Clear Ambiguity

Well, I am starting to get my life back again after a fairly hectic 6 months or so. The bottom line and result of all this chaos is I now live alone in a spectacular part of the world- Aldinga Beach to be precise.

I can now take a one minute walk and see dolphins rounding up schools of Australian Salmon. Not a bad way to start the day, certainly an excellent stress releaser for me.

I no longer suffer from anxiety, am losing weight and am looking forward to the future. I miss my family unbelievably, but I am sure they will all benefit from me being a better Dad/ friend.

I have only just started on this journey, however it all looks promising so far. Pretty good practice for my upcoming mid-life crisis anyway :)

If you know me and live in SA ask for my details and pop over some time.

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Here are the results of my recent Fighting Fit medical.

• Cholesterol: 4.24

• Category: <5.0
• Risk weighting: 0

• Category: <140
• Risk weighting: 0

• Category: <95
• Risk weighting: 2

• Category: Male
• Risk weighting: 1

• Category: No family history of heart disease
• Risk weighting: 0

• Category: Never
• Risk weighting: 0

• Category: Active but not aerobic
• Risk weighting: 2

• Category: Could improve
• Risk weighting: 2

• Category: Overweight
• Risk weighting: 4

• Category: <7
• Risk weighting: 0

• Category: <19
• Risk weighting: Some risk

Lung Function:

• Forced Vital Capacity: 5.5L

• % of predicted: 103 (>80% required)

Referal to doctor: NO

Health Classification:

Class 2: “This person should be consulted prior to allocation”

My notes:

OK, so I passed the medical and can now do the fitness test for this fire season. That is a great start to the year. However I still need to look at my health. In particular my weight, which at 103kg is still way to high for a 187cm person. Dropping more weight will have the added benefit of dropping my blood pressure which has been 120/80 for most of the year (on Anacand medication), but increased dramatically as I approached the medical and ran out of tablets.

My class 2 rating means that I can still be a valuable member of the team and can still qualify for A status in fitness, but I will not be an automatic pick for extended away trips. This fire season is starting to look very serious though, with warnings from local fire autorities and even some from overseas about the conditions in South Australia. So, I think I will be busy anyway.

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A couple of posta ago, I pointed to an online search site where anyone can look at random AOL user’s searches. This data will be quite useful to researches, private investiators, the police and just about anyone who could gain from intimate knowledge on peoples private lives. I can see huge issues with the easy availability of this data, including what I consider is probably the scariest and that is I think people are going to die because of it. Seriously.

Just a minute ago I played witht the random search tool wondering just how hard it would be to identify a user. Turns out it is way too easy. I don’t wont to put any details here (I think this guy is going to have enough problems as it is) but the particular record I looked at was an American minor (under 18), who asks the AOL search engine some very personal questions. He also searches for his name and his school. There is no doubt that a complete ID can quickly be made and due to the private nature of his searches I think that the next time he looks online for his name the poor young bloke will have a devastating realisation that his private life is now out there for all (including his friends, enemies, school mates, etc) to see.

There are around 600,000 possible stories like this in the AOL data and I think that if this young man or 1000’s like him are in anyway depressed, then this may have them thinking of suicide. AOL have apologised for releasing this data, but I think that they should in some way be held accountable for the likely devastation they are going to cause and I seriously believe young lives are at risk.

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I just received notice of this years medical. I am currently booked in for September 6th at 2pm. The fitness test should be a matter of days afterwards, so it is time to get serious about my fitness level and weight. I weighed myself this morning and averaged at 103.7kg. I am going to try for a goal of 95kg  for the medical, but will be happy if I get under 100kg. I will post daily weights and excercise on here for motivation.

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traineo | Weight Loss Community

Traineo is a very interesting web 2.0 application (ajax) designed to help people lose weight. I noticed it this morning on digg.com.  There are other similar applications out there, but this one seems simple and not as cluttered. Worth looking at.

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I have just come back from the doctors and my blood pressure is at normal levels. Apparently I am now at 120/80. The major difference seems to be that I no longer get large headaches. Hopefully the high blood pressure was causing them and now I am free. I will try to keep these stories over at my Health and Fitness Diary.

