in every person's life when they realize that they can no longer treat their body however they want and get away with it. That day has arrived for me. I was always the guy that could eat whatever, whenever. Drink whatever, whenever. Never an issue. Always burned it off, my body was a processing plant. Take it in, burn it off, do it all over again.
Well, 6 months ago I was working at the state of Wisconsin, in a place where it was very easy to bring in your lunch, eat right, etc and I did it because it was simple. Never had to think about it. Grab a few things from the fridge, take them to work, have a healthy lunch.
That all changed when I decided to move to a new client, an insurance company of all things. This is perhaps the most unhealthy place I have ever seen. Sure, they have the requisite Weight Watchers meetings, but that's because they have to! I've never seen so many 350 lb women riding around on scooters that the company buys them because, well, you know, it's a long walk and they're really fat! I've watched said women drive right up to the donut counter to load up their baskets. If that's not wrong, I don't know what is. And is there a good place for me to nuke a lunch or store some fruit? No, there's one microwave for 3,000 people. Talk about a line at lunch time! Is there a fridge? No, nothing. So, I like many others here, venture down to the cafeteria at lunch where they're very happy to take my $6 and give me back meatloaf and mashed potatoes or giant slices of pizza. Oh sure, there's a salad bar but come on, I've never needed to do that before.
Before... that was 12 lbs ago, that was back when my blood pressure was normal. Now, however, I'm faced with being overweight (I'm not in scooter range yet, luckily) and I now have what the doc referred to as hypertension, which means my BP is too high. I could be damaging my heart. Well, if that don't make you sit up and take notice, nothing will.
So, I now have reached that point where I no longer can do whatever the hell I want. I will have to eat right (less salt, more fruit, which for me is the hardest part as I'm a sunflower seed junkie) and exercise regularly (no, golf does not count much, nor does bowling).
I consider myself pretty lucky. I went to the doctor, caught it early and can do something about it. Don't be that person that ignored it forever until it was too late. Things can change very rapidly. My BP in November was 100/70 and it was 142/83 yesterday, just 4 months later. I'm not going on meds yet and am going to try to get it back on course with diet and exercise but I have genetics going against me too as my mom, her siblings and her mother all have or had high BP.
I guess you always know in the back of your mind when you're younger that "someday I will need to stop doing that." You can choose to ignore that part or do something about it.
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6 comments:
Try having your wife who's 6 months prego ask you when YOUR baby is due. Not cool!!
Pretty soon you can join in with your parents and talk about gall bladders and prostates!
Yeah, you're really a pig there Gerks. You can now shut the fuck up.
CB - dude, is that even possible? I mean what's the point of bowling if I have to stop drinking?
Grinder - Yay, finally made the grown up table at Christmas!
Thanks Ali.
I feel your pain. A couple of years ago I went to the doctor and freaked out at the results on the scale and BP and everything. I weighed in at a very well-carried 255. Since then I've dropped about 70 pounds (and hopefully still more to go). I'd have a 6 pack too if I stopped consuming them...never gonna happen tho.
Congrats on the weight loss D, that's awesome.
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