Monday, March 23 --
The first thing I noticed on Facebook this morning was that I had been invited to join a new group -"Local Needs During Quarantine" this group is growing quickly. People are both offering what they have and asking for what they need. Some are even offering to be the transporters while others are not sure what to offer but want to let others know they want to help however they can. I am filled with hope, that when the TP arrives, I'll be able to help others. ["we say hopefully a lot" -HNB]
I also remembered a few things from the last week of school -- First off, I remembered something my husband had said to me when I had mentioned the seniors and how they were missing out -- "this is their story" and that is how I framed them keeping a journal, that eventually keeping a journal would be so interesting.
The second more silly thing that I remember is between an 8th-grade student and I. We have a special bond -[back story TMI --she got a bad bloody nose last fall and I found her in the restroom dealing with it after school -- I jumped in to help got her loads of paper towels and ran to where I knew there were clean towels and told her to take it home with her and not to worry about bringing it back...days later she came up to me and said: "Mrs. Haddock I don't think I ever thanked you for helping me that day, I'd never had a nose bleed before...thanks so much". Ever since then we speak to each other and I recently had found out she was hugely into TikTok and I told her I am not allowing myself to add that app because I know I will love it too much. She continues to campaign for me to add it and often shares "good ones" with me. ] In regards to our last week of school, she asked me on Monday, March 16th when (not if, lol) I thought we'd be getting out of school. I told her that I had no idea but if this was just a game I thought Thursday. ---That afternoon we got the news that Thursday was our first day off. She and I had a good laugh about this on Tuesday morning. -- I miss my students.
Today I played my flute for 20 minutes and I made a post on the Tarkio Music group page encouraging 20 minutes of play a day.
I listened to the episode "On Being Home" on the podcast The Open Ear Project about 7 minutes while I walked Gerald around the park.
General weight loss/health thoughts -- a mellow rant.
Weightloss and Labels --Earlier this month I shared the following in an email I noticed a few days ago that at 160 (about 5 pounds to go) I will be "overweight" and no longer "obese" these words are not the best IMO but it's nice to know I'm nearing a new category!
On YouTube and probably on other social media I have noticed a trend of body positivity. Women, and probably men too, who campaign the idea of loving your body at whatever size. I agree with a lot of this sentiment although in some cases I think they are taking this too far. To the point of hiding their heads in the sand in regards to potential health issues associated with being "overweight" such as diabetes and heart disease risks.
That being said I was not thrilled during the health screening at my work on March 9th where it was determined I was overweight. This is not surprising but last year, at this same clinic I weighed 30-40 pounds more, there was no mention of this. The clinic worker also noted all the areas of my health that needed improvement. My blood pressure (it was fine!) but it was on the high end of fine, my cholesterol (it was fine!) but my good cholesterol "should" be higher. ABSOLUTELY NO mention was made of how much better this screening was compared to my last year's data. The next day I found last year's data using the clinic's webpage login and found that I had improved in almost every category. At 51 years old and someone who has put A LOT of thought into this I was mentally OK but what about the other women and men who go to these screenings and come out feeling shamed and unhealthy and fat? What if they too had recently reset their mindset towards a healthy trending lifestyle and now they are discouraged?
Let's be careful. Balancing between these two mindsets of embracing body positivity and finding the next health goal is difficult. As a qualitative researcher, I highly value the story behind the numbers. It is good to ask questions. "I see that your good cholesterol is on the low side, what do you know about adding omega 3's to your diet?" "I see that your blood pressure is marginally on the high end of normal, tell me about how you cope with stress?" Using the words obese and overweight without any regard for lifestyle and past data is harsh. It's difficult to learn that on some charts I am currently obese. What was I at 220 pounds last June? I understand that there was not a lot of time for these discussions but they also could have just shown me my numbers and pointed out where they landed compared to the desired ranges. There was a tone given of me not being what I should be.
On the other hand, I understand that health care is extremely complicated and I highly respect these workers and the fact that our insurance is attempting to teach us how to take care of ourselves.
As always thanks for reading.
Stay well,
Amy B.H.
As I finish final edits I will add that the afternoon came with a chance to deliver three bags to the food pantry of things we had that they needed Yay!
Also, a message that my research was approved by the Institutional Review Board for my dissertation. This is amazing news and unbelievable timing. The results came back faster than expected especially considering the campus is closed and on "Spring Break". Nice that right now I'm home. It sort of makes me anxious and nervous but mostly thrilled to be moving forward.
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