The Doctor

So I start the year off on a health kick. As usual I ignore the advise not to start a diet or exercise regime without first consulting a physician. I mean really what is he going to say? Lose some weight. Stop eating so much. Stop eating so much fat, salt and sugar. Exercise more. You are overweight and your blood pressure is high. See, what do I need a doctor for? But the fact is that I'm getting older. I've been overweight for quite a while. I have a history of congenital heart disease and I've got it coming down the pipe from both sides of the family tree. All of that has been true for a while. What was new was the fact that I've gotten married. Kelly had made me promise to go and get checked out and she wasn't letting go of that. Also the dizziness that I've been experiencing on and off for the last few years was beginning to grow more frequent and the onsets were getting more severe.

So last week I trooped off to see Kelly's doctor. After the usual struggle with forms and such they took me in to read my vitals. The blood pressure machine wouldn't give them a reading and I made the comment that I had the same trouble when I bought one or used one at the drug store. There must be some problem reading my arm because they always gave an absurdly low heart rate. There was no way that could be real. They said that the doctor would take it manually in the exam room. So I went to the exam room and after awhile Dr. Selle came in and we did a history. I immediately liked the doctor. No white coat authority, just an intelligent two way conversation. We went through the my childhood history with my pacemakers and some of the things that I've been dealing with in the last couple of years. He congratulated me on losing twelve pounds in the last month and encouraged me to keep it up. He recommended that I read Michael Pollan's Food Rules (Which I did yesterday. Sound advise in a quick read). At the end he took my blood pressure. It was high. Higher than I like and higher than I expected. Still I did expect it to be high. What neither of us like was that he confirmed that my pulse was indeed pretty darn low. Like thirty beats per minute. So he broke out the EKG and that confirmed not only the low heart rate but a return of my childhood heart block. He had his staff make me the next available appointment across the hall at the cardiologist. Dr. Selle would call me that night after he had a chance to consult with the cardiologist and ask me not to drive or exercise until then. Since then I've pretty much been at home. It's like being sick but not feeling sick. It is a foolish feeling. 

So it looks like I'm probably getting a pacemaker again. I had several between the ages of four and twelve but haven't had one since. I could be wrong and they may interpret it another way but I really don't think so. I've spent the last couple of days preparing myself mentally for a procedure next week. And that’s where it stands right now. We’ll see what the next couple of days bring. 

Health Month

Well January is coming to a close and I’m finally ready to comment a little on my health kick over the last month. For Christmas Kelly got me a pair of great Brooks walking shoes. The next day we went and bought an exercise bike at Sports Authority with some holiday money. On the 27th I weighed myself, which produced a number I had never seen on a scale before. That afternoon I started using the bike and writing down what I ate. Over the next week I would check out a couple of different apps and websites before setting on Livestrong for tracking my food (and fitness) and RunKeeper for my walks and stationary bike time. Both sites have accomplished iPhone applications so I would never have an excuse to not keep track of what I’m doing. RunKeeper in particular is an amazing application. It tracks automatically uses the GPS in my phone to track my walks noting how far, fast and how much climb in elevation. It has helped make for much more accurate recording of how much exercise and how many calories I’ve burnt. Kelly and I have linked our accounts together to form a street team. It helps us keep each other motivated. You can check out my profile page here. Leeahaynes's Profile | RunKeeper. So far I’ve completed 30 activities for a total of 88 miles. Five and a half of those miles were in Big Basin where RunKeeper came up big. There was no cell service whatsoever in the park, no phone, no internet. But the GPS still worked so it kept perfect track of our walk and downloaded the maps and uploaded the walk as soon as we got back to service. I recommend it highly. The iPhone app used to cost $10 and I think I would have been happy with that. They ran a promotion for the new year announcing that it was going to be free for the entire month of January. I little help to kick start New Year’s resolutions I guess. Anyway they had such a groundswell of users in response that they have made Runkeeper Pro a free app for good. I heartily recommend it. Special thanks to Sarita for giving me the heads up about it early in January.

There is a third site that I’ve found very helpful early in this health quest. That’s Buster Benson’s Health Month. Buster is the one that developed the 750Words site that has prompted me to go on an eleven month unbroken journal writing streak. Health Month is a game. You play by choosing rules that you plan on following for the coming month. You choose what the rules are, how often you are going to do them them is and how difficult you think it is going to be for keep on track. For example my rules for January were as follows:

Exercise for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week. 

Walk at least 15 miles a week

Stay under my recommended daily calories at least 5 days a week

Allow added sugar 4 days a week

Drink at least 42 glasses of water a week

Write 3 pages in a private journal every day

Meditate for 20 minutes at least 5 days a week

Read a book for at least 30 minutes 5 days a week

Track my meals every day.

You start the month with 10 life points and you lose points when you miss a goal. You also get points that you can spend to heal yourself or someone else. Everybody is split into four brackets depending on how hard and how many rules you have and then ranked with a points formula. It sounds complicated but in practice it’s pretty easy and the site does most of the work for you. There are times that I’ve done things on my list just to make sure that I don’t lose a point. If that happens just a couple of times a week it’s worth it. It also is nice to see your goals every day when you check in. It’s another site that I recommend highly. 

All in all this morning I stepped on the scale and the number I saw was 12 pounds less than that first scary one at the end of December. I have more energy than I have had in many years. I can’t thank Kelly enough for all here help and support this month. Besides she is the one that got the whole thing kicked off by buying me these fantastic shoes.