Health Check

I got a free health check today courtesy of my company signing up for the Victorian Government's WorkHealth Check initiative. I got a blood pressure test, a cholesterol test, a waist measurement test and a blood glucose test. I also had to answer a questionnaire about my lifestyle, for example how much I drink or exercise or how much fruits and vegies I eat.

I think I'm a fairly healthy person and I have upped my exercise levels by heaps so I was hoping for pretty good results. So I was a little disappointed with the outcome. :( Turns out my blood pressure is a tiny bit high. The recommended levels as adviced by the Victorian Government is 120/80. Mine was coming up at 127/89. I know this is fairly variable though, a couple of days ago I had it tested at 123/90 and about a month ago it was 105/78. Either way, I'd like to keep it nice and low on average.

I was quite pleased with my cholesterol level, the guideline is 5.5 or less denotes normal cholesterol levels, mine was 2.74. However, my HDL cholesterol which is the good stuff is meant to be more than 1 and mine was only at 0.9. I'll have to stop trying to avoid those daily fish oil supplements and focus on eating more avocados and nuts.

My blood glucose level was pretty low at 3.5, with 6.5 being the upper limit of Normal. But I think that is not accurate as I hadn't eaten for about 3 hours and was starting to feel hungry. If I had gone in there just after a chocolate snack, it probably would have shown a pretty high reading.

My waist was bordering on the upper limit of Normal, which makes me even more determined to exercise more. Though right now, I'm making the usual excuses like "She measured over my jeans, 2 singlets and a vest!" and "She measured my waist too low, my hip bones pretty big!" I know all that is bullshit and I need to get it down though. Well, I've been wanting to get it down and now it looks like maybe I need to get it down.

One interesting fact I learnt was that being Asian makes me more susceptible to diabetes. I scored a 6 on my diabetes risk score and that just puts me on Medium Risk (6-14). The nurse told me that I got an automatic 2 points for being an Asian female. If I was an Asian male, I would have gotten 3 points right away.

All in all, I'm glad I got this health check, it's definitely inspired me to take better care about what I eat and how much I exercise because I want to get a good score! So if you have an opportunity to get a free Health Check, you should definitely go for it. This particular program is offered to companies completely free by the Victorian Government so if you work in Victoria, ask your company to set this up so you can get your free Health Check!