Lesson Learned: Doctors Don’t Know Everything
Me as of 8:45am this morning: 37, 5’9″, 220lbs
It had been a year since my last checkup and I went in pretty much knowing what the doctor was going to say to me. I didn’t get anywhere near the exercise I should have in the last year and I know that my diet isn’t the best either. In late 2006 I weighed 199 and around the same time in 2007 I was at 211. The trend is about 10lbs a year and to keep going on like this as I get older is not good. I started 2009 wanting to prove to myself that I can change and that habits can be broken, even at 37 years old. So far I’ve kicked the diet coke habit and I feel good about that. I just need to get back on the exercise horse and start watching calories.
The good news is that my hypertension is still under control and the Benicar/HCT that I’ve been taking is keeping my blood pressure at normal levels. The doctor prescribed another year’s worth at the same dosage and I am fine with that. What really burned me up is that the doctor said that in order to get my weight under control I needed to give up beer. He said alcohol intake wasn’t a problem for me but that high amounts of liquid calories can be bad. What I was expecting him to say was that I need to watch my calories and make sure most of them are healthy food calories. I figured he’d recommend that I get my ass on the treadmill. The man has no way of knowing how much beer I drink so why would he make such a blanket statement like that?
He brought up sodas and said that I shouldn’t drink them either. He didn’t even ask me if I drank sodas before saying that. I told him that at my worst I used to drink about 2 diet sodas a day give or take, but had been off of them for about 3 weeks now. I brought up aspartame and asked what he thought. He said confidently that aspartame is not a problem and that I should focus on keeping the calorie intake down. It’s like he’s got these canned things that he says to all overweight males and doesn’t really care about the patient.
I did considerable research on the internets today confirming that limited calorie intake and exercise is blatantly what I need. However, giving up my moderate beer enjoyment will do nothing but make me sad in the face.
Next year I’ll be making an appointment with a new doctor.
