Friday, February 13, 2004
TWICE THE MAN I NEED TO BE....
One of the nice things about having a January birthday is that I am able to put off my New Year's resolutions off a little bit. With DB singing the praises of exercise and the GruntDoc doing the Adkins thing I decided it was time for me to get serious about losing weight. This coincides with the Big Hospital's recently launched "Physician's Health Initiative"(PHI). Apparently the hospital has a large amount of excess funds from the application and renewal fees physicians pay to be on the medical staff. So after some debate about what to do about the money, during which the ideas of refunding the money or reducing the fees were dismissed out of hand, the PHI is what they came up with.
This involved some lab work and the measurement of BMI. The participating physicians will also have the opportunity to meet with a personal trainer for one session a week for six weeks. So at 6'4" and a weight of 310 yours truly had a BMI of 38 with a body fat percentage (measured by one of those impedance things) of 41%. Room for some improvement, I would say.
So for the past two weeks I have been arriving at the gym at 0600 every weekday for 30 or so minutes of elliptical
machine work with a return later in the day for weightlifting if I can get off work in time. While it is a pain to get up so early to workout I'm afraid that if I put it off I would come up with a million reasons not to do it. I also would be later getting home and missing out of family time. I'm also being much more careful about what I eat since the doctor's lounge at Big Hospital serves excellent breakfast and lunch.
I enjoy eating and since medical school have gotten into the bad habit of treating each meal at the hospital as if it would be my last. This attitude comes from the oft quoted RULES FOR THE SURGICAL RESIDENT
1. Sleep when you can
2. Eat when you can
3. Go to the bathroom when you can
4. Don't mess with the pancreas
Another good one is "Never go into the OR with an empty stomach or a full bladder"
So we will see how it goes over the next few months.
Dr. Smith points to the ground-breaking coverage by the National Enquirer concerning physician's eating habits. |
One of the nice things about having a January birthday is that I am able to put off my New Year's resolutions off a little bit. With DB singing the praises of exercise and the GruntDoc doing the Adkins thing I decided it was time for me to get serious about losing weight. This coincides with the Big Hospital's recently launched "Physician's Health Initiative"(PHI). Apparently the hospital has a large amount of excess funds from the application and renewal fees physicians pay to be on the medical staff. So after some debate about what to do about the money, during which the ideas of refunding the money or reducing the fees were dismissed out of hand, the PHI is what they came up with.
This involved some lab work and the measurement of BMI. The participating physicians will also have the opportunity to meet with a personal trainer for one session a week for six weeks. So at 6'4" and a weight of 310 yours truly had a BMI of 38 with a body fat percentage (measured by one of those impedance things) of 41%. Room for some improvement, I would say.
So for the past two weeks I have been arriving at the gym at 0600 every weekday for 30 or so minutes of elliptical
machine work with a return later in the day for weightlifting if I can get off work in time. While it is a pain to get up so early to workout I'm afraid that if I put it off I would come up with a million reasons not to do it. I also would be later getting home and missing out of family time. I'm also being much more careful about what I eat since the doctor's lounge at Big Hospital serves excellent breakfast and lunch.
I enjoy eating and since medical school have gotten into the bad habit of treating each meal at the hospital as if it would be my last. This attitude comes from the oft quoted RULES FOR THE SURGICAL RESIDENT
1. Sleep when you can
2. Eat when you can
3. Go to the bathroom when you can
4. Don't mess with the pancreas
Another good one is "Never go into the OR with an empty stomach or a full bladder"
So we will see how it goes over the next few months.
Dr. Smith points to the ground-breaking coverage by the National Enquirer concerning physician's eating habits. |
