Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Project Healthy

I want to tell you a story, most of you will have heard it from me over the holidays. It's a little funny and a little annoying. It kinda links into project healthy, but not really. I'd planned to attempt the project healthy before Xmas, and before this incident. I was just waiting for Xmas to be over and all that jazz to be over, so I could get myself into a healthy routine, with exercise and everything. So here's my story:

Just before Xmas, I was feeling a little dizzy. I went to the doctor to have myself checked out. Make sure I didn't have an ear infection or something similar. So, the doctor, after telling me that my symptoms were pretty vague, checked out my general wellbeing.
She measured my blood pressure, a little high at either 132/90 or 125/85. She checked my temperature, normal. She tested my balance, good. She measured my height, and my weight, and looked at her chart. There I was, smack bang in the middle of the healthy weight range. Huzzah! She turns to me as we are walking back to the chairs and and says "hmmm, that's interesting. You must have small bones, because you look a little bit overweight"
WHAT THE FUCK?! What part of, demonstrably in the healthy weight range, did you not see, you psycho bitch? What possible motive could this woman have to tell another woman, who wasn't overweight, that she LOOKED overweight? I am still a little pissed off with this woman, and I'm just trying to decide what to do about it. She suggested I come back in a few weeks and get my blood pressure checked again, to make sure it wasn't artificially high for some reason. She also suggested I get the same person to measure it, her, because it can be a little variable with different operators. Question is, do I want to go back to that nasty woman? And if I do, do I mention the fact that it was totally inappropriate for her to say that to me?

Anyway, before she had been so mean to me, I had intended to start a bit of a health kick. I go to the gym regularly, and I try, most of the time, to eat well. But I never seem to be able to run any faster/further or get the gym thing going long enough without a break to get really strong. So, I decided to put myself on a health kick. And drag my parents along with me. So, here for the record, are my goals for the next three months:

-go to the gym 3X/week
-be able to do the splits!
-increase my upper body strength so my pole dancing is better
-get some definition in my muscles
-reduce my fat % (so you can see my defined muscles)
-be able to walk up Black Mountain via the more difficult path, without stopping

If, in three months, I'm getting somewhere near those goals, I'll be pretty happy. It does, however, mean making time for exercise and not making excuses not to go. It means eating well, more often than not. But having goals I think will help keep me on track. And knowing that my parents are trying to get healthier too helps. It shouldn't be too hard for them, if they can give up dessert, and fish and chips for a while, they'll be halfway to their goals. Add a bit of exercise, and they're sorted. One of the dogs, Mac, needs to lose some weight too. About 3-4kgs off his 13.8kg frame. I'm sure they can help each other beat the bulge. But this blog isn't about them, so I'll leave it there.

So, I'm less than a week into my health kick and it's going pretty well. I can't really be arsed to go to the gym today, although it is gym day. But I'm going to go and make the most of it. My food has been healthy and tasty and you'll all be pleased to know that I'm not starving myself. I'm eating 6 times a day and all of it is fresh and chock full of veges and the like. I'm even getting the hang of drinking lots of water. The only problem there is how much you end up needing to pee. Tell me it gets better as your body gets used to it? I will no doubt, occasionally, update you on progress. The splits are still a long way away, but I reckon I'll get there in the end. If only my hip flexors weren't so tight!

Right, enough procrastination, the fly room and the gym awaits. I've spent most of today at home, reading papers and thinking about my thesis/experiments I've yet to do. It's time to get some fly pushing in and some weight lifting going. Grrr!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mac isn't fat he is just big boned.

scientician said...

yes, of course, i forgot. And Carlos is a waif.