I’d grown accustomed to being overweight for the past 20 years. On the bright side, coming up with a New Year’s resolution has become a no-brainer – lose 30 pounds. But this year, I lowered my expectations to what I thought was an achievable 25 pounds. My no-nonsense doctor, Dr. Donovan Smith, recently added the incentive I needed with a firm, and much deserved, reality check.

As reported in my March 25 column, Dr. Smith didn’t mince words when telling me in no uncertain terms that I can’t afford to ignore her advice to adjust my diet and exercise. I wisely agreed and have made progress, at least with the diet part, and it has resulted in an encouraging loss of 17 pounds.

One of the worse parts about of going to the doctor for an annual physical is being told to hop up on the scale. As if it would make any significant difference, I always took off my shoes and eased up on the scale. I’m ashamed to reveal here, or ever, what my all-time high weight was at my last doctor’s visit, but let’s just say I have avoided looking in the mirror as much as humanly possible since that fateful visit.

I’m aware that I still have a long way to go before I’m no longer classified as obese, but there is good reason to think I can get away from that label in the not-too-distant future. To make certain, I went in for a follow-up visit with Dr. Smith Monday. I figured she’d be pleased with the progress on my weight problem, but I fully expected to be chastised when I informed her that I’d not started an exercise program yet. I had even rehearsed what I’d say – I’m far too busy, and my extremely hard work makes me too tired. That kind of stuff. I even considered telling her a white lie to avoid making her think she didn’t make an impression on me about the importance of exercise. But, I knew she’d order those tests that would likely show that I’m only fooling myself. Fortunately, she is smarter than me. Go figure.

The best part about my follow-up visit is that I wasn’t dreading the scale part. In fact, I had looked forward to it. I was hoping Dr. Smith wouldn’t even ask about exercise? I thought maybe she’d assume by my weight loss that I’m finally following all of her instructions aimed at lowering my cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar. Maybe not.

So, after her assistant weighed me in, took my blood pressure and temperature and left the room, I decided to simply confess up about making no real change in my lifestyle relating to exercise. All I’ve done to lose weight is cut out sweets, salts, large servings and second servings.

Dr. Smith came in with my charts and handed me an apple as a reward for my weight loss and blood pressure of 122/80. Then she asked the question I’d dreaded. “Are you exercising?” I went with the truth, and she didn’t even scold me or take the apple back.

I would love to one day soon get below the dreaded 200-pound mark.

I’m within eight pounds of achieving my weight-loss goal for the year, but I’m still going to avoid mirrors for 14 more pounds after reaching my goal. That’s how much more I’ll need to lose before I no longer have to say I’m 200-and-something pounds.

I’m almost giving away what my all-time high weight was; however, fortunately, only a math wizard would be able to figure than one out.