5&1 Rehab

I had my pre-op appointment with my surgeon's nurse practitioner yesterday.  It was actually fun because all of my lab work and my blood pressure was "perfect" (and my weight was good, too!).  For too many years, any doctor's office visit included expressed concern over my health - blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure and a recommendation that I lose weight.  Typical of most patients, I smiled, nodded and left the office only to return and hear the same things on my next visit.  What a nice difference now to know that after losing 126 pounds - and keeping it off - I can now make a health care provider smile from ear to ear :-).

As I head into my knee replacement surgery on Tuesday morning, I am doing so knowing that I am as healthy as I can possibly be.  There are no medical concerns that would make surgery more risky or health issues that will impact the speed of my recovery.  That is SO reassuring!  Had I not lost the weight and gotten healthy, I would have been heading into surgery near (or over) 300 pounds, a Type 2 diabetic with high blood pressure.  In that condition, surgery would not only have been more risky, but recovery would also be slower and more complicated. 

Losing the weight also enabled me to postpone the surgery a bit longer.  Four years ago my knee had gotten incredibly painful and walking was difficult.  When I saw my orthopedic surgeon, he gave me a cortisone injection, prescribed some physical therapy, and suggested that a modest weight loss would help.  He explained at that time that every time we take a step the pressure on our knees is two times our body weight.  When we take stairs, the pressure on each knee is four times our body weight.  Four times - wow!  I was on Day 4 of this program when I saw him that day in June of 2007 and told him that I was working on losing weight.  At that point I know he didn't think I'd really do it and I honestly wasn't sure if I would, either.  His comments certainly gave me added incentive, however, and he was amazed and delighted when he saw me again in late March of 2008, after I'd lost over 100 pounds. 

Losing the weight and taking pressure off my knee, combined with periodic cortisone injections that worked wonderfully for a while, enabling me to do a lot of walking and hiking that I didn't think I'd ever be able to do again.  As my knee deteriorated over the past few months and non-surgical treatment (injections and anti-inflammatory medication) no longer helped, it became clear that it was time to fix the knee once and for all.

What I know at this point is that it will get worse before it gets better and I will probably be asking myself a week from now what on earth was I thinking?  :-)  However, I have a long-term goal of being active again and to reach that goal I need to go through something that will be hard and painful.  It won't be fun, but I know that a couple of months from now I will be SO glad that I did it and so happy that I didn't choose to settle for something less.

That's a lot like being on plan (you knew I'd get around to staying on plan, didn't you?!).  It's not always fun and sometimes it's painful (not physically, but emotionally).  Staying focused on what you're doing this and on what you want will make the difference.  In a way, Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1 is your recovery period from obesity.  It's not meant to be a permanent state any more than my post-op recovery and therapy will be permanent.  5&1 is a temporary and relatively short period of time that is designed to bring you from where you started to where you want to be.  Like post-op rehab, it requires focus and commitment and requires us to stretch beyond the point we think we can.  Sometimes that stretching is painful, but if we limit our range of motion to only what's comfortable, we will never get to where we want to be.

You will get to where you want to be one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)