Health Warning - Newbie. Failed health check and family history!

[drpeterb]

My job is pretty inactive, but most of my life (I am 58), I have been a regular for excercise of some sort. However, a few issues with work, a house renovation project, and recurrent ear infections (I usually swim a lot) gave the excuses to drop out of my routine. Weight had crept up over the years to a high of 82kg and a BMI of 28. In short, I had got a little complacent and thought myself immune to the ravages of time...

18 months ago, my brother was rushed into hospital for a triple bypass, both he and my father are diabetic, my dad too has heart problems.

This coincided with an invitation from my doctors surgery for a health check. I went with a list of things I wanted to discuss. He outcome was a raised cholesterol (7.2) slightly high blood pressure (145/85), weight at 79kg. I also needed further hospital checks and biopsies. Thankfully, nothing serious found on the hospital tests (although I have one more to go).

I have been a regular at the gym since September last year. 4 times a week with 30 mins cardiovascular exercise and 30 mins weights/machines. At the last hospital test December, blood pressure was back to 125/75.

The initial advice was to go on statins immediately. Not what I wanted! I thought my diet was reasonably healthy, but revised it completely. I managed to get the cholesterol down to 5.2. Weight loss was good too, down to around 75kg by September last year. Continued well until ChrIstmas and New Year. Slipped back to 79kg. Looked again at this group in February 2017.

Determined to get cholesterol below 5, and weight to 70kg. That would be a BMI of 23.9.

Currently 77.3kg BMI 26.4. Still a regular at the gym and some pretty heavy gardening work.

Although my diet is healthy, I often cook just for one, so managing portion size can be difficult. I also tend to slip up when visiting my family overseas, which I do about every 8 weeks for 2 weeks.

Weekends too, I tend to enjoy a few beers and wine.

I find the group, and the weigh-in a great encouragement.

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You've done well! Congrats on reversing the bp, cholesterol etc. There are ways to better manage portion sizes. Batch cook elements of your meals e.g. roast veggies, baked fish, curries, casseroles etc and freeze in portion sizes ready for next time. Weigh things like rice, pasta, couscous etc before you cook them. I like using the tala dry measures cone - discreet and accurate enough for me