It was my first “not-baby” doctor’s appointment I had in almost 10 years. I looked for an internal medicine doctor the best way I knew how, ask all my mom friends. Unfortunately, most of my mom friends where in the same boat. None of us had a “real” doctor’s visit since before our having kids. Fortunately, I work for a pharmaceutical company and was able to call one of my primary care reps and asked who she thought was the best doctor to see.
I went online and made an appointment, and the good doctor was able to see me in a few weeks.
We went through all of the normal physical stuff: height, weight, blood pressure, family history, cancer risks, and lucky for me, it was all pretty basic. With the one exception, does anyone else have a doctor who wears Google Glass during her appointment? I completely understand how the technology helps her with dictations and all. I’m just curious if this is another “Silicon Valley” thing. Anyway…
At the end of the physical, she asked if there was anything else she could help with, and that’s when I asked, “Am I too chubby?”
She then looked me over and asked, “How much do you drink?”
I was honestly surprised this had not come up during the history part of the appointment. And I proceeded to count Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday….and I was being honest! She stopped me before I got to Friday. And then she said, “Do you really “need” all those drinks on a Tuesday or Wednesday?” I paused and thought through my last few weeks and admitted, “No, but that one Tuesday, I really did!”
So my lovely doctor and I came up with a plan. I was allowed a glass of wine during the week if I really felt like I needed it, but the overall weekly cap was to stay at 10 drinks or less. She assured me, if I did that, within a year, I wouldn’t feel like I had to ask that question any more.
Here I am about 8 months later, and she was right. I feel really good about my health, my jeans fit a bit looser, and I’m no longer worried about being “too chubby.”
It’s hard to dial the drinking back sometimes in the Mom Culture that we live in. There are just too many good wine and kid jokes! But at the end of it all, I sacrificed a few good jokes and drinks for my health. I think we can all agree, that’s the real Mom Culture we should strive for.
I had to laugh when I actually lost weight during the first trimester of my second pregnancy… not from morning sickness or nausea, and not because of a new workout regimen. The only thing that changed was that I stopped drinking so much wine! Oof.