IS WAY TOO HIGH. (149 over 100, for the record.)
Gee, and you know what? I was seeing a new doctor who I had NO rapport with, in an office I'd never been to before, which I had to DRIVE to during rush hour traffic and was then going to have to drive home from in more traffic, and have I mentioned that driving to places I don't know, in city traffic, is right up there with large hairy jumping spiders on the list of things that freak me right the fuck out? HAVE I? Because gee, I dunno, but the fact that I was shaking by the time I got out of the car might have had a HELL OF ALOT MORE to do with my through the roof blood pressure than anything my diet or exercise might contribute.
That's just a guess. Y'know. Based on the shaking and sheer unadulterated rage and fear that inner city driving provoke in me.*
Not that you can tell a doctor that. Not when they can point at the twenty or so extra pounds you're packing on your hips and raise the all purpose witch-hunt flag of "obese! diet! exercise!" v______v
On the plus side, other than the hypertension he said I was completely unremarkable and the weird anomaly on the EKG is probably just an anomaly - apparently it's a somewhat common thing on women's EKG readings. (recap - They did an EKG on me when I was having problems breathing last week. The breathing thing was because of a rather acute sinus infection, which has cleared up once they gave me the meds for my nose, but shortness of breath = EKG Just In Case. And then there was a weird anomaly which my regular doctor couldn't identify, so she sent me to a cardio specialist for a consult. The cardio specialist was today, and they still want to do resting and treadmill tests on me to compare, but he's pretty sure it's nothing to worry about except for the freakish hypertension.)
....There's a bus that runs out there. I'm going to take the bus next time, THEN we'll see where my blood pressure is. =P
* I own a car and a driver's license because I was, at one point, living in places where that was the ONLY option for mobility. Now that I live in a place that has mass transport, I DO NOT DRIVE. Driving has NEVER been fun for me, it is a necessary evil, and requiring me to do it frequently can desensitize me to it but it remains high on my list of DO NOT WANT and NOT FUN.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. ::
bunnies - Feed a bunny