I would like to say today that my recent realisation that this is a lifestyle I’m creating here rather than a diet to get me where I want to be (and then thus to be dropped) has made everything simple again.

Well, it hasn’t.

It’s that time of the month in lady land and it’s been hard. I don’t know what it is about this month, but the cravings have been hard to deal with. And it’s not even just sweets, which are fairly easy for me to avoid. I just want to EAT.

I’d like to say that my recent ravenous hunger is due to pregnancy, but I’d be lying. I can pretty much only blame the hormones. That being said, I think I’m actually doing okay in the long run. Sure, I’ve done some not-so-great things like turning to chocolate for comfort when my evil kitten decided to forget all his training and drive me up the wall. But there are good things, too, like opting for a Subway 6-inch and skipping the drink and cookie instead of going for a larger and/or more fatty meal. There was also going clothes shopping and letting the ‘ugh’ moments be motivation to keep getting healthy instead of a reason to go into a depressive mud cake bonanza.

So, I’m not there yet and don’t plan to be for a while, but I’m satisfied with where I am at the moment. I’d rather be happy where I am than just satisfied, so I’m keeping on truckin’, but satisfied is a lot better than unhappy.

May I just say that I enjoy seeing my dietician much, much more than I like going to see the doctor’s I have seen otherwise. My dietician is very nice and pleasant to talk to.

I wasn’t originally planning to go back to the dietician, but an appointment practically fell in my lap so I took it. Given how unsatisfying my doctor was in answering my questions, I hoped I would have better luck with my dietician.

Have I mentioned how nice Dr. E is?

I had all sorts of questions about specific foods, GI, exercises, portion sizes, and more. Dr. E handled them all with care and dismissed nothing until I fully understood what she was saying.

Given my lack of weight change, she suggested I examine my exercise first. I’m now putting in the time, but the intensity is just as important. I think I’m doing okay, but I’m adding in some extra time as well as making sure that I’m puffing a bit while exercising.

Because I have a hard time eating breakfast in the morning, I asked her about the possibility of meal replacement. She seemed stunned that I would bring that up as an alternative voluntarily, but she also thought it would be a great idea – and not just for breakfast.

They had just had a shipment of meal replacement stuff in, so she gave me some soups and shakes from a specific line of meal replacement stuff as well as a brochure to introduce me to the program.

I’ve been looking at the program, but that’s for another post.

All in all, it was an excellent appointment where I got all my questions answered.

I go back in August to check in again. Hopefully I’ll be a good amount lighter by then!

I apologize for what is going to turn into a flood of posts. The internet slowed down by heaps earlier this week and is back to speed only today.

And I have so much to talk about!

I went to the doctor last Thursday for a checkup and to get the results for my blood test results from February. Given that I wasn’t called in early or anything, I wasn’t expecting anything too bad. As it turned out, the results were great.

Months before leaving the States, I had a full range of blood tests done. I was diagnosed well and truly pre-diabetic and just teetering the line to Type 2 diabetes. Pairing that up with the ovarian cysts I had, I wasn’t doing well at all.

Earlier this year, I reported the good news that I am now living a cyst free life. The new life I’m leading is even better.

My glucose tolerance test came back completely normal. I’ve reversed being pre-diabetic!

Even though my weight was (with accommodation for my usual TOM weight gain) exactly where I was weight-wise in February, it is nice to know that my efforts have been doing good things.

The appointment was disappointing in some ways because the doctor dismissed some of my concerns about my digestive system, but I had an appointment with my dietician anyway, so I let it pass.

I was a bit annoyed when she said, “Some people just have to exercise more” in regards to my lack of weight loss, but I let that pass, too. I know that I am working hard at a level that works me but encourages me to keep it up for the long term.