Dost thou love life?

Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. --Ben Franklin

I got a bit of a wake-up call yesterday. My first appointment of the day was a "Health Screening" at Microsoft. They had it set up in a large conference room, with different "stations" for cholesterol testing, blood pressure, body fat, weight, and a nurse consultation about your numbers.

This was my starting point for my Sound Health Solutions program, since I couldn't get an appointment with my doctor for a physical until mid-October. So here are my numbers:

Blood Pressure: 99/70
Total Cholesterol: 179
HDL: 58
LDL: 106
Fasting Triglycerides: 77
Fasting Glucose: 91

So any of you with some health knowledge will know that my numbers look pretty good.

Now for the bad news:
Body Fat %: 37.7
BMI: 30.2

My nurse consultation was short and sweet. She pointed at the body fat/BMI numbers and said "You need to do something about this NOW while you're still young." She said I had been blessed with great genetics (thanks Amma and Appa) which allowed me to have such great cholesterol/glucose numbers while being so overweight. She also said she recently lost 55 pounds and wishes she hadn't waited until her 50s to do so. It was a short and sweet message for me that I needed to hear (again.)

So I guess I've got my work cut out for me! I've decided to give up red meat, since my last couple of beefy meals have grossed me out, and if I don't really like it, why should I eat it? I'm not sure about becoming a total vegetarian yet, though I'm not that excited about chicken either. I definitely can't give up seafood thanks to my love for sushi and shellfish. So we'll see how it goes - I struggle with getting enough protein so I look forward to working with the dietitian in the next few months.

My first consultation with the SHS doctor is Monday afternoon, so I'll get a better idea of how the program works. But I'm ready to start now.

Today's workout was pretty short - I *did not* want to be there, so I did 10 min on the elliptical and 20 min walking on the treadmill and called it a day. 65-80% MHR, so it wasn't totally lame.

My next project is cleaning out the fridge *shudder*.