Reality Sets In

It has been an emotional week and some change! By "change" I mean week and a few days, but also change as in change. My husband found out he's borderline diabetic. We also decided for multiple reasons it was finally time to put our precious daughter into day care.

The borderline diabetic diagnosis was a big eye opener and Hubby is really getting serious about getting healthy. I am so happy about that and very proud of him. We are now on a 1500-1800 calories/day diet. He scours the SparkPeople website and carefully plans out our menu for each day.

My employer has a new program in which everyone gets screened for certain things, including weight/BMI, cholesterol, etc. In order to save BIG BUCKAROONIES on our insurance premiums next year, we must meet their standards or else participate in an appropriate wellness program in order to get a certain number of points. The number of points we get by August of this year determines the rate of increase in my premiums for next year.

My LDL and HDL were not where they want them. Obviously, neither was my BMI. As a result, I now have to talk to someone about it once a week in order to not have my premiums go up by $450 next year. Hubby has to do it too or there goes another $450 on premiums next year. The whole thing has me pretty stressed out...embarassed, regretful (of neglecting my body the past few years), etc. Just so emotional.

Here are the numbers. I dont know how long it will take to get them on target, so all I can say is they will be better six months from now!

Total Cholesterol: 159 (desired range for me is less than 200, so I guess this one's OK)

HDL Cholesterol: 26 (they like to see this one at 50 for females so I have some work to do here)

TC/HDL Cholesterol ratio: 6 (ideally, this is 4.0 or less)

LDL Cholesterol: 110 (the target is less than 100)

Triglycerides: 112 (finally one I didn't blow it on! Target is less than 150)

Glucose: 77 (I passed another one! The target is 100/fasting, 130/non-fasting)

Blood Pressure: 112/78 (target is 120/80, so this is another one I don't have to worry about, which is good because worrying raises your blood pressure!)

Body Fat Percent: 39% (Ideally this should be 18.5-24.9%)

BMI: 32 (considered "obese" at a BMI of 30. BMI of 25-29.9 is considered overweight)

There you have it!