Thursday, September 19, 2013

A Great Reminder of WHY I'm doing this!

Almost 2 years ago I decided to start running.  I needed a reason bigger than myself to start because, for some reason, I didn't value my own health at the time enough to commit to running that much.    I joined Team in Training to honor a friend's daughter who was fighting Leukemia, but as soon as I found TnT I realized that the little girl I was honoring was teaching me that I needed to live my life with no regrets, because we aren't all promised the next day.   It ended up being such a eye-opening decision.  I had suddenly flung myself into improving my fitness level so that I could do the things I so badly wanted to be able to do in my life.  I wanted to be healthy and I wanted to control all of the health  concerns that I indeed had any control over.

Today I received my biometric screening results.  For those of you unfamiliar with what a biometric screening is, our insurance company offers a full blood workup to look for concerns or issues and also has us fill out health surveys to pair with our results.  I was so excited to see exactly what I have done for myself.

In the last two years, I have lowered my cholesterol by almost 80 points, lowered my triglycerides by 22, lowered my BMI from 40 to 25, and my overall health risk number went from a -5 to a -30!  A 0 means you are in OK health with few risk factors.  Any thing in the negative is AWESOME!  So I guess that means I'm awesome-er than I was before!!!!!

I reviewed my entire list of counts and scores and not a single number was out of range or of concern.  Everything came back in the "optimal" category.

While I love that I have lost 35 pounds and feel great, I think I'm more excited that my health has improved so significantly....  I'm sure my kids love that I am thinner, but I hope they eventually realize the benefit of me taking charge of my health now more than anything else.  I'm proud of myself for making these changes and I'm excited to think of what's to come.

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