Number Two: Health Report Update

rainbow

'I am going to the gym regularly again, aiming for 3-4 times a week, including one session with a personal trainer. I have been continuing with my RCT, trying out red clover tablets for menopause symptoms. I have also been to my new female GP twice and really like her - this is important! She is a very good communicator.  My sleeping pattern is reasonably good, and I am continuing to meditate every day'.

This is what I wrote two years ago, on the topic of health. Sounds like nothing much has changed, which I think is a good thing. These are some key elements:

• Gym/exercise - still going regularly, and have switched to having private personal trainer, but otherwise, not much has changed. I seem to be quite good at weight maintenance, but not weight loss! I also cycle regularly, most Sunday mornings, with S, doing the city river loop.
• RCT - my Red Clover Trial. Well, I am still taking them, and I believe they are helping control the hot flushes. I feel worse if I don't take them. I was told by a pharmacist they had been found effective, unlike most other herbal menopause remedies. (I wonder how long it will last, this menopause business? Because the tablets are pretty expensive...)
• GP - not had much cause to visit the Doctor. Again, a good thing. I remember I went to see her, due to hearing pulse-like sounds in my ears, which have now stopped. Without any treatment. I also saw a doctor about a respiratory virus, over a year ago, but this year my general health was good.
• Sleep - Still have the odd bout of insomnia, but much less than I used to.
• Meditation - I realised from reading this, that I had been meditating regularly for longer than I thought, perhaps almost 3 years now. Quite proud of this achievement.
• Foot - I had plantar fasciitis (chronic sore sole of foot) this year, after walking over mountains in New Zealand, in December 2011. A painful condition, which has resolved slowly, but only after getting orthotics made by a podiatrist.
• Mental Health - I am resigned, most of the time, to living with a bit of anxiety. I feel much freer than I used to, from my own thoughts. Realising how much Doesn't Matter, I think, has been a key learning.
• And, speaking of Number twos, I recently took part in a National Screening Program for Bowel Cancer, which involved collecting a stool sample and mailing it to the lab. The kit is sent to people of a certain age, in my case, 55. Collecting and mailing the sample was quite an ordeal really, in an amusing way, but a great initiative, thank-you Australian Government.

coffee cart on the Goodwill Bridge - essential pit stop!

Finally, an acknowledgement of coffee, which is the drug I cannot do without, although I usually only have one a day. Wine would come second, but I don't have a problem missing a day here and there, to have my alcohol free days. But if I miss coffee, I feel 'wrong'. Sure sign of physical addiction.

Tomorrow, its the Environment. 

more later.