Time to throw away the scales

My employer brought in the health experts this week and offered everyone free health checks. Not having ever had a Cholesterol test before I thought it would be an interesting exercise to get the experts assessment on my current well being (or lack there of).


Photo by Erix

What I found out was;

- Total Cholesterol was good at 4.5 (ideal level being less than 5).

- HDL Cholesterol (measures the good fats) was less than ideal at .84 (ideal is more than 1). More avocados, olive oils etc needed here. Suggestion was to look at fish oil capsules as a supplement. These evidently help with freeing up joints and the cardio vascular system also which sounds beneficial.

- Blood glucose was good at 4.9 , ideal level is 3 too 5.6, low risk for diabetes.

- Blood pressure 125 / 70. Good news there, that's a normal blood pressure.

- Weight 93.4 kg (206 pds), this was a bit of a shock. Thanks to some faulty scales
at home I've been under the impression that I was a reasonably trim 87 - 88 kg. Turns out I've tipped the scales at over 90kg again. This will definitely give me more reason to pick up my fitness work.

- Body Mass Index, 28.8. Ideal BMI is less than 27 so again this is slightly on the high side but still a low / moderate risk of health problems.

Apparently I need to be exercising MORE. I'm generally exercising four days a week at present. Apparently five days a week is the recommended. Guess I will have to do something about that.

My diet is one area I could pay closer attention to. Though I don't consider myself an unhealthy eater, I could definitely show a bit more restraint in some areas. It's best not to have things like ice cream or chocolate biscuits in the house as I will just polish these have in no time. I find though that if we don't buy these items I don't miss them terribly.

I'm not one to snack throughout the day on high sugar foods, and I generally eat fruit and vegetables every day. I do love my coffee though (with sugar) but I also know not to over do this. Two a day is generally my limit. Otherwise it's generally several glasses of water a day. Not many soft drinks really.

All in all an average report I would say. Will probably give my self a B grade based on the findings. Not a bad result but could try harder would probably sum it up.