Jack of Harts

I went to see my doctor today. Last time I saw her was seven months ago. My ankles weren’t bending right and I couldn’t walk well. My lower legs and feet were swelling up and that’s never a good sign of anything. Skin discoloring and the whole shebang. I knew at the time if I couldn’t walk I was dead. Long term. And it wasn’t going to be a joyful one. It was going to be long and painful as my body failed one part after another.

She told me I should limit my sodium consumption to two thousand a day. I don’t count it up, but since then I’ve looked at everything I eat and I ask myself if its worth the salt content. And if it’s not, I don’t eat it. I’ve cut my salt consumption to I think a third of before. And I’ve been spending the last years lowering how much I eat. Now I eat between a quarter and a third what I did three years ago. I use zip lock snack packs to keep my portion sizes low. I don’t eat stuff with a lot of salt. I move around more and use various home gym equipment pieces.

I saw her again today and she asked me how I was doing. I told her all of that and she smiled and asked me what my weighing said. I said I thought I’d lost around ten pounds. She told me it was twelve. I’d given up on weighing myself back then, so I didn’t even know how much I weighed. But thanks to her, I know I’ve lost twelve pounds since the start of the year.

I don’t fill out my shirts the way I used to. My stomach is smaller. I’ve pulled my belt in by a notch. My watches. And when I went to see Superman two weeks ago, I put my green lantern ring on my middle finger. It’s always been a third finger ring for me. Now I can wear it on the proper finger as Guy Gardner charmingly used it in the movie.

Twelve pounds. All my adult life I’ve gained a pound or two a year. Just a slow push deeper into the overweight category. Now I’m losing a pound or two a month. Just a steady push away from the precipice. Back towards being healthy again. Twelve pounds feels like a lifetime. It is.