My Journey With Health And Fitness – Apparently I Am Healthy

Today is one of my ‘light’ days so I only do about 2 hours of workouts. Still, I target getting in at least 20k steps which is my minimum to do at least 6 days per week. I did an early morning run training set (despite having gone to see a play last night and not getting home until late) and then put in a good walk after lunch. I didn’t get me to my 20k steps but fortunately I had some shopping to do to pick up stuff to take up to the trailer next month. I am happy to report by 2pm I had made my goal.

I usually plan what I am going to say in my blogs several days in advance and I had one all planned out for today. That was until yesterday happened and it was so positive I just had to share.

For me, February tends to be my health check month. I see the dentist (that happens on Monday), get my eyes tested and see my doctor for my annual physical. The physical is necessary because of technically being diabetic. The appointment with my doctor doesn’t happen until next week so yesterday I had my annual battery of blood and urine tests. Unlike many diabetics the rest of the year I only get one test done which is my A1C (this is the one that measures how your hemoglobin is holding glucose so it provides an estimate of your glucose levels for the past 3 months). Even the A1C is usually every 3 months for most diabetics but for me it is only every 6 months and truly I can mess up a lot in 6 months.

I am always nervous on test day. This is because when I was diagnosed as diabetic in October of 2018 my doctor at the time, knowing that I was going through probably the darkest and most stressful period of my life, opted to run the full gamut of tests (I should note that despite the fact I had a family physician I went to a walk in clinic where my previous, semi-retired doctor was working because he knew me and my family so well). At that time so many of my test results were abnormal (most were high) and I was a mess. Because of this on test day I tend to obsess over getting my results and check online pretty much every hour. Yesterday was no different. By 6pm all the test results were in an I was a bit shocked at what they looked like.

Now I have to acknowledge I had been falling off the fitness wagon for a bit but really, I still exercised and ate fairly healthy. Well, that apparently worked because all of my test results were absolutely normal. My glucose fasting level was 4.3 (normally I struggle with this which tends to be in the diabetic range), my cholesterol levels are well in the normal range, all tests for my kidneys came back showing my kidneys are in excellent shape, even my ionized calcium levels are finally normal (there’s been lots of testing on this one as they kept reading as high and eventually it was thought it wasn’t causing much of a risk). And the one that indicates how I am managing my glucose, the A1C, well it was well into the normal range.

The bottom line is I am healthy. I am at a place so far away from where I was in October 2018 that it is almost like I am an entirely different person. Oh wait, I am because I am now healthy and fit.