Non-Scale Victory

Today was "the day". I woke up this morning fully anticipating my doctor's appointment. As you know, I was not looking forward to it at all. Not because of the actual exam but because I knew what the number on the weight scale would read and that it was going to be followed by a lecture from my doctor. Well to my surprise horror, I quickly found out after stepping up on to their high tech scale, that my "low-tech", cheap scale from Wal-Mart was not jiving with what the doctor's office scale was reading. MY scale at home led me to believe that I was down 3 pounds from what I weighed a week ago. So I felt pretty good this morning going in for my appointment. Uh, no. Wrong. Although I would like mention that I was fully clothed with boots on when I weighed myself at the doctor's office. This HAS to be the difference in numbers right? Surely my boots alone weigh 3 pounds.

So there I was, sitting on the table with my "sheet" covering less than half of my body, sweating because I was so nervous! I'm a clever person when I want to be so while I was waiting on the table feeling drafty I came up with a solution. I was not going to wait for him to bring it up. I was going to bring it up first and just clear the air right off the bat. At this point I had been poked by 3 needles and asked a series of ridiculous questions like, "Do you wear your seat belt all of the time?" Uhhh....sure. So I was ready to attack. Clothes or no clothes I was going to put this conversation in MY control!

Finally he walked in the exam room. I was ready to make my move. But before I could even fake smile and say hi he walked over to me, patted me on the back, and told me how proud he was of me. Wait, uh, doc? I'm confused. Wait. No. This is my time. Uh proud? Proud of what? I think he saw the confused look on my face and said, "Did you not see what your blood pressure read today?" Well I guess I hadn't. His clever nurse was asking me all of those dumb questions while the BP wrap was Incredible Hulk squeezing my arm and I guess I just didn't notice the beep. Apparently my BP was 124/80. That's the lowest it's been in 4 years. He finally sat down and said, Ashley I realize you're not happy with numbers on the scale. But you're eating healthier, you're exercising and you're getting healthier. This blood pressure reading is a non-scale victory for you and that should mean more to you than a number on a scale.

Dang-it doc, ya got me. 

After all of the self torment and mental anguish I put myself through this past week I came out the doctor's office feeling pretty good. He did mention that he's going to check my cholesterol and blood sugar just to make sure those things are okay, but other than that I lived through it to see another day. So in the end, I guess my doctor is right. It's not always the numbers on the scale that matters. Though yes, they need go down but the fact that I'm at least trying to make myself a better person and the fact that I have conquered one thing (high blood pressure) it is the non-scale victories that keep a person going.