Fatness to Fitness Part III: Making a Change

The morning after tipping the scale at 30 more pounds than ever before, the first thing I did was call my doctor. In fact, I sat by the phone and (impatiently) waited for the doctor’s office to open at 8am so I could call and make an appointment ASAP. Something wasn’t right, and I needed to figure out what it was.

When I finally got an appointment for later that week, the doctor raised his eyebrows when he looked at my weight written down on my chart. He mentioned that it had gone up since the last time I saw him (just 6 months prior for the annual physical - everything was fine then), and I explained that was the reason for my visit today.

The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me: “I have never been this heavy, and I don’t like the way my body feels. It came out of nowhere.”

Doctor: “Have you changed your eating habits? Physical activity?”

Me: “No, everything is the same as its always been. I have actually been trying to eat better once I noticed that I was gaining weight, and usually that helps. But this time, I feel like I’m still getting heavier even though I am cooking at home more and using healthier recipes.”

After a lengthy and much more in-depth discussion (I will spare you those boring details), the doctor confirmed my suspicion; my birth control was to blame. After many hours scouring the internet for answers earlier in the week, I determined my birth control was the culprit because 6 months prior I made the decision to switch my birth control from the pill to the Depo-Provera shot. I thought getting a shot every 3 months would be easier than trying to remember to take a pill every day, especially with my busy work schedule and I already forgot to pack my pills on my last trip. Even though I had been on the pill for years and it worked perfectly fine, I decided to change it up for convenience (big mistake). The first shot I got was GREAT! No issues, no weight gain (no pregnancy - yay!). For 3 months, all was good. But after the second shot, it didn’t take long to start noticing drastic changes.

Back in the doctor’s office…

Me: “Isn’t there some kind of medication you can give me to help me lose this weight?”

Doctor: “Well, there is medication that can be prescribed for weight loss for obese individuals, but, even though you have gained a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time, your BMI (body mass index) isn’t high enough to qualify. You’re close, but not close enough.”

Great. So I was fat and heavy, but not fat and heavy enough to get help.

Me: “Is there anything I can do? I’ve tried on my own but for some reason it isn’t working. I am starting to fear that I’ll never be able to lose the weight.”

If my hours on the internet taught me anything, its that hundreds of women struggled to lose weight after Depo. For months and even years after they stopped taking it, many struggled to lose the weight that they gained (and I should have considered myself lucky, since most of the women gained even more weight than me!). What if that was going to happen to me? I had only been carrying around this weight for a few months, and it felt like it was never going away.

Doctor: “I can refer you to a weight loss clinic. We have had a number of patients go through the program who were successful in losing weight. That’s really all I can do.”

He gave me the name and contact information for the Nuviva weight loss clinic. I carried it around in my purse for several days before I mustered up the courage to call. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect - what exactly does one do at a weight loss clinic? Would it help? Should I even bother or would it better just to give up and get used to life as a 185 lb size 12? After much deliberation, I made the final decision to pull up my big-girl pants (literally!) and make my appointment.

I don’t think I was ever more nervous than the day I walked in the door of Nuviva.

Numbers don't lie. But sometimes they do.