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I have been cycling to work over the last week as a result of a rather average medical. I ended up requiring a clearance from a doctor because my blood pressure was high (145/ 105) at the time. Now this is just a little silly as I consider myself reasonably fit. Each year we have a medical and fitness test called Fighting Fit. It helps my employer keep the fire fighting aspect of the job as safe as possible, which I am all for.

I tested as A1 in 2002/3, A1 Strenuous in 2003/4 and A1 Strenuous in 2004/5. A1 Strenous is the highest level that they do and makes it possible to do interstate and long time campaign fires. The fitness test is in a couple of weeks, so everyone has a medical to make sure they can proceed to the test stage. Don’t want anyone having a heart attack during the test after all.

Anyway, I went to the doctor last weekend after riding around 140km in total for the week and he measured my blood pressure at 135/100, not great but a definate improvement in just a short time.

I asked if I would be able to get a clearance and fortunately he told me “not a problem”, so I am covered as far as work goes. Even better, I asked if there were any issues with me riding so much, and he let me know I can do as much and as hard as I like. Excellent :)

Now the results over just a one week period:
Weight

• Fri Sep 09 110.1 kg
• Sat Sep 10 108.7 kg
• Sun Sep 11 109.1 kg
• Mon Sep 12 108.1 kg
• Tue Sep 13 107.7 kg
• Wed Sep 14 107.1 kg

Feeling
I feel much stronger, healthier and even happier.

Added benefits
I now take around 51 minutes to get to work instead of 20ish in the car. I use this time to think. I am always on the go, so thinking time is wonderful at any time.

I free up a vehicle for my wife, and save money each day on petrol/ car maintenance costs.

A great sense of achievement

I have also been following advice from Ask the Dietition for improving my eating habits aswell. The above figures are first thing in the morning on my home scales. Which may not be accurate, but they will show a trend. One interesting aspect is that I am losing weight a little too fast. I really should be trying to drop around 1kg per week. Hopefully the quick results are because of the fairly heavy excercise (it is a steep hill) and eating better, and not because of water loss.

I just thought about another benefit of all this. I am no longer getting major headaches and eye strain first thing in the morning. A little research tells me that they were probably due to the high blood pressure and now everything is a little less strained. Time will tell (so says my timelady wife anyway), but the evidence is convincing so far.

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I stumbled on Ask the Dietitian while looking for blood pressure information. It is manly a question and answer resource and is huge. Highly recommended if you have a question about your health.

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I have put a fair effort into preparing for my fitness test and making sure I get my blood pressure down. I rode with the kids to school on Tues and Wed. Also I rode with the little ones in their groovy trailer to kindy on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs. Also I rode to work on Tuesday as mentioned below, Wed and Friday. Thursday was a break due to not getting myself ready in time, as I need around 1.5 hours to make sure I get there reletively rested and incase I get a puncture.

I am enjoying the rides, particularly the ride to work, and the weather is behaving nicely. Impressive hill though and I am getting faster and it hurts less each time.

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I have just had my yearly fire fitness medical, and unfortunately it looks like my geek nature, multiple children and hectic life are getting the better of me. It looks like I have hypertension, or high blood pressure.

A quick chat to the sports professional doing the medical gave me the following advice.

I need to lose around 10-15kg in weight as I am currently 109kg and at 187cm (6′2″) I am about 14kg overweight. I am using this calculator which is just the first one I came across using google.

I am only 38 years old and I know I am fitter than many of my peers, as I do a fair bit of heavy and aerobic type work. However I really need to fix this. There are many reasons that I have to, like my work often involves sustained and heavy work up very steep hills, and the most common way for firefighters to die is via heart attacks. I also am concerned for my own health, and and well have to fix it.

I work around 10km from home, so will start to ride there instead of using the car, it is basically uphill all the way, so I should be awake when I get there, and the trip home will be a nice relaxing coast. I will also ride the kids to school/ kindy when I have that time of day free- I did this morning.

I really enjoy riding, and used to ride 100-200kms and go camping in a previous life. I have very little time these days though, as I am either working or watching children. I just need to make a slot for me.

I am not alone with having hypertension, as 1/7 Australian adults have it, while 1/3 American adults have it. Hopefully it is just a weight, lifestyle and food choice problem, and not genetic.

Update
Turns out the ride to work is 12km. Unfortunately I am unfit enough that it took me 66mins. The time will come down over the next few weeks hopefully.

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