I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in January of 2011. At the time, I was in heart attack range. I started making some diet and life style changes in order to help. The improvement by my first follow up impressed the nurse which made me feel good. When I moved to Georgia in August of 2011, I had enough refills to get me through several months. A couple weeks ago I had to go to the local doctor because my refills had finally run out. He gave me refills and talked to me about losing weight. He said I had lost 4 pounds since my last visit a couple months before. He’d like to see me lose at least 40 pounds, but according to him I should only have to lose around 20 pounds in order to get off the blood pressure meds. I’m not a big fan of meds, and 20 (even 40) pounds is a goal I can reach. He wants me to go low-carb. I’ve done that before in the past with great success, so I don’t have a huge problem trying it again. I’ve been eating mostly low-carb since then and have been doing pretty good. I have it here and there, but overall it’s mostly veggies and meat for me with some occasional fruit. It is hard because I do love my carbs, but I’d rather be around for Andrew for a long time.
It’s hardest when he wants something full of carbs, but so far I’ve managed to resist most of it. I’m not going to lie, there’s been a few times I’ve given in, but I have been able to stick to just a bite or two for the most part. Enough to get the craving satisfied, but not ruin the progress I’ve made. For example, recently he wanted lasagna. What I ended up doing was making a small one for him. I saved out some of the sauce and tossed it with some sauteed veggies. (I did have one bite of his lasagna.) It ended up very good.
I’m still playing with some ways to keep my new eating habits from getting boring and not being too expensive, but so far it’s been a great thing.
Now on to this week’s …
Monday: Catfish with Broccoli
Tuesday: IHOP Free Pancakes (Yes, I know this is not low-carb. Don’t judge me.)
Wednesday: Meatballs with Asian Medley Steamed Veggies
Thursday: Grilled Chicken Thighs with French Style Green Beans
Friday: Pork Steak with Stew Type Veggies
Saturday: Chili