Health Measurements
I got my results today from my recent super-physical. Good news -- there's nothing drastically wrong with me, other than the usual stuff (hypertension, hypothyroid, both well under control). That's what I expected; I've worked hard on my health the last few years.
We lose weight for a variety of reasons. Some of us peel the pounds for a specific event (wedding, high school reunion). Some do it for looks, vanity, or societal pressure. My number one reason for losing weight was -- and remains to this day -- my health. (OK, I admit it, there's some vanity in there, too, but it's not the overriding reason.)
For 15 years, as the pounds piled on, I let my body go to pot, little by little. The effects of my neglect were small at first, but as the years passed, they grew until they were hard to ignore. Swollen ankles. The inability to climb stairs without getting out of breath. An increase in fasting blood glucose. Increasing blood pressure. (Vanity again: what bothered me the most, I think, was the swollen ankle thing. It made me think of of those thick-ankled, matronly, "sensibly-shoed" women I remembered from my childhood. I thought those ladies were about a million years old. Ouch.)
When you are young and fat, it is easy to think that your weight will never affect your health. You feel OK, you may even feel great. Your health numbers may be OK. Your body still appears to be working OK, so it's easy to ignore the health warnings, and think, "Oh, that will never happen to me. I'm different."
Unfortunately, excess pounds do their dirty work little by little, and the damage takes years to reveal itself. By the time problems develop, some of the damage may not be reversible. I was lucky, I guess. I took action before a suffered too much damage, and most of it was fix-able.
These days I am in "excellent health," in the words of my doc. You can bet your last dollar that I will continue to bust my rear for the right to wear that title for many years to come. Poor health does not exactly add pizazz to your life, y'know. Been there, done that, not going back, thankyouverymuch. The old lady's dead.
So please pardon me for bragging a little, because my new numbers these days are a true NSV (non-scale victory) for me. They remind me that the greatest rewards of a healthy weight aren't the ones hanging in my closet, and that the true measure of my accomplishment isn't dictated by the "iron monster."
(Note: the #s in parentheses are from my couch-potato days. . . circa 1999.)
*****
Total cholesterol: 199 (267)
LDL: 104 (171) -- I would like this to be lower; working on it
HDL: 81 (36) -- this is a record high for me
Fasting glucose: 93 (116)
hsC-RP - .9 (no ref) -- I'm told that anything under 1 is fantastic
*****
Last year I had one of those heart CT scans. I had a -0- calcium score. Whew. Guess I didn't do too much damage during my "fat" years. I'm working on keeping that one at -0-. Heart disease runs on my Mom's side . . . she had her first heart attack at 58. I'm 52. You do the math.
My high HDL is from all the biking, lifting, swimming, and other physical stuff I now do. My resting heart rate is 43. Most days, I feel about 25 years old. Never, ever underestimate the power of exercise. It can do a 180 on your health.
I also had a bone density DXA scan. Spinal: peak ref-94%; age-matched-104%. Hip: peak ref-106%; age-matched 114%. In other words, my bone density is normal, and is in fact high for my age.
Hmm. I think I'll keep biking, and slinging those weights around.
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