400 mg

[dragonlady7]

I forgot my knee braces today. I went to work and just plain forgot them.
It was a long day. SCW wasn't there, so I was working with some random junior person who was really... ehhh, I won't even get into it, save to say that you really just get used to working with someone, and you start to take for granted things like, say, that other person knowing where to put things so the next person can find them, and, say, you know, doing a load of dishes now and then. You know. The usual.

My knees were moderately sore by the end of the day, and my back quite sore. And I won't get into the various irritations, but I didn't get home until very late.
So I went with Z to the Pizza Plant and we ate pizza pods and drank random fancy beer. And I had to wait until then to have one of my ginormous ibuprofins, as I have to take them with food.

I am still a little sore.


I am also way way more depressed and annoyed than I should've been at having been reprimanded for being overweight. I'd just, I don't know-- I spent my teenage years convinced I was fat, and looking back, I wasn't, but now that I feel OK with my shape, I'm told I'm fat, and need to exercise more, even though I spend about 45 hours a week on my feet and sweating. I just don't know what else to do. I don't comfort eat-- I eat when I'm hungry. I hate the penny-pinching feeling of counting calories. I don't want that badly to be a different size.

My problem is that I just can't convince myself that I need to lose weight.

I looked it up and according to the collective wisdom of the Internet, given that I am 5' 7", 27, and female, I should weigh between 120 and 165 pounds. (Different calculators give different results.)
But where do you put in how muscular or not you are? Where do you specify your frame size? Where do you explain that you have approximately twenty pounds of boobs? [Yes, I've measured that, although not recently.] Does that matter at all? I have 20" thighs just above the knee, but there is nothing I can pinch that's fat. I have 17" calves. And while my waist size has steadily decreased over the last four or so years, my overbust measurement has remained steadfastly identical, which means that as I go down in band sizes in my bra, the cup sizes go up and up because the boobs aren't getting any smaller.

Should I really try to lose twenty pounds? (I could do it in a matter of hours, with a double mastectomy, but I'd really rather die, thanks.)

Can you imagine what I'd look like at 120 pounds????

Ugh, I'd rather not. No offense to y'all skinny peoples, but I would be icky at that size...

Bah. I am too sleepy and depressed to consider this any further.

And, for the record, 400 mg of ibuprofin, which is the prescription stuff I got today, and all I have to show for all that doctorifficness... 400 mg of ibuprofin, begging your pardon, doesn't do jack-shit.

Comments

[galadhir.livejournal.com]

Yes, Doctors do not seem to take muscle into account, which is just stupid, so thin people who couldn't walk upstairs are 'healthy' whereas well built people who could hold down an active job all day and rollerskate all night are seen as too fat.

Ignore it! I think she might be right that you could be overdoing it in the exercise line - all this joint pain is the kind of thing I was getting when doing karate - hitting things and having them hit you is bad for you :) But why she thinks adding less food to the mix will make your body less stressed by exercise, I don't know. It'd just add the problems of starvation too.

[rootsnradicals.livejournal.com]

400mg of ibuprofen is simply two advils. Your prescription is just a normal dose (but was hopefully cheaper than a bottle of advil!) I'm taking 600 mg at least 3 times a day, and have noticed no change in my knee pain. What I'm told, though, is that I need to keep a certain level of it in my bloodstream to counteract the swelling at the joint. I do have to say, I am much less stiff - just still in pain.

Doctors have to say you need to lose weight if you're not on their charts. That doesn't mean you're fat - just over the weight listed on those stupid-ass charts. You're totally right - you at 120 pounds wouldn't even be able to stand up, you'd be so emaciated! General robustness and other factors (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.) need to be factored in more. I have never looked at you and thought "fat" or "overweight" at all. Could you imagine Sissy Fit with even a C-cup? She'd look completely different! And probably be about 15 pounds heavier (you have to build shoulder and back muscles to keep these babies up!)

If the knees keep bothering you, get a referral for an orthopedic doctor, not just a pcp. I'm not saying mine knows everything, but it helps anyway.

Good luck!

F*%$# the doctor!

[(Anonymous)]

Dont worry about your doc. When we went out last weekend, Mrs. D was talking about how good you looked! Doctors unfortunately dont take a lot of things into account.

Danny D.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I weigh just under 120lbs.

That you "should" weigh similar to me is frankly terrifying.

The thought of you weighing any less than 140 (and that's in the event of like, dysentery) is disgusting.

My mom is a little taller than you and is at 140 (I think.) She also has no boobs, and didn't have much before her mastectomies. Body shape is a very, very important factor.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I would like to challenge her, at the general physical I have scheduled, to tell me how much I really ought to weigh, given that she'll be able to see my whole frame there. I just want to say, OK, you've just looked me all over. You tell me what my ideal weight is, and how much of these quadriceps muscles that you can see right here I ought to lose. Just you try to pinch my thighs and see how much of that is fat that I should eliminate. Go ahead. Tell me, woman.

And then I'll pick her up over my head like the Hulk and-- ok, ok, I won't do that.
But I probably could.


I'm going to try to eat healthier, I guess, but I was going to anyway, since it's spring and there are better veggies available now, and I'll have my own lettuce. (I don't like store-bought lettuce.)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Hm, she didn't say whether I needed to take them to avoid swelling. Well, the X-rays won't be back, so she won't have seen whether there's really a problem or not.
So, I'll continue with my practice of taking them after physical activity. I don't like to take painkillers before I do something that might hurt me, because I don't want to not notice pain as it's happening, in case I'm hurting myself.

I'll probably take one at dinner at work, before practice, just to try to ease any swelling. It's going to be hellish today, I know. Bah, I hate Thursdays. I might be on the wall tonight. But nobody believes me when I point out that it really, it really doesn't hurt when I skate!! If my knees are sore then yes, they stay sore, but it feels much better than when I walk or stand still!
Ah well.

My older sister is 3" taller than me, and probably weighs about 155. There is no fat on her-- I've seen her in a bikini. She could not be thinner than she is. She's a D-cup, and a size 8.
Maybe I could aspire to that shape... but she's that shape after 10 years in the Army and two tours in Iraq. I don't know if I could do what she does. I certainly couldn't jump out of planes with a broken leg, as she has been known to do. She is crazy.

Ah well.
I had a dream last night, Punk, that you were better-- that you came to practice all smiles and said "the doctor says it's not that bad so I can skate now!" I had forgotten, until at breakfast Z asked how you were, and i said, I think she's better! Oh wait, that wasn't real.
I was sad when I remembered.

Other weird stuff happened in that dream, though, so I guess it's just as well it wasn't real.

[rootsnradicals.livejournal.com]

I hope your dream comes true!!!!

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

My first thought is: You are not fat. At least not significantly.

Doctors are finally beginning to realize that most knee and hip problems are related to overweight. But like the rest of the world, they don't know *why*. That is, they haven't done the research and rigid studies that would allow them to make a proclamation.

*My* opinion, based on experience and study, is that you get joint problems by eating too much sweet. Both the joint problems and the overweight are symptoms of the same cause.

But I'm not convinced that is *your* problem. It is pretty well certain that less weight is less strain on the knees, but well muscled legs are also good for the knee joints.

Maybe you need a different doctor.

They used to say that the best way to tell if you were carrying too much fat is to 'pinch' the underarm fat. Close to the armpit, the flesh that hangs and wobbles when you lift your arm - there should be less than an inch of it. If you can 'pinch an inch' then you would probably benefit by losing weight.