The Wake Up Call – Time To Get Serious

Today I had a regularly scheduled followup appointment with my doctor after having blood drawn last week. You see, I was due to have some of my perscriptions refilled and he wanted to update my lab results before sending the refill order in. I can understand that. It makes perfect sense. It just didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

I’ve never been a fan of going to the doctor either when I’m sick or when I feel fine. And I do feel fine – other than knowing I look like a Walrus that has pulled itself up onto the beach. You’ve all seen the Animal Planet show and know what I’m talking about. Those guys always reminded me of Jabba the Hut.

As I said earlier, the visit didn’t go well at all. Not only was my blood pressure up but so was my weight and several other key indicators (cholesterol and glucose). The doc (who is a great guy) and I had a long talk about my exercise and eating habits. It’s the same talk we had about six months ago. I must not have listened.

In short, I’m at the point where he recommended two things:

• More meds.

or

• Exercise and better eating.

He was clear that he’s a fan of the latter. So was I. I asked him to give me some time to fix the problem and he agreed – for one month. I have one month to start making progress on some of my issues before he looks at starting me on more/different meds.
As I left there I knew I had a decision to make. That was to either do what I’ve been doing for the last five years, or, kick myself in the rear and make changes in my life. As I always do, I opted for the latter.

As I always do. That implies that I’ve been here before. I’d bet that most of us have.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s time to make some permanent changes.

I’ve tried it before and failed. I can fail again but it won’t be pretty and it won’t because I didn’t try. I’ve got 30 days to make some radical changes and I’ve already started.

The Plan

1. Ride more. I need to get off my proverbial ass and ride my bike more. Period. I rode with the group on Saturday and suffered. Big time. It was a start but I need the Monday to Friday mileage to help make improvements.
2. Weight training. I’ve planned this for a while but kept putting it off. Not any longer.
3. Exercise at work. The doc and I specifically talked about this and I’ll fill you in more later. I’ve already started though and built a handy tracker in excel.
4. Eat better. I had thought I was doing better in this area but I’m not doing good enough. Time to tighten it up.
5. Core training. Believe it or not, I did start this but never told you. It fell off though when I got sick a few weeks ago. Time to put it back on the plate.
6. Hydration. I am doing better in this area too. But now it’s time to really push it.

One of the key factors over the next 30 days is the need for me to do some kind of exercise, anything, every day. The exercise, combined with the other items above, should help me over the next 30 days. It won’t cure me, and certainly won’t be a quick fix, but it’ll help.

There you go. I’ve laid it out on the line for all to see. Time to get serious.