I waited to write this blog until after my doctor’s appointment this morning. Although the appointment was chiefly for checking medications, I intended to pick my doctor’s brains about how flat my recent weight loss has been.

To make a long story, short — for now, I am not accepting the solution he suggested, which is a very low calorie medically controlled diet of shakes and protein bars, equaling roughly 800 calories a day. While I understand this likely works to lose weight, I also am against such methods of weight loss, because I see them as solutions for the symptoms of an issue, and not the issue itself.

We discussed insulin resistance; I am very likely dealing with this, but as he pointed out, the solution to insulin resistance is to lose weight… and yet, insulin resistance makes losing weight more difficult. Such a catch-22.

So — it’s time for me to get back to basics. My 53rd birthday was just a few days ago, and every birthday is a time for reassessment, at least for me. I know what works for me; I just have been pussyfooting around doing what I know is necessary.

I must start with going back to the basics, and making sure I am absolutely and fully on task. I’ve gotten away from using some of the tools that helped me early on, and I can’t truly know my full situation unless I have all of the data. It’s time to start recording my food intake, again, to make sure I’m on track. It’s time to watch everything that I eat, and make sure it’s what I intend.

I have drifted off course. This is a correction, and I intend to break this plateau by year’s end.