For three years running, I have participated in the Apple-Mayo Clinic Heart Screening something something. It always starts off with a blood draw to check my stats (cholesterol, glycerides and other jazz), my weight (always too high) and the plan. To help me stay on track, a nice person from Mayo Clinic’s call center in MN calls about once a month. This year I have a nice fellow named Mohammed. I figured he was part of the Somalian/Ethiopian enclave in the area because of the area code the day he rang me. (And I already knew there was a population of immigrants from the horn of Africa living around Minneapolis long before they were negatively stigmatized as terrorist dupes.)
Back to it being all about me.
I always fall off the wagon thanks to the Holidays; too much food. This year’s CL was terrible…246. Plus I can never get my weight under the 220 barrier. Hell, I don’t think I have weighed less than 221 in a decade (checking my archive in Now Up-to-Date, 2002, close enough). At least I haven’t exceeded 232, boy was I fat looking at Jose’s wedding, a rotund 241 then.
This year’s impetus was off to a horrible start too. The weather was terrible for most of February and March. It’s so hard to roll my lazy butt out of bed to exercise when hibernating almost another hour is more attractive. The lingering sore throat wasn’t helping neither. Once the Azithromicin succeeded (the longest it has ever taken in my life), I got back to the routing on the Wii Fit I started after our vacation to the Silders’, namely running around the virtual island. Currently, I’m still on the 10-minute mode with a couple balance games to establish a 15-minute workout/breaking a sweat.
The annual physical showed the embers of hope, much to my surprise too. I got my CL down to 203! I know something else improved but I’m not clear yet there too. It isn’t quite the 200 I was so proud of in 2007 with the funny graphic. One major goal for Somara is to find both of us a family doctor so I can have my blood tested again in three months. I will get my CL to 180 if it kills me. No wait, it will kill me inevitably through my pocketbook (medication to control, no thanks) or a stroke.
Meanwhile, my Wii Fit “running” goal has had a couple milestones. When I began in July, I started from my house. The moon-landing target is the time share in Vegas, around 1300 miles. Currently, I passed the distance to the Nokia Theater (where I saw Spinal Tap) and I’m closing in on Sonora, TX. I figured for the rest of this virtual journey, I will follow a logical route from my house to Las Vegas via I-10 until I think I need to turn north at I-15.