Masochistic Mondays: Week 25

The Stats (as of January 18, 2009)

Starting Weight: 188 lbs

Current Weight: 179.0 lbs

Mike's insurance plan through work changed for the new year, so we now have a bit more hoops to jump through. You know, the typical stuff, like doctor changes (and let me tell you, boy, has the selection of doctors gone down), but then also financial hoops as well. We now have to participate in a fitness incentive program where we have to do a number of things during the year lest we be penalized monetarily. But if we do complete the tasks, we get monetary rewards each quarter.

The first task for the year was to have biometric testing done and find out our glucose & cholesterol levels, so while at my annual exam a couple Thursdays ago, I talked the doctor into the ordering the lab work so I wouldn't have to schedule yet another doctor's visit in January while still very new at my place of employment (in addition to the annual exam, I also had my first dentist appointment in longer than I'd like to share - happy to report, cavity-free for almost 28 years). So the next morning after fasting for 12 hours and while the majority of my office was home-bound because of snow (a definite advantage/disadvantage to living a mile & a half from work) I made a stop back at the doctor's office before heading in to have the blood drawn for my testing.

I was happy to find out nearly immediately that my BP is normal (though not the lows I was clocking in during college) and my glucose as well was normal. I had always wondered if I suffered from some sort of glycemic disorder as I'm often fatigued and I had that spell in college where I dropped a lot of weight very quickly and without effort, but I think the concern was basically a case of "web-md"-itis as none of the "symptoms" were ever prevalent enough for me to drawn them to a doctor's attention.

It did take about a week to find out the results of the cholesterol testing, and they for the most part came back in the "normal" range...that is all except for my bad cholesterol level, which is high, but not high enough to cause concern yet. Just a doctor's recommendation to watch what I eat and work on losing weight.

So now I perhaps have the kick start I needed to get back on track with my work to becoming healthier. It would be nice to be able to go back to the doctor in a year and have them note a difference.

On a different note, I'm officially 40 days without soda. And though there have been a couple times where I was like, "wow, a root beer would be really great right now," it hasn't been that tough. Granted I wasn't a big soda drinker to begin with, but every small step counts towards the overall goal, right?