THE CHRONICS

I LIKE THAT I have been invited to join Group 3 of the Chronic Disease Management and Take Heart Program. I've secretly nicknamed my cluster ‘The Chronics’. I will meet the other members tomorrow, Wednesday, January 26 at 10:00 a.m., for the first time. We are a gathering of persons who have neglected our health, and are now registered with the Vancouver Island Health Authority to exercise for free for the next six weeks. I’m very excited to walk the one-kilometer from my home on Dogwood Street to Strathcona Gardens Recreation Complex.

     Today, at my first assessment, I had my upper body measurements taken and they all ranged in the forty’s. I’m shaped like an apple with legs. The kind Rehabilitation and Fitness Coordinator, Angela, recorded me at one hundred and sixty-eight pounds, but said not to worry too much about my weight.

     My physical assessment included pulling back on a lever with each hand to measure my grip, walking up and down a flight of stairs twenty times; push-ups, squatting against the wall at a thirty-degree angle for twenty seconds, and lifting myself from a sitting position to a standing position twenty times. She recorded some numbers on a piece of paper and calculated that I qualified for Group 3.

     I'll let you know how 'The Chronics' do at our three-times-a-week workouts.