First off – hello everyone, thanks for reading. 🙂 I know my blog has been pretty silent lately. I don’t really know why, I didn’t consciously decide to stop writing but I did. I’m going to try to get back on track and write at least one post a week to ease back into it because I miss sharing with you!
If you think wellness is expensive, try illness.
This week we had a health and wellness screening at work where they took our vitals, tested our cholesterol, recorded our height and weight, and more. I absolutely hate seeing blood but for a discount on health insurance, I obliged and handed my finger over while closing my eyes tight.
Overall my cholesterol was all right, but I was quite upset when I heard the broken down results. My good cholesterol was very good but my bad cholesterol was quite high.
We did this exact exam last year and my cholesterol was great and there was no need for improvement. I was very reassured and happy about this because high cholesterol runs in my family. A glowing review was unfortunately not the case this year.
Fatty Foods and High Cholesterol
The nurse reviewed my numbers and then shared the information with me and what they meant. She was a nice woman but rubbed me the wrong way when she told me that I should probably just lay off having too many fried foods. I quickly had to defend myself, “…but I don’t eat fried food?” Her analysis and comment left me feeling very frustrated. How could I have a high cholesterol when I live this healthy?
Leaving the office I quickly texted my best friends to help defend my stance saying things like, “you’re so healthy though, you eat so well, etc.” I needed to hear my friends back me up on this.
I kept trying to brush it off but I kept thinking about it. The analysis was very frustrating to hear, after all I have committed so much time and effort to living a healthy lifestyle. I work out 5 to 6 times a week, and eat healthy for most every meal. But as I continued to think about it, I begrudgingly came to terms with the truth – I wasn’t eating quite as well as I was last year. I could make improvements.
While I’m roughly the same weight-(ish) as I was last year, I haven’t been eating as clean the past few months. It was a wake up call in sorts to kick me out of my funk of eating too many sweets.
Why I Chose A Healthy Lifestyle
I have been so blessed with my health and know that a lot of it has to do with treating my body well, feeding it nutritious foods and exercising. While the results weren’t what I wanted to hear, I liked to see the hard evidence how my body is affected by food I choose to eat. It can be easy to overlook if you are remaining about the same weight. My weight was similar, but my health was not.
Honestly, I have been more concerned lately with working out for vanity reasons, not for health and this was a great reminder. Keeping excess weight off is simply a plus of exercising and eating well, it shouldn’t be the main goal.
This check up made me take a step back and recenter myself as to why I choose to eat healthy, and exercise. The food you eat makes the biggest impact and it directly affects your health!
If you’re like me and need a little push, take this post as your push. What will you do this week to be healthier?
I am going to be healthier by having my meal prepped lunches. I was definitely motivated by this realization and ate better this weekend and meal prepped today, which I had been slacking on.
Have a wonderful week 🙂
You go girl! I admire your dedication! Love you!