Weight Management Group

On Thursday, December 23^rd, I was up at dawn to drive to my appointment with the Weight Management Group in the hospital where my dad died. Hate that hospital. Hate that drive. With the holidays though, the traffic was a piece of cake.

While I was in the city, William and Kimberly were picking up the Honeybaked ham, the Busche de Noel, a dozen petit d’fors, the lobster and meat for the Beef Bourguignon.  Michael spent the morning and into the afternoon driving the 100 miles out to pick up my mom and another 100 back to our house. At the same time, the housekeepers arrived to clean the house.

What a day!

So, I met with the nutritionist with the list of my medications, our family’s medical history, my cookbook I have been cooking out of for the past year, one of our paper plates to show the size of our plates and hope.

The hope is that they will tweak my diet so I can lose weight. We eat so well. So cleanly. Such small portions. What am I doing wrong?

The nutritionist explained to me how my body is processing food compared to other people. He said that with most people, weight is a manner of physics – food in, energy expended equals weight loss or gain. Simple. Not so for me. Any kind of sugar or carb processes totally differently because of the prednisone. It goes right to fat. That drug also drives up blood sugar and he was shocked how my body has been able to manage it. I have no diabetes. Thinking that all the rehab exercise I do keeps it a bay, he said that was not so and that it really is my body managing it on its own.

We reviewed the food I had eaten the previous week and I learned that I have to let the whole grain pasta and bread to once again leave my diet. Also, goodbye to yogurt, starchy vegetables and all fruit. He said that with plenty of water, I will release a ton of fluid that my body is holding onto and should be 10+ pounds lighter when I see him again at the end of January. He set my  target calories at 1,200 per day.

He also wanted me to see a specific doctor to talk about a three-month diet of protein shakes and bars to get the weight off quickly to begin the process of lung transplants. It would have to be monitored very carefully due to some of the drugs. He said that I would lose 30-40 pounds within the three months then would graduate to a low carb diet.

I made an appointment to see him and his recommended doctor next month. When we were alone, Michael asked how the appointment went and I replied that for the first time, I felt hopeful.  

It was a good day.