Bad numbers, Disclosed, Long night
Saturday morning I played rec play pickleball since I couldn’t find someone to play in the tournament with. I had another round of solid play, winning all 6 games while sweating my ass off. The heat index felt oppressive. I got chores done Saturday afternoon before we headed to the movies Saturday night.
It was my second trip to a theater in less than a week as I just saw Mandalorian last Tuesday. This time we saw Disclosure Day, a movie about when the existence of Aliens is finally fully released and confirmed. I heard both positive and negative things about the film. I would say my overall feeling was positive. The movie was a little slow in the beginning but got better as it went on IMO. I have no issue giving it a B+. I personally feel it is mathematically impossible for there not to be other forms of life in our massive universe.
I got out on my new Inmotion V14 Pro this weekend. The wheel feels very solid and well built. Without really trying I crossed 35MPH on it. The suspension is firmer than I would prefer but that is because the wheel was designed with an off-road first mindset which requires the suspension to not bottom out in big drops. I am looking forward to running the new wheel through a number of scenarios. It handled my DD coffee ride without issue.
So when I took my required blood tests a couple Fridays ago I had my results in a couple days. I thought the numbers looked pretty good but I discovered over the weekend they were not what I thought. The confusion came from my having two Quest accounts, the company that drew the blood. The results I saw at first were from 2015. However I realized my mistake over the weekend and logged into the other account which had my recent results.
My cholesterol is now high, clocking in around 220. My hematocrit is just above the advised range as well as my blood pressure but those can be attributed to being dehydrated and nervous. My BP is always a little high when taken as I have a reflex reaction whenever I have someone taking my BP or drawing blood. But there is no hiding from the cholesterol number.
Since my mom died of a heart attack and my younger brother had a mild one last year I am very sensitive to my potential cardiac weaknesses. I live a healthier lifestyle than either of them but that does not make me immune. The last time I had a full blood workup was in 2024 so when I analyzed any significant changes it did not take me long to find some culprits.
The biggest change has been in my diet. For roughly a decade I ate a pescatarian diet where my only protein was seafood. Sometime in mid-2024 I switched back to a “normal” diet where I now eat any type of meat product. So it’s very easy for me to make a correlation as to that being the main culprit in my numbers swinging the wrong way.
I also don’t do structured extended cardio as I once did. For awhile that meant running and cardio machines at the gym. I was also doing half hour high effort road biking sessions for awhile but those stopped once I moved. Instead my primary cardio is pickleball. Now don’t get me wrong, when I play, especially in the heat my heart rate can get into the 150s which is good but you are supposed to hold that rate. Pickleball by nature has times of high exertion and mild so it really is not ideal to be your primary cardio.
By definition the goal to shoot for is 150 minutes of mild cardio per week. I am also getting to the gym three times on a typical week but all of that time is spent doing calisthenics, stretching and strength work. I just don’t have time during those limited lunch hour sessions to get decent cardio in. So what is the plan you ask?
Well first off I need to modify my diet. Although my weight is still in the same vicinity it has been for close to 10 years I think being closer to 180 pounds instead of 190 pounds would be good for me so if I lost 5 pounds I would be right there. I can do that by doing more mindful eating. It isn’t that hard, it’s just keeping yourself accountable for what goes in your mouth. Second I need to find ways to get more sustained cardio into my routine. Cardio isn’t much fun and can be downright boring at times but exercise is a foundation for lowering cholesterol. I am hoping these lifestyle changes will be enough to get those numbers back in the green zone. Those results were definitely a wake up call.
Last night was a rough one. Early in the evening Elsa had a round of severe diarrhea and throwing up that was reminiscent of when she had her incident that required all of the vet visits in January. However in that case she was throwing up several times throughout the weekend and she had partially eaten a sock. Yesterday we were not aware of her consuming anything foreign, of course that doesn’t mean necessarily that she didn’t.
She had a another round of throwing up after drinking too much water. When she does it reveals just how terrible she is at chewing her food. There are untouched treats and dog food that come up. She just swallows most of it like a pill for some reason. So after letting her rest in bed I started giving her smaller amounts of water at a time and then waiting 15-30 minutes to make sure she kept it down, which she did. I repeated the process 4-5 times stretching to 1AM. After the last drink she seemed like she just wanted to sleep so I let her do so.
I had a difficult time falling back asleep, despite feeling exhausted just because I was keeping an eye on her and was obviously worried. I may have gotten two hours of sleep last night, three if I was lucky. This morning she was tired but eventually got up and moving. She ate some food, drank some more and kept it down which was good. I have been monitoring her remotely via my Ring cameras and she seems to be doing ok. I am hoping that this was just an isolated incident that was caused by something she ate. We have had five months of the new normal which hasn’t been bad. Changing dog diapers isn’t as big of a deal as I once thought it was.