Today I received the results of my physical assessment. Here are some of those results:

• Blood Pressure: 120/80 - Literally right on the line between “good” and “prehypertension”
• Weight: 200lbs (200.21 pounds on the data sheet)
• Body fat percentage: 17.6%
• Waist / Hip Ratio: “At Risk” (this is what I need to work on the most. see below)
• Heart Rate: 117 beats per minute (a little below average)
• Grip Strength. Right Hand: 59lbs, Left Hand: 62lbs
• Flexibility (Trunk Flexion): 17 inches
• Number of sit ups in 1 minute: 62

What does all of this mean?

My target ideal weight is somewhere around 165 pounds. This means that I need to lose only about 8 pounds per month to reach my optimum fitness goals by the end of this semester. Doable? You bet’cha! I’m much more optimistic now about reaching my ideal fitness goal.

Now that I have a hard number to aim for it should be a lot easier to measure my progress and to develop a more effective exercise plan.

The most curious piece of information that I received from this assessment is that I was measured at 6 foot 3^1/2 inches tall. What makes this so curious is that for several years now I’ve thought of myself as 6′5″.

The same night of the assessment I used a measuring tape at home to check myself, and sure enough, it was 6′3.5″.

The height of 6′5″ was data from a nurse, and I stopped growing loooooooooong ago. This is also probably why I haven’t been measured at a doctor’s office in quite a long time; I stopped putting on height more years ago than I care to count, so there has been no reason to measure me in the last several years.

Huh, what do you know..

Anyway, I will definitely have another assessment done at the end of the semester to see what my fat percentage is then compared to now, and of course to see how the rest of the data compares.

My weight loss and fitness goals have never seemed easier.

Later folks!

~Steph

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