Well as some of you will already know last September I reached one of those significant ages and my Drs kindly invited me to a well man clinic to check how I was doing.
Well the crux of it was I was a fat old bloke with high blood pressure and my cholestral was just bordering on being ok.
They wanted to put me on medication for these issues but I thanked them and refused their kind offer saying I would like to see what continuing running would do (I'd already lost a couple of stone by then)
It was agreed that this would be the case but they wanted to monitor how things went so wanted me back in January to retest me.
So in January I went back and had bloods taken ready for an appointment the following week to see updated results, well I ended up with food poisoning so my appointment was cancelled and today was the first time it could be reset.
Now I can't remember all the figures etc BUT my blood pressure is now comfortably inside the range for a man of a particular age, my cholestral reading is now down comfortably to the level it should be, my resting bp is 64 and I have continued to lose weight (no dieting just being sensible)
So if it can do this for a fat old ex smoker what can/will it do for you.
Happy running my friends xxx
Written by
rolysmate
Graduate
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and thats the really funny thing. Ive done 2 x5k this week and all being well ( ie if its not snowing or raining hard) I think I'll go for a slower run tomorrow and see if I get a bit further.
Am finding consolidating after graduation ( last Nov) really helpful and it definitely does get easier and leaves me with less aches! Its becoming one of my better habits!
What fantastic news - we’ll done 👏👏👏I too had a bit of a wake up call last year. So started off with healthy eating and then walking. My tests in January were all normal but then I started couch to 5k and feel so much better.
I too have a big birthday this year 🎉🎉so onwards and upwards 🤪
Thats amazing and inspiring! Can I ask, how long did it take for you to consider it a new lifestyle - I find I can follow things for a few months and then before I realize it I've lapsed back into old habits again. And I've been doing that most of my adult life (and I've had my big birthday!!) How long do you think it takes to 'set' a new lifestyle?
There's some research on how long it takes to acquire a habit... but I think some vigilance is required as well as some flexibility. I did four years of solid 10 minutes yoga every morning without fail except for one or two occasions where downward dog would have caused upchuck woman and it still slipped away from me somehow, I know what triggered that but not why I've not got back to the same habit... (I wouldn't say I have given up but I don't do it as much as would be beneficial) I think not being too gung ho helps - which is why the not running every day thing is so brilliant.
definitely trying to keep something up every day is hard..I am doing a variety of different things, gym, yoga, C25K, swimming so if I don't do one of them it doesn't feel like failure. Also I count having the odd facial or massage as part of the new lifestyle! But still worrying it might all go down the drain in a few months
Often what makes the difference between those who keep it up and those who give up is not the wobbles and the breaks but just calmly getting back to it or 'doing what you can do and not worrying about what you can't'
And also not being totally results driven... rolysmate is dead right that there is so much you can do for yourself but it isn't a magic wand and disagreeable health things happen to very fit people and it can take the wind right out of a person's sails then if they've really been thinking they'd bought themselves a guarantee...
The realisation that I am a little way along lifes path and my future health can and will have great effect on the quality of the remainder of this journey is enough to get me strapping my running shoes on
I think within a few short months for me as the results became evident i realised that the longevity of my future depends upon my actions now and into the future
it was after quitting smoking that I really gained extra weight though I had gained a little prior to that, starting running helped me focus on what I was eating
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