The HELLth Screening

This morning was my morning to go have my hellth screening for my insurance at work. A prick of the finger to check cholesterol, a trip on the scales, a height measurement, blood pressure reading, body fat test, and a 100 questions on a computer. After which, a person with not one ounce of health knowledge meets with you to go over your scores. So the guy I met with said "According to this (points to his iPad which has a red mark next to a couple of things)you are obese. You really need to work on losing weight." I didn't comment. I just looked at him. I had prepared myself. I knew this was coming. I was just waiting to be dismissed so I could get to work. He then said, "You don't seem very concerned." I shrugged, "I'm not." "You need to be. This is serious." "I know it's serious." "We could have a life coach call you and go over some strategies." "I'll be fine. That's not necessary." "You need to take this seriously." "I do take it seriously." "It doesn't appear that way." At this point I felt it was necessary to take a different approach. "I take it serious enough that I've lost 65 pounds. I have done it through sweat and tears. I haven't used a gimmick. I haven't used a drug. I've lost it the old fashioned way with diet and exercise. I go to the gym 6-7 days a week. I average 100 miles a month. I strength train 5 times a week. I work with a trainer." AND THEN HE SAYS... "This is my part time job. I'm a trainer on the side." People...if only I had taken a pic. You would understand why this was so humorous to me. However, I maintained my composure and didn't laugh in his face. "What exactly do you do for cardio? Are you getting your heart rate up?" Chuckling, "I know my target heart rate. I get it up and keep it up. I came here because I have to in order to keep my insurance premium 30.00 lower. You are not a doctor. You are not MY trainer. You know NOTHING about me. If I had brought pictures in of where I started and my statistics, it still wouldn't be good enough. You measured my body fat with a caliper. There is no evidence that those things are even accurate. It is much more effective to do a skin fold test. The weight you are telling me I should weigh is 40 pounds lower than what my doctor says I should weigh. I realize this is a job for you. However, YOU don't get to tell me I'm not taking weight loss serious enough because YOU don't know me." He opened the curtain and told me to have a good day.I never raised my voice. I was completely polite the entire time. I even smiled. As I was sharing this story with a co worker she said, "You know it's a good thing you are as strong as you are mentally. There are other people that would have been knocked back by that. Words like that would have made them give up." She's right. I'm not going to lose sleep about it. After writing this, I probably won't give it much more thought. It would have knocked the old me out of the game. That's what infuriates me. There are so many people who need support and a conversation like that is not supportive. My friend Sonya was livid. I think if she could have found the guy it would not have been pleasant for him. My trainer and I talked tonight and he said that by their standards he is obese too (if you saw him, you would know there is not an ounce of fat on him ANYWHERE). As I've said before, there are people out there weighing way less than me. They don't work out. They don't watch what they eat. It's not about a number. Yes. Yes. Yes. I still have weight to lose. I'm not going to dispute that. I'm going to get there. I've come a long way. The deal is...no matter what the number on the scale or the BMI or whatever...we should all be working on making choices which lead to a healthier lifestyle.