Interesting morning today... At 8:00 I had to see the nurse to have my blood pressure and resting heart rate taken. Then, after breakfast, I had a Fitness Evaluation. This included a stress test (8 minutes on the treadmill that culminated in getting my heartbeat up to 85% of maximum for my age, in this case being 162 bpm. I got up to 163.) as well as flexibility and strength tests. After that I didn't have anything scheduled until the afternoon. I had been planning on going to step aerobics at 11:10, but there was also a class then on appetite awareness, and I was feeling nervous about step aerobics, so I decided to go ahead and do my cardio on the recumbent bike instead, and go to the class. 8 minutes later, I had chest pains.
The nurse immediately checked my blood pressure and heart rate, and they were fine. Not back to normal yet, but on their way down from where they'd been during the stress test, and my heart rate was steady. So she decided I probably should have rested more before going straight to the bike, and sent me back to my room to lie down for a bit with the injunction that if I didn't start to feel better I should call her.
I felt better almost right away, which is why I'm here at my computer at 7:00pm writing this e-mail, rather than in a hospital bed at 11:00am calling New York...
So 11:00 rolls around and I get up to go to class, and I'm really feeling just fine at this point, and I decide that going to appetite awareness is wussing out. If step aerobics gets too hard, I can slow down, rest, or even stop all together, but I will never know if I can do it unless I do. So I go, and I did the whole class, and it kicked my butt. In that good way, though, where I was dripping sweat and so incredibly proud of myself for completing something I wasn't sure I could get through even 5 minutes before the end of the class. And lo! my cardio was done before lunchtime!
Post-lunch I had a class on antecedent awareness, "antecedent" being fancy terminology for triggers. Basically, figuring out what led to the acts of unstructured eating that all of us will inevitably have once we leave Structure House, because nobody is perfect all the time and because it takes more than 4 weeks to change the habits of a lifetime and because recognizing it's going to happen makes you less likely to beat yourself up when you do have the unscheduled cookie dough or chocolate cake or even piece of fruit. (Calories are calories, period. Fruit is no better than chocolate, even if it does where a beret and roll its eyes and shrug Gallicly when chocolate doesn't have the proper accent.)
Then I had therapy, followed by a class on Mets & Calories, where I got the results of my fitness eval. Turns out my resting heart rate is low compared to a sample population of women my age. This means I have a strong cardiovascular system, so that's excellent. And, indeed, based on the treadmill my cardiovascular score was above average -- which is funny, because in the blurb that comes with it they say "you are probably exercising regularly and watching weight." Which, to be fair, I am... but only as of 4 days ago... My strength, those vaunted hands that Mom always demands work out kinks in neck, is actually only average. My sit-reach hip flexibility, however, is well above average. Go me! I can touch my toes... and BEYOND. Since my reach over my shoulder is only average, this is extra interesting. I guess my top as a whole is flexible, but my arms in particular are not... Maybe my elbows are holding out on me! I shall have to kick them into gear. Still, on the whole, excellent genes, except for the whole overweight thing. So thanks, Mom and Dad. I may be fat, but I'm still fit and bendy. Er, mostly bendy.
Stupid elbows.
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