Change from last week : -1
(Warning: Not safe for work, kids or Beatles fans)
Pretty good week last week, got through Special Event # 4 (Halloween) on the End of Year Madness Tour (goes through MJ's birthday, Ness' mom's birthday, my niece's birthday, Halloween, Macy's birthday, Thanksgiving, Vanessa's birthday, Xmas and New Year's - I am BROKE AS A HOMELESS after the end of the year). Macy got her first goal. And...I got my labs back from last week and they are absolutely stellar.
If you'll remember at the beginning of this thing, I discussed my poor lab results, particularly the cholesterol numbers. And I wondered aloud in an entry shortly after that if those numbers would be better given my weight loss and better exercise regimen. Well, the numbers are in and seeing is believing - if you ever needed to prove to someone that losing weight and exercising for cardio fitness is worth it or not, then feast your eyes on this (click on the image for a larger view):
The numbers highlighted in red are considered "high" and the blue are considered "low", and I included my weight/BP/pulse/BMI numbers to highlight the differences there as well. As you can plainly see there's barely any difference between 2007 and 2008 because I didn't change much except to cut back slightly on calorie intake - no improvement in quality of diet and no regular exercise. But between last year and this year is a HUGE difference - I went from a sea of red and blue to having only three numbers in the red. And of those three, two are highly questionable as to whether that is truly "normal" for me (those being weight and BMI) and the third is a number that has been cut in half from its original level and should go down even further next year if I can keep up the good work.
Of the numbers I've included here, let's look at each individually:
Weight/BMI - I'll talk about these two together since they are related. The "normal" range I've included here is based on the Body Mass Index (BMI) calculations for my height (6'1"). According to these numbers I'm still considered overweight and should lose at least another 30 pounds to be on the high side of normal, which is honestly preposterous. However, if we just take the BMI on face value, then it becomes clear that people with a larger frame and/or larger muscle mass such as myself are unfairly labeled. In fact, someone who is 6'3", 224 lbs like Terrell Owens who is without argument in fantastic shape has a BMI of 28, which is "overweight". The stock answer to this is that BMI is considered to be a "screening tool" to allow doctors to identify "possible" weight problems. That's really great, but unfortunately the insurance companies of the world treat it as the rule of law, and use it to charge you extra money even though you may be in great shape. The fix to this is body fat analysis, which can be done in a variety of methods and is my next step in assessing my health. We'll discuss that when I can actually find a place to get it done. Granted, I may be no super athlete, but I'm training to be athletic for the rest of my life and my body type definitely puts BMI to the test. At the very least I went from "obese class II" to "overweight", which is a substantial improvement.
Blood Pressure - "Suggested Optimal" blood pressure is 120/80 (see the chart on that link). Mine used to be in the "high normal" range, but is now solidly in the "normal" range, starting to head towards "low normal" which is still okay for athletes. Really happy about this, I don't believe I've ever scored below a 120/70 before in my life.
Resting pulse rate - if you look at this table as a rough measure, I went from having a "poor" fitness level to "excellent", bordering on "athlete" for my age range of 36-45. Obviously I'm not going to be happy until I get that into the "athlete" range, but since I never remember recording a BP lower than 65, this is great news.
Glucose - this is a number I've kept an eye on since both my maternal grandparents wound up with diabetes. 0-100 is the "normal" range but 83 or less is considered an ideal fasting level so I'm right on the border of greatness there.
Total cholesterol - I reported previously that 100-199 is normal, the lab puts that at 130-199. Either way I'm now solidly in the middle with 155 and very happy about it.
HDL cholesterol - granted the lab puts this number as greater than 39 as being normal, but "ideal" is considered above 60 so I've still got some work to do here. Still my 41 is an improvement over the previous 37.
LDL cholesterol - normal is 0-130, I'm now at 81. The "ideal" number here is 70 or less, I'm guessing this and the HDL numbers are related since HDL is the stuff that scrubs out LDL.
VLDL cholesterol - normal is 10-40, I have dropped this down to 33 which is almost half of what it was last year (and IS half of the original 68 from two years ago).
Triglycerides - normal is 10-150, I'm now at 167. This is the number I was most curious about since it's a direct indicator of atherosclerosis. It's no coincidence that this number and the VLDL both were cut in half as a result of my dietary changes since VLDL is the carrying case for Tri's in the body. I'm hoping that when we check this number next year that I'll have it solidly in the normal range.
All in all, this is wonderful news, a direct validation of everything I've been doing for the past 8 months. And if this isn't motivation for you FATTIES to get up off the couch and actually do something to improve your life other than make excuses, then I really don't know what to tell you.
Diet for Mon 11/2/09:
Breakfast
- Fiber One original w/fat-free milk
- 4 oz orange juice w/vitamins
- Big cup of coffee
- 2 pieces wheat toast w/yogurt spread
Lunch
- Tuna sandwich on wheat
- 3 carrots, raw, peeled
Snack
- 1 cup fat-free mini pretzels
Dinner
- 3-4 oz grilled chicken breast
- 1 cup lima beans
- 1 glass red wine
Dessert
- fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt, trying to stay away from candy
Exercise for Mon 11/2/09:
- 5 min warmup @ 3.5 mph
- 10 min stretching
- All four circuits of the Total Exhaustion Workout, took about 60 minutes
Sleep for Mon 11/2/09:
- 8 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment