An Arisocrat's Health

Good evening, mina-sama. Not to give spoilers--ahaha--of the upcoming topic [doubtful that you haven't picked up on it from the title], but this weather is doing nothing for how I feel. We've mercifully come unto rain, but that can't last forever [...I hope] and the awful tendency is to burst into sunshine with a heavy dose of disgusting humidity thereafter. I have been having a change of heart towards rain; I used to despise it because it was cold out there, and hot in classrooms. But now it hasn't been raining enough and this summer has been too hot. Just too hot. Aaaaugh. Rain is slowly redeeming itself.

Standing out in the rain hasn't ever proved to be adverse to my health, one of many peculiarities concering it. As with a lot of things in my life, my health comes with duality. I generally now just like to say it's the Gemini sign in me that does it. I am of fair overall health. I don't play a sport, but I do use Wii Fit Plus [and so should every single person who owns a Wii, and friends of those people who don't own a Wii should play on theirs. More is actually merrier for the Wii]. I refuse to run anywhere for any reason, but I will gladly walk--at my own pace--rather than take public transportation, or even ride my bicycle [i.e. walking around campus]. There's a fair point to note on that last statement, for it seems, despite all the walking I've done wherever I go for the past five years, my legs are apparently very weak, as proved when I run out of stamina riding my bicycle about three blocks.


I have shoddy legs though, I will admit, in that my knee-jerk reflex fires at will. For those who don't want to look at the link, it's the reflex that makes you crumble when you're kicked in the back of your leg. So without warning and at very random intervals, I will stagger as though I've been kicked in the back of the leg, but since there is no instigation, it looks like I'm drunk and about to fall over. As many times as this has happened before my mother, she seems to not realize what is happening and thinks I'm tripping. I want to slap her not for her logic, which is viable after all and better then asking if I'm drunk, but for not caring enough to ask why it keeps happening. Does she really think I trip that much? And in that way? I don't, damnit.

On the flip side though, returning to walking, I do have good endurance. I'd walk anywhere if you'd give me the time to do it. So my slow twitch muscles are definitely doing alright. It doesn't raise my heart rate all that much, even for extended periods. I lack a decent heart beat though; I can tell when doctors are this close to asking if I'm doing something somehow when they ask me to take a deep breath ten to twelve times and still can't hear anything. It's because I'm a youkai, but that's just our little secret. However, my hardly there heart beat is reflected in my abnormally low blood pressure. As touched on in the very first post, I have hypotension. I haven't been diagnosed with it, and I don't take any medication for it, but I am familiar with it's clinical definition from a research practicum I did a year ago. I don't suffer any severe symptoms from it, but it is part of the reason I am deadpan sedate 9 times out of 10, and explains my perpetual fatigue while I'm doing any sort of physical labor.

I'm not against physical labor. Hell, with this realization that I can't bike for long distances since my legs are weaker than I thought, I'm trying to get on our elliptical at home more often. But I don't usually allot myself a good amount of time to just go and do it, and I'm more of a Tai-Chi person anyway. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I'm surprised at what relatively good shape I'm in. When I was younger, I think I was more health conscious, ignoring the fact that I was a kid and have youth on my side. Now, I'm older--not old, old--and I'm setting into the mindset of 'oh yeah, I'll be okay, I've got youth'. Really, I'm lucky I have a good a metabolism as I do, but I'm glad healthy leanings for food and some activity have been prominent in my life [even now, as I work at the Art and Architecture libraries on campus, hauling books hither and yon can really give you a work out if you're at it for hours at a time].

I think I was at my peak of fitness the weeks before I went to Japan in summer 2007. I had a four pack abs, and my stamina was way up. Ironically, I lost the abs while in Japan, but damn if my legs didn't become toned. Have you ever had to walk not just down, but up Mt. Misen? Walk up and down the stairs of the Washington Monument a few times and you'll get the picture.

As far as my diet, I don't have much of a picky palate, and I try to eat during regular hours only when I'm hungry, and only as much as I need. Those tasty clementines which I polished off yesterday have been proof of their vitamin and mineral content in my burst of energy to make things, but conversely, that's all I've been eating for lunch. Clementines. Usually two or three. Dinner is usually the most filling meal of the day, only because sometimes I reduce breakfast to toast to take a prenatal vitamin since I'm running short on time. The breakfast thing can be fixed easily though, and as the semester jumpstarts I'll be getting more into the swing of an earlier rising. Lunch is usually decide by how fast I can throw something into a bento or how much cash I have on me [which trust me, is hardly ever enough]. But as it stands now and usually, it's a Cereal breakfast--snack food lunch--homecooked dinner type of eating for me. If I wolf down a burger every now and then, I sometimes think about my cholesterol, but then I fall back on my 'I'm still young' ploy.

Everything in moderation, that's the way to do it. ^_^

Mental health-wise, I couldn't tell you what the hell is up with me there. I like spontaneity, but I am methodical and think things through if it comes to me. I've been having doubts about how well my memory's been doing lately, but then, when one is doing two or more things at once, even though it is by less for fewer tasks, you concentration and focus splits, and memorizing everything becomes inevitably more difficult. However, I'm regaining confidence in my memory by just going about things as I used to; see something written down or say it back, have it stick in my head. I could do this at nauseum for notes in class once upon a time, but somewhere between 12th grade ending and freshman year college starting, I lost my knack. I'm bringing it back though, little at a time. Confidence is a mind game too, after all.

My mind and body don't connect well sometimes though, in that my thoughts are not reflected in my actions. This is usually a good thing, my perfect self restraint, because it's usually a violent thought I'm having that will only come out as a nice laugh and smile. I want to change this though, but as an alternative, let some of my poisonous brain juices leak out in the form of something completely off the wall and disturbing--not necessarily in a violent way--and see how well I can drive off hinderances around me.

Overall, this nobleman is of above-average health, and I'm hoping to keep it that way as I progress into getting even more fit. Never forget, everyone, it's not about getting skinny, it's about getting FIT. Sure, you can shed those pounds as you change your diet and excersise, but doing anything too hard, too fast can actually backfire on you. And just going full steam ahead to lose lbs is probably not as much fun as setting goals for your health.

So take those stairs, my Aristololikei brethren. We cant see your shoes on an escalator or in a crowded elevator anyway.
Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak