Four months ago I had to be tested at my husband’s workplace for cholesterol and other ailments. This was all part of the company’s push for good health. It is also part of their push to charge higher premiums for those at higher health risk.
I stopped at my doctors to get the same testing done on my way to the worksite testing. I needed to anyway but I was also checking on the accuracy of the workplace instant tests. The workplace cholesterol test was a little higher but both showed that I have shockingly high cholesterol.
My doctor broke down the numbers a little better. He compared my good and bad cholesterol levels. My bad was high but so was my good, as a matter of fact, the good was so high that it balanced out the bad. As he put it- my ratio looked good.
So he wasn’t too worried about it when I asked if he would give me three months to affect changes myself before placing me on medication. I went home, completely revamped my way of eating, doubled my exercise program, etc. etc.
My three months was up a few weeks ago. He was excited to tell me that I had managed to drop more than 30 points from my cholesterol!! Great job! But as we crunched the numbers that 30 points was dropped from my good cholesterol not from my bad. So in actuality, the ratio is worse than it was three months ago. I also gained 3 pounds- damn!!
I made the mistake of telling him that I was going home to shoot myself. He then spent over fifteen minutes trying to tell me that tests and scales don’t tell the whole story, that he thinks I’m very fit, that I have maintained my weight (give or take 5 pounds) for several years and that’s a good thing. He shared that most people can’t make the changes they need to and he has never seen someone shave off that many points before.
But it is impossible for a thirty- something buff young man to know how hopeless one feels when they have worked their butts off to find out that they haven’t changed a thing! It actually became worse…talk about futility!
I am continuing my exercise/ diet program because I do feel better. I have more energy, less pain, better digestion and happier disposition. But I now understand better why some people don’t change their ways. I mean, really, what’s the point?
And I keep telling myself that muscle weighs more than fat…that my body will adjust to the changes and I’ll wake up one day to see the weight just fall off…….that it was just water weight….that….anybody have any other illusions I can tell myself? I could really use them. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
I stopped at my doctors to get the same testing done on my way to the worksite testing. I needed to anyway but I was also checking on the accuracy of the workplace instant tests. The workplace cholesterol test was a little higher but both showed that I have shockingly high cholesterol.
My doctor broke down the numbers a little better. He compared my good and bad cholesterol levels. My bad was high but so was my good, as a matter of fact, the good was so high that it balanced out the bad. As he put it- my ratio looked good.
So he wasn’t too worried about it when I asked if he would give me three months to affect changes myself before placing me on medication. I went home, completely revamped my way of eating, doubled my exercise program, etc. etc.
My three months was up a few weeks ago. He was excited to tell me that I had managed to drop more than 30 points from my cholesterol!! Great job! But as we crunched the numbers that 30 points was dropped from my good cholesterol not from my bad. So in actuality, the ratio is worse than it was three months ago. I also gained 3 pounds- damn!!
I made the mistake of telling him that I was going home to shoot myself. He then spent over fifteen minutes trying to tell me that tests and scales don’t tell the whole story, that he thinks I’m very fit, that I have maintained my weight (give or take 5 pounds) for several years and that’s a good thing. He shared that most people can’t make the changes they need to and he has never seen someone shave off that many points before.
But it is impossible for a thirty- something buff young man to know how hopeless one feels when they have worked their butts off to find out that they haven’t changed a thing! It actually became worse…talk about futility!
I am continuing my exercise/ diet program because I do feel better. I have more energy, less pain, better digestion and happier disposition. But I now understand better why some people don’t change their ways. I mean, really, what’s the point?
And I keep telling myself that muscle weighs more than fat…that my body will adjust to the changes and I’ll wake up one day to see the weight just fall off…….that it was just water weight….that….anybody have any other illusions I can tell myself? I could really use them. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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