The TFP Health Club

As required by my organization's health insurance incentive plan, I got poked and prodded for my biometric screening this morning. They took my blood pressure, a blood sample, height, weight, waist and hip measurements. I learned that I'm still 5'08" (despite my ex insisting, for years, that I was 5'07") and have gained approximately fifteen pounds since lear year's screening. I have little doubt that some of it is muscle, but not all.

This is the third year they've had us participate in these screenings—it's technically voluntary, but if you opt out while still covered by their health plan, your premiums go up—and each year the screening process has been a little different. The first year they actually measured our body fat percentage with one of those electric scanning doohickeys you hold with your palms touching the sensors. Since then, they've taken only height, weight, and waist/hip measurements and use the resulting BMI calculations to measure wellness/health/fitness/whatever they want to call it. I maintain BMI is a bullshit indicator of health and struggle to understand why a healthcare organization would rely on that metric as a partial basis for employees' compliance in their wellness program, compliance involving improvements in biometrics over the course of a year and/or participation in health coachings if recommended based on the initial screening results.

That aside, I would like to get back down to the weight I hit at last year's screening by this summer, and I have my work cut out for me. I know most of it comes down to what I'm eating and not eating. My sweet tooth has not abated in the slightest, and I know I've been indulging in plenty of crap foods since becoming solely responsible for feeding myself after the ex moved out last spring. I need to cook healthy foods for myself. It's not a question of desire, just of doing. And I still have to get that goddamned pull up in before I get my raven tattoo. Soon, I hope.

 

Like it or not, BMI is a very strong statistical tool associated with health outcomes in VERY large-scale studies. Even BMI in muscular individuals is associated with poorer health outcomes over the long-term, low body fat percentage or not.
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I guess I should add a disclaimer that I disagree with the labels of "overweight" and "obese" in the BMI classifications - I believe they should be "low risk" "moderate risk" and "high risk," and that obesity should be determined by body fat percentage and distribution (hip/waist ratios).

 

That's pretty much what I was getting at as well!

 

BMI fun: Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus : NPR

 

So, the day after Squat day is Let's Eat Everything That's Not Nailed Down day. It feels good to be able to squat again though.

 

I hate the winter!!! Could not leave the house, trees down, little electric, not able to release stress at the gym!!!

 

Squat day again yesterday. Let's see how far above the suggested calorie limit I go today.

Anyway, my shoulders are handling the working out better, so I'm able to put some weight on the bar again. Low bar squats are more stable, but they do require more shoulder flexibility, probably more than I actually have.

 

So I was running late for bootcamp this morning and ended up leaving my shoes at home (wore cycling cleats to ride there). Thought about turning around and heading home when I got there but decided to stick around and do the class with no shoes. Afterward my feet, though blackened by the rubber pellets in the turf field surface, felt amazing. I think I might try going shoeless there more often.

 

Hadn't had a physical for 3 years. Doctor decided it was time. Fasting bloodwork, measure this, measure that. Blah blah blah. Upshot - I'm not where she feels is best for me health-wise. That is, I need to come up with a lower waist diameter measurement, and I need to lower the numbers in my blood that she feels need to be lower. It seems I'm in the 1 in 6 possibility of a heart attack range. Measures to be taken include being prescribed "statins" to reduce a rather high cholesterol count. I will follow up with the doctor in 6 weeks with a blood test that tells her if my liver is handling the statins. In 12 weeks I go in for another set of measurements and fasting bloodwork to see how the fatty stuff that built up in this old body over the years is responding to meds/lifestyle adjustment.
I decided right off I will not be a fully compliant patient. I will undertake a lifestyle change for sure. However if I want the change to be sustainable it needs to fit within what I know I'll actually maintain. Which means I still take cream and sugar in my coffee, but I'm down from 5 or 6 cups a day to 2. She wants 5x30 minutes cardio/week. Not happening - but I'm happy to do 3-4 cardio workouts at higher times (35-45 minutes depending on how the legs are holding up).
The doctor wants my waist to end up 40 inches or less (down to 102 cm from the measured 111 it was when I saw her – the charts indicate it is better for a Caucasian male to be 40"<, and I measured 43-5/8"). I'll let her do any followup measuring. I'll judge waist diameter change by how my pants fit, and whether it is getting any harder for the kittens to sit on my mounded belly when I'm sitting down.
I went in on Feb 20/14 when my home scale weight was 228.5 lb. 5 days later I weigh 4 pounds less. My current BMI is 32.2 (224.5 lb at 5'10"). The charts say a BMI below 30 steps out of the obese range. Which according to a calculator online means I'm looking to attain a maintenance weight of 205<. I'm not too fussed about BMI. I've got muscles, eh. The "obese" classification is a kicker though. That would be nice to change. 20 pounds to go to hit the magic "overweight" line instead of the "obese" range that I'm occupying.
So, lets see how it goes. Took this pic before I got into the shower. I'll take a fatty-selfie every week or 2 – never done that before. Whether or not I post them here . . .

moi in all my 56 year old tighty-blues glory

 

I do 3 sessions of 30 minute cardio. It's all my knees and feet want to do, without crying 'Uncle'. My BP and heart rate have both improved with just the three sessions/week. Resistance exercise will help too. Fill in the other 2 or 3 days doing some weights. You can do some circuits of different kinds for 30 to 60 minutes without tearing yourself up too much. Machines are the easiest way to set that up.

I was down to 227# this morning. I'm slowly trying to get down near 200, but I'm not in a hurry.

 

New challenge:



Works for any number of exercises. Pushups are going to be tough.

Sidenote: feeling irritated that much of the Internet mistakenly refers to the song as "Bring Sally Up," when in fact the original is called Green Sally, Up (Moby is responsible for this remix, named Flower).

Whatever. This should be fun.

 

Insane (in the best possible way).

I love it.