Saturday, March 13, 2010

Filling Out The Health Screening Questionnaire

My company does annual health screenings to promote a healthy lifestyle and health awareness. So every year, we are asked to fill out a questionnaire and every second year it's the questionnaire plus blood work. It's not mandatory, but if you don't do it, your premium goes up.

Last week, I filled out my paperwork for this year and once again I noticed that those generic assessments really don't take the endurance athlete into account.



You are an endurance athlete when...

  1. you are looking for a the box "mild on swim and bike days and severe on run days" when asked how much bodily pain you had in the last four weeks.
  2. you are looking for the box "it only hurts when I walk stairs" when asked how much difficulty you had in the last four weeks to do your work or other regular daily activities as a result of your physical health.
  3. you are looking for the option to pick "4 single workout days and 2 doubles" when asked how many days a week you engage in aerobic exercise of at least 20 to 30 minute duration.
  4. you want to check "only to replace electrolytes" when asked how often you add salt to your food or eat salty foods.
  5. you demand a separation in a good and bad fat category when asked if you are more likely to consume low or high fat foods.
  6. you want to separate work load from work out load when asked how well you cope with your current stress load.

My family physician already acknowledges my changed lifestyle. When I still had a BMI of 35 (that is classified as obese) he didn't do anything at my annual physical other than blood work and measure blood pressure. Now that I am at a BMI of 23 (normal), he does all kinds of additional tests since I am an endurance athlete. I thought that was kind of ironic...

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How is everyone's weekend going??

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