Hi everyone!
I've been overweight all of my life. The chubby kid became the chubby teenager became the overweight young adult became the overweight/obese adult.
When I was younger it bothered me cosmetically but not physically. My tests always showed that I was perfectly normal, healthy as a horse, except for my weight. I was active, tried to eat healthy, etc.
Then, I started suffering from some severe anxiety/depression issues. I stopped doing the things I used to do (like moving off of the sofa once in a while) and I didn't care much about what I was eating either.
Two years ago, my blood tests were still perfect with only slightly borderline cholesterol numbers. The doctor put me on anti-anxiety, anti-depression meds and life started looking up.
Until yesterday when I went back to the doctor and had some repeat blood work done. My sugar count was high for the first time ever. Not high enough to warrant meds or for him to even say "you're diabetic" but the message was clear...I'm on my way to being one.
My cholesterol was much higher than it had been previously and he prescribed some medication for that, saying that it was most likely a combination of my weight and heredity and therefore could not/would not be completely controlled by diet and exercise alone.
Finally, my liver enzymes were slightly elevated. The ast/alt (? think that's what they were called) were both between 5 - 10 points higher than the cutoff for the "normal" range. The doctor said that it wasn't anything to get too worried about because it was almost certainly caused by a mildly fatty liver due to my weight.
He also pointed out that I'd gained 40 pounds in the last two years.
He seemed confused by the weight gain but, really? He put me on a medication that has "weight gain" and "lethargy" listed as major side effects and he wonders why I'm gaining weight? Oy!
Anyway, I know it's not all down to the medication. It's my lifestyle choices and I need to pony up and make a change. It's time to take control of my life before some of these issues create irreversible damage. The doctor has been really pushing some weight loss meds to give me a kick start. I'm not even willing to go there. I've seen too many issues with that. I'm going to do this the old fashioned way.
So, since I've always found a wealth of support in on-line settings, here I am.
Also, I'm in my mid *ahem* thirties, happily married for 8 years to an extremely supportive husband and I work as an administrative assitant at a church (yeah, going from a job where I was on my feet all day to a desk job hasn't helped the weight thing either).