Health Update - July

I finally finished my personal training sessions that I signed up for in January on Thursday. Here are the results. I have lost 29.3 pounds of fat. I have gained 8.8 pounds of muscle. I have lowered by body age from 45 to 36. I have increased my strength from 54 pounds to 110 pounds. Considering all of my obstacles so far this year, I guess this isn't all that bad. I wish it was better, but I think all the meds I'm on are making it difficult for me to loose weight.

I went to the cardiologist on Friday for an Echocardiogram. The tech that did the ultrasound said she didn't see anything abnormal, but that my cardiologist would have to review to be sure. He should be getting back to me by the middle of next week with the final results. When I was at the cardiologist about 6 weeks ago, they diagnosed me with VPB. That stands for Ventricular Premature Beats. Essentially, that means that I have an irregular heart beat and sometimes I get double or triple beats. The doc said by themselves, VPB is not life threating, but if there is something functionally or structureally wrong with my heart, they will have to look at different treatment. The Echo will determine if I need anything else. If he gives me the ok, I'm going to join a 12 week program at the gym called Team Weight Loss. They meet 3 times a week for an hour for 12 weeks. There isn't much strength training, but they work a lot on nutrition and weight loss via zone training. Essentially, everyone has their own zone that are customized for them and you train within those zones. For some it might be walking, for some it might be running. I need to take the "zone test" to determine mine, but I'm wiating for the cartiologist first. Hopefully I'll know something soon.

My blood pressure seems to be down thanks to meds. Yesterday it was the best it's been in a long time. It was 130/76. Since things are looking up, hopefully the doc can figure out how to lower my heart rate ~ part of the reason it's high is the VPB.

It's been a long 2008 so far with everything that's been going on. I'm ready for this to be over so I can resume living a normal life without having to worry everytime my heart beats a little too fast.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome of the results as soon as I get them.