June 30, 2008 (Progress and Straighten Your Back)

So this week I had a well woman exam and a breast exam follow up to the mammogram. I really hate those appts because I am still not used to the whole being naked in front of others thing, much less being poked and prodded. This appt had good news to report and bad news. The good news is that I have lost 18 lbs since May of last year and I have lost 10 of those pounds since beginning this saga. I am no longer obese, I'm merely 15 lbs over weight. (Probably a little more than that because I am not big boned and probably need to be in the middle of the average interval of weight for women my height instead of the upper end, but I'll shoot for that last 15 pounds for now.) My resting pulse rate went down 10 bpm, so now it is only 10 bpm more than it's supposed to be. The bad news is that my blood pressure was 180/117 so they kept taking it over and over again. I thought my arm would be completely bruised, but I guess my upper arm doesn't bruise as easily as the rest of me. Hopefully it was that high because I knew what I was there for and knew I'd eventually be naked and humiliated. I have to go back in a few weeks. I just can't get away from these doctors!

The funniest thing that my obsessive compulsive self did was this. I knew I was going to a minor league baseball game. This means I was going to break my diet. I calculated about how many calories I'd probably break it by and hit the gym. (This is a good tactic because I sometimes don't end up at the game and burn calories I never ate and it keeps me from going completely crazy if I do go.) I used the elliptical machine for an hour on hill mode at level 5. In this mode, you are timed, but at the end of an hour I had burned 796 calories. It took will power not to just restart it and burn another 4 calories. I went home and told Chrissie about this and she said, get on our ski machine and burn them, nobody will know. So I got on the machine and accidentally burned 5 calories instead of 4. The one redeeming factor is that I didn't try to burn 99, so I guess I'm not clinically obsessive compulsive. However, today, I got on the same machine and pushed it to level 6. It finished at exactly 800 calories and I was content. I can be retarded sometimes. The stupid calorie count isn't accurate anyways. Think about it, an overweight 44 year old woman cannot be burning the same amount of calories as a 22 yr old man who is 6 ft tall and weighing the same amount as me.

I met with Marcella on Saturday. She decided to try and work my back and stomach because I have scoliosis and she was a physical therapist before she had kids and needed a more flexible work schedule. It was actually pretty cool. I was unaware of my limited range of motion that this causes until then. There are certain basic things that I just can't do. I think I discovered what my issues with yoga are. She got my back worked pretty well in spite of things, but when we stretched I thought I'd get stuck. She was constantly telling me to straighten my back and I did pretty well, but after she gave me a hug (yes, I was sweaty again, but I'm getting almost used to her touching me when I'm icky.), I was walking out and she sneaked up behind me and said, "Straighten your back. Where ever you go, always think I am watching and straighten your back." That was creepy, but I figure if I told you guys. You could sneak up behind me when I'm slouching and say (don't scream-I am 44 and currently am having blood pressure issues, you don't want to give me a heart attack), "Marcella says, 'Straighten your back.'" :-)