Wellness at Work? Eek in Everyday Ramblings

It seems early to me to see the first roses but it isn’t really. It is just that time has been flying by so fast. This morning just at sunrise it was still dry and I went for what I thought would be a meditative walk through the neighborhood but turned into a bit of a picture extravaganza because I had my phone.

The butter yellow columbines and the calla lilies and the red peony were all beyond my challenge level in terms of decent photos, but the clematis and more iris were a bit more amenable as were a few other early roses. There is this huge tree in the middle of a block where all these backyards face. Mrs. Sherlock and I were trying to figure out what it was last week. She thinks it is a Paulownia Tomentosa or a Princess Tree a.k.a a Royal Empress tree. I got closer to it this morning but the pictures aren’t that great.

I thought maybe it was a Jacaranda but it is not. It is right in the center of the block of historic smaller homes in various states of repair and restoration and I am sure there is a story there. It must drop blossoms in at least four yards. There is also another community garden on the corner so I will ask the next person I see in there what it is.

We have this very intrusive new “health” consultant company engaged at work that is supposed to encourage wellness activities and practices that save the organization money on health care costs. You earn points for various things like taking assessments and participating in walking challenges. If you accumulate enough points you pay less for health insurance the next year.

One of the things they ask you to do is have a little exam that includes a fasting blood draw. Getting it organized in a convenient place was a major hassle but yesterday morning I had it in the big conference room where I teach yoga on Fridays in the office.

The nurse was trying to keep her voice down so the information would stay in the room but because I have moderate hearing loss I basically could not hear what she was saying. She was also speaking fast and by route.

She weighed me (I was at least able to take my shoes off), checked my height, (even though I tried very hard to elongate my spine I was still a shrunken 5’2” and my weight therefore was just over the line into overweight for my BMI. By like half a lb. Drat! She measured my waist circumference and took two vials of blood.

At work. At work. This is so weird. They will send me the results but I will also get hard copy apparently that I can share with my doctor (who is on maternity leave).

My weight is up because I am trying this Intuitive Eating program that is not a diet. Weight Watchers says they are not a diet but they are. They are, and after 4 years of that my body is like no I want what I want and when I want it and I am going to have it! They say that if you have been restricting your food intake unnaturally you will probably gain some at first until you learn the natural cues that one’s body so conveniently provides.

I tell you, waiting for that fasting blood draw to be over, 14 hours without anything but plain water I was quite clear on what actual real body hungry felt like. :)

After all this yoga I am pretty sure that I have a good idea of what my body is trying to tell me. It is going to be quite a ride to apply that to what and more importantly how I eat.

My guess is that five years from now we will all have devices that will electronically transmit all this vital information to our employers so they can fine tune our health programs to both maximize profit but also the kinds of behaviors that most benefit, umm, productivity.

At that point I will be retired and teaching yoga off in my own little self-employed personally directed world of wellbeing. And going out at sunrise with my camera in spring every darn day I want.

Hopefully we won’t have perished in a nuclear conflagration by then and will have a very very different President. The Nobel committee can’t even get it together to award the prize for literature. I am not counting on them giving a prize for peace anytime soon.

Last updated May 11, 2018