Back To The Grind

It’s back to the grind as the holiday season has come to an end.  The roads were back to their usual busy, over-crowded annoyingness with the snow birds amping up the aggravation level. Even as I headed into the office around noon, due to my annual physical, the turnpike was packed with cars unwilling to go the speed limit.  It actually felt good to be back to normal at work.

I booked my annual physical for today as my doctor is going concierge at the end of March. I’m not super excited about this expensive change, but I absolutely love my primary care doctor.  Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to find a good primary care doctor in South Florida.  At this point, I’m leaning towards staying with her in the concierge model.

My appointment went well and everything looks good (well sort of) I would, however,  suggest not going immediately after the holidays lest you want to get yelled at for your weight…  #lessonlearned. I was super excited when the nursing assistant checked my height announcing it at 64.5 inches.   I’m sorry what?  “64.5 inches.”  I’m here to tell you I’ve been 5 ft. 4 since (64 inches) since I was 18.  In fact, I was just barely under 64 inches in 2016 thanks to a lack of stretching a Zumba and running.

Consequently, when the doctor came into the room, I had to ask her about the gain in height.  She confirmed what I was already thinking that the yoga (particularly the aerial yoga) and stretching had gained me some height.  I mean a 1/2 an inch, can I tell you how stoked I am about it?  I would love to be taller!  Understandably, I made sure to make my reservations for aerial yoga on Thursday and Sunday as soon as I got to the office.

When I shared this information with my co-worker, she booked herself a class for this coming weekend.  What women doesn’t want to be a built taller? This is especially true for me as I’ve watched my Grandma lose several inches of the last decade or two due to osteoporosis and scoliosis.  You can imagine that both myself and my mom are doing everything in power to avoid that same loss of height.

Tonight’s yoga class was a mat class, which I love.  Fortunately, Monica teaches both my mat class and aerial classes (Th and Sat.)  I was so excited to share with her that I gained over a half of an inch since my last doctor’s appointment.  She wasn’t surprised by this news since she’s been teaching for awhile, s.  Although, she was quite excited for me.  As a result, I told her our new goal was to get me to 65 inches!   I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have gotten a little taller!

While the gain in height may seem insignificant, it highlights the importance of staying active and taking care our bodies as we age.  It is easy to get caught up in the cardio mindset and let strength and stretch training fall by the wayside.  However, both strength training and stretching are absolutely crucial to staying happy.  Fortunately, I love yoga, which allows me to work on strength training and stretching at the same time.  I’ve also added weights, TRX and some circuit training to my repertoire to keep me fit.

The bottom line is that I am now 64.5 inches.  Just imagine…. If I gain another inch or two, I won’t have to hem my pants! Now that’s something to get excited about!  Tonight’s song performed by Guns N’ Rose, and in keeping with our South Florida weather tonight, is November Rain.