Otherwise Engaged

For 2011, hubby and I are again participating in an "Engagement Health" program through work that encourages us to engage in, well, healthy activities. Sounds logical, right?

For our part, we're each toting around a pedometer 24/7 with hopes of getting 10,000 steps in (or the equivalent of 5 miles) each day. I say "hopes" because it does take a commitment to engage in some extra movement to accomplish that. It really is not as easy as it sounds!

We also have to weigh in weekly and get our blood pressure checked on one of those handy dandy kiosks with a bench seat. We have one at work so there is no way (or weigh) of getting out of this. We did this last year, though, so we are used to it.

To begin the program, though, we had fill out a lengthy health assessment survey. When I got to the questions about my cholesterol, however, I was clueless. I haven't had it checked in probably 5 years so I left those questions blank. They were not required since there was no little red asterisk by them, but it ended up skewing my survey. By leaving them blank, the computer read it as zero or something silly and the Engagement Health folks forced me to take an in-home cholesterol test so they would have valid information.

The one thing I hate about in-home blood tests of any kind is, well, everything! I got the kit in early January, shortly after one of Carter's near-fainting episodes so I was already in the wrong mindset to inflict pain on myself plus look at blood long enough to collect it in some container. Uff-da! That was tough.

I didn't even tell Carter a thing about it so he wouldn't freak out. The morning I did the test I got it all out of the way before he even got up. Of course, I chickened out and did not even prick my finger hard enough the first time to get a good drop or two of blood. So I had to use the "spare" pricker and do another finger! Are you lightheaded yet? I was.

I shipped it off and sort of forgot about it until today when I was contemplating some new vitamins to take -- and hoped I didn't need anything special for high cholesterol. I checked for my results and sure enough, they received my generous blood donation and processed it. My cholesterol numbers are in the middle of normal so I am not borderline anything (well, not related to cholesterol anyway).

I was relieved, mainly because my dad didn't get diabetes until he was an adult so I knew in the back of my mind that my triglyceride numbers could be problematic. But they weren't. So that was great news!

Now I can continue to engage in my healthy activities, including running and scrapbooking (but not running with scissors), and keep a close eye on portion control...

Making sure I continue to get a portion of ice cream every day! Hey, it's working so far!