Health Assessment

We had our annual health assessment and blood work draw at the end of December and I got an excellent report from the doctor. She was really excited and said that based on the blood work alone she would estimate that I would live to be 100! Everything (other than my BMI which I am working on) came back perfect! When going over my family history of diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, high cholesterol, etc she jokingly asked me if I was adopted. I had no signs or indicators at this time that I had any of those problems. For those who do not know, I am a 42 year old married woman who has three children ages 24, 22, and 8. Here are some of the results from my test.

Heart
Total Cholesterol Reading 125 Optimal
HDL Cholesterol Reading 52 Protective
LDL Cholesterol Reading 64 Optimal
Triglycerides Reading 47 Normal
Ratio of Cholesterol to HDL 2.4 Normal

Endocrine/Misc
Glucose 91 Normal

My vitals, my liver, and my kidney readings were also all in the normal range. Even though I continued to eat too much over the last couple of years and it took me time to lose the weight, I had started to make healthier choices. I kept fluctuating between 200-188ish by making some changes such as eating grilled chicken when I eat fast food instead of devouring that greasy burger. I do not fry any foods when I cook at home, instead I bake things in the oven that I used to fry. Just those small changes seemed to have really shown up in my blood work. I have read recenlty that you should limit red meat to 2 times a week. I tend to only eat it 2 to 3 times a week anyway just because it is higher in calories. I did not realize the impact it was having on my health. Looking at these results have really got me examining what caused them because I want to make sure that I continue to keep my body healthy. All these choices, and more, will be the topic of future blogs. I am so excited I just can't wait to share it all!

Progress in 2009

I wanted to give my readers a visual of the progress that I made this last year. Look below to see what I looked like on New Year's Eve 2008 and what I looked like a couple of weeks ago on New Year's Eve 2009. Here are my before and after photos.

New Year's Eve 2008

200 pounds

New Year's Eve 2009

180 pounds

Because of the weather we haven't had an official weigh in since then but my scale at home shows that I have lost at least another 3 pounds. My progress was slow this last year. After a trying pregnancy that led to a miscarriage I basically started over again at 200 in October. It's been going steady again since then. Also, while there is only 20 pounds of difference you can see that the numbers do not define the entire success. Some people seem surprised, even shocked, when I tell them how much I weigh. But you see, I have gained muscle and have been toning my body as well as slimming it down so I actually appear to look like I weigh less than I do. I am about 17 pounds to my goal which is 160. I haven't seen that number since I became pregnant with my daughter about 9 years ago. This is the year I will finally do it!