Review: how healthy am I?

New Year brings about aspirations and goal setting for many of us. I imagine that I am far from alone in my habitual list – lose weight, write more, be more creative, get fit, spend more time with the kids… this time next year Rodney….

One of my happiest thoughts this new year is that I don’t have a Herculean task ahead of me in terms of weight loss. I’ve done the big bit and now I need to finish what I started. My goal has shifted from weight loss to being fitter and alongside that, I’ve got just a little complacent. That 2 stone 7 is still comfortably off and I waver a little on a 2lb band. I’ve started to have some wine, some chocolate, been a bit more laid back. Next week… next week… I’ll get on and do some more. And go running. Pass me the chocolate.

The opportunity to review a free Health Check Survey at Patient.co.uk was an interesting one. The main site is a  “health and well being” website with current media stories, symptom checkers, monitoring apps, Q&A sections and so on – loads of information and opinion and pieces of interest. I had a quick look round but header to the health checker, realising with a sinking feeling that it was not going to ask me questions I wanted to answer. It’s very annoying when you know you could say “well yes, LAST summer, I exercised loads!” and “last month I didn’t eat ANY chocolate” but that quite frankly, you won’t be doing yourself much of a favour if you do.

The questionnaire is reminiscent of the type of questions you are asked when you are pregnant; immediate family health (small tick in the blood pressure for family members box) and a pat on the back for no longer being on prescription medication – bye bye blues. We seem to be a family to largely avoid diabetes, which can only be a plus. And then – bum – the physical activity questions and I know walking up and down a corridor at work a few times a week is not enough. With a sinking feeling I’m remembering that I got into the habit of walks and runs in previous years and I am a SLOTH at the moment. There is no point pretending I’m just waiting for a nice day to start – I don’t want to start. I consider lying, my private education and morals get the better of me. Could try harder.

I haven’t smoked though; that must win me bonus points. I laugh a bit at the question “How likely do you think it is that you’ll take up smoking within the next year?” Does anyone plan to take up smoking?!?! Then I have a grumble at the alcohol questions  -I’m a very moderate drinker indeed but somehow the gap between 2-4 times a month and 2-3 times a week feels huge. Then I do the maths and realise it isn’t really – but 2-3 times a week sounds worse! I settle on the lower amount anyway as I definitely don’t drink 3 times a week and probably once a week is more realistic. I have a smug moment.

Smug dies a bit of a death when I have to give waist and hip measurements. Tape measure is lost – obviously – so I have to use wool and a ruler and it does not make me happy! Must get back to the conditioning me and Amelie started. Plus, I have to be honest, I have quite a small waist for my size – the problem is right below it! Probably a bit misleading but I’m taking my credits where I can get them at this point :LOL: Thanks to recent pregnancies and various other things, I can give pretty accurate blood pressure/glucose answers but cholesterol is a mystery. Am I supposed to know this yet?

And then we are on to diet – I wish wildly I had been doing shakes this last month as I fear I’m going to have to own up to those chocolates and I have to rest firmly on the laurels of the healthy dinners Max cooks and the fact I do now snack firmly on fruit. There are handy info buttons on the side of each question and I learn a thing or two about soluble fibre I didn’t know before. And wince a bit at the sugar questions.

But not as badly as I do at the stress ones.

Ah.

It’s time for the answers. The test places you in a queue of 100 people. Where did I come?

And why did I only make it roughly half way up the queue?

Hmmm. No big surprises but a hefty kick up the bum. I need to exercise more, which I know, but my big fat bottom has been up in the air while my head has been in the sand about it. I’m congratulating myself on the fact the bmi/weight one would have been significantly worse 6 months ago and I know my diet will improve rapidly this month anyway. But the big shocker was stress; I know we’ve been through a lot, I know there is a lot on and I am over-stretched but I didn’t expect to answer so many of those questions – I genuinely didn’t expect to find myself a person existing in a state of stress that is probably bad for me.

What to do, what to do?

Set some targets of course. Make some choices about what I can change and some commitments to do so within reasonable, self administered time frames and aim to scramble a bit further up the queue.

I can do those. I can. I know I can because I already have done them in the past (just maybe not all at once!) So I’ve committed and they’ve been handily emailed straight to me – no pretending to lose the URL then! 😉

This was a good wake up call about my health, my state of mind and how I take care of myself. It wasn’t comfortable acknowledging the places I need to shape up but there was lots of useful questions, answers and a very manageable call to action at the end. And it was VERY easy to use, felt thorough and gave me tools and information in an easy to understand way. So why not use that widget above and try it too 🙂

Disclosure: we have been compensated for this review – all opinions and flustered pretending we didn’t eat chocolate while doing it, are our own. I now need a glass of wine. Tomorrow I’m all about change.