S-P-O-N-T-A-N-E-I-T-Y

spon·ta·ne·i·ty (spnt-n-t, -n-)
n. pl. spon·ta·ne·i·ties
1. The quality or condition of being spontaneous.
2. Spontaneous behavior, impulse, or movement.

spon·ta·ne·ous (spn-tn-s)
adj.
1. Happening or arising without apparent external cause; self-generated.
2. Arising from a natural inclination or impulse and not from external incitement or constraint.
3. Unconstrained and unstudied in manner or behavior.
4. Growing without cultivation or human labor.

Got some? Spontaneity. Do you have any to spare? If so, can I borrow it? Never mind.

What am I thinking?

There is no longer any room in my life for spontaneity.

Do you think your children kill your spontaneity? No, I say. Not kids. Do you think your job kills spontaneity? Nope. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the house? No. No. And, no.

What kills spontaneity is...exercise.

I mean it. Hear me out.

Yes, exercising does give you a feeling of well being. Working out certainly helps you feel good about yourself and builds confidence. But whoever told you that you'd still have time for a life if you are exercising and then doing all the stuff I listed above is a big, fat, liar!

Lately in order for my life to "work" I have to schedule and plan everything. And, yes, I do mean everything. It sucks. It sucks big time. Pun completely and entirely INtended. Or UN-tended as the case may be.

Is it really so much to ask for about 4 more hours in the day?

And now, to demonstrate my frustration, a song from my crush.

My new challenge ain't got nuthin' to do with books!

Each year at the fire department we have a fitness guy come in and check us out. We do lab work, we take a dip in the fat tank to measure our BMI, we do sit ups, push ups, etc.

All in all I'm in good shape. My labs were good. I did both push ups and sit ups for the first time in 35 years. I'm counting it a major achievement that I didn't morph into primordial ooze. Good news, right? However, it's been a year and half since I've done any yoga or any kind of flexibility work out and I consequently got a horrible score for body elasticity and flexibility.

As for my body fat, well, to put it in the kindest terms, it's a few points shy of where it should be. I also found out I need to add

weight training

to my walking

and swimming.

So in addition to working on losing some more weight before RWA, I have to figure out how to add an hour of weight training 2 days a week. I know! Two hours is huge isn't it? I think I'll be happy to start with 30 minutes. Believe me, I haven't even figured out when or how I'll do that yet.

What do you do? Do you work out in the mornings? Evenings? During your lunch? I do a little of everything. Who knows anything about weights?

The News

I'm being lazy about the comments for yesterday's post about the fitness test and decided to give you the scoop here instead.

Thankfully I got mostly good news starting with the overall assessment being "it's better to be overweight and fit than skinny and unfit." So, I'm on the overweight and fit side of the room. Huzzah! Although that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to me. But whatever. A good grade is a good grade I always say. A bit pathetic, but ya takes 'em where ya kin git 'em.

I know you aren't going to believe this but I've never had a treadmill test before. I did fabulously well. No, really I did. I didn't get past 5 on a scale of 1-10 for degree of strenuous exercise. I did great on the incline. So, I was a pretty happy camper. I recovered rather quickly too. Of course, it was only 5-6 minutes on the treadmill never getting past a brisk walk (3.2 miles per hour) so that was pretty easy.

I have way toooooooooo muuuuuuuuuch fat in my body. So much so that I'm too embarassed to share the number with you. However, my cholesterol was good. Blood pressure good. Heart rate excellent. Heart risk for my age and gender is considered excellent if you are at 5% risk or less for heart disease. I was at 4%. Yeah me! Good heart health.

Now the not so good news. My blood work showed an elevated liver enzyme. Got to follow up on that. And, both my blood tests (work and rheumatologist) were done in the same week and show a high score for my thyroid. I saw my rheumatologist on Tuesday and he's already prescribed synthroid. *sigh* Another damn pill to take.

I keep reminding myself how fortunate I am to live in a period of time where there is treatment for these things and a pill is a small price to pay...a very small price. But it still sucks when you look at the palm of your hand twice a day and see 6 pills, not counting my vitamins, that I have to swallow. Did I mention I have to do this twice a day. Every day? Oh well. I'm going to be strong, stalwart and courageous like one of the fabulously tough but compassionate heroines in the books we read. Think? Yeah, tongue firmly in cheek right there.

Thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers. They helped. They really did. Hey Dev. Our Fire Chief took cuts in line so I was actually on the treadmill at around 11:40 to 11:45 a.m. It just might have been your prayer that did the trick. ;-)

Pray for Me

For a week we have health and fitness people at work. On a completely volunteer basis and at no charge you can get a consultation on the state of your health and suggestions on how to have a more healthy and fit life.

Of course part of the process is giving blood, a BMI test, treadmill, breathing test and some flexibility skills. My appointment is at 11 a.m. this morning. *gulp*

Pray for me.