Greg’s First Physical as an Adult

I try to post both topics of general interest and personal stories. This is from the personal files. I am now a real full fledged adult, or so they tell me, and statistically half way through life. I’ve never been one to read labels on food or buy lite anything. Today for the first time as an adult, I had a physical or as the kids’ pediatrician calls them, “well visits.”

The vitals are as follows, 68.7 inches tall. All of this time I thought I was 5’ 9”? Am I shrinking? Maybe just slouched a bit, not sure. Weight is 188.25 pounds, a far cry from high school when I was 145-150. My Body Max Index or BMI is 28.14. My blood pressure is higher than it was in my past too at 120/96 with a pulse rate of 84. Maybe it’s as the nurse put it because of “the white coat syndrome? In other words, maybe I’m just nervous about the visit and the Doctor? Everything else checked out okay, no idea about the blood work which I need to do for cholesterol and glucose. The idea of fasting for 12-14 hours seems tough, but I guess if it has to be done it has to be done. I apparently drink too many caffeinated beverages, five to six cups of coffee a day plus a Coke or Pepsi or two a day. I guess more sleep would be nice,  I get like maybe six hours a night.

My Doctor thought it would be a great idea to talk about quitting smoking with the Moose audience. Today it’s 12 days since my last cigarette. I haven’t talked about this quit attempt because I’ve failed miserably so many times. All I can say is my philosophy has changed for this attempt. I’m not concentrating on quitting, just concentrating on other things and taking it day by day. I have no goal, except not to smoke. I have a Nicorette knock off and it does help, but you get addicted to the gum. The gum is about a 1/3 of the price of smoking, so anyway that’s where I’m at with that.

Getting older is tough on so many levels, your body creaks more, less flexibility and the wear and tear on the parts. Hoping to be around a while for our children and hopefully grand children. Nothing is wrong, just during my last Doctor visit for an issue with my foot I was encouraged to make an appointment for a physical and so today was the day.