northern

I went for a physical this week. Haven't had one since before my weight loss surgery two and a half years ago.

At that time, I weighed 350 pounds.

I've hated going for a physical for many years now, primarily because of the weigh-in. Before you see the doctor, the nurse takes your blood pressure and weighs you.

They still use one of those old-fashioned scales with the little weights you move along till the arm balances. And those scales only measure up to 300 pounds. It's remarkably embarassing to stand on the scale and watch as they move the weights all the way to the end, and then announce that I weigh more than the scale can measure.

It really is a soul-crushing moment when your family doctor doesn't know how much you weigh because you're so heavy.

Now, going in, I knew I was probably below 300 finally. But when I look in the mirror it doesn't seem like I've lost any weight at all.

So, with my usual dread, I stepped onto the scale, and started to tell the nurse that she'd have to push the weights all the way to the end.

A funny thing happened though, she stopped before hitting the end, and the arm was actually hovering around the balance mark. A bit of fine tuning, and I was amazed to learn that I weigh 266 pounds.

On the one hand, 266 pounds is still obese, but I'm trying to look at the bright side, and feel good that I've lost more weight than I thought. In total, I've lost 84 pounds.

I'm pretty happy with that, though I continue to try to lose more. I really wish I were able to look at my body and see it's missing those 84 pounds though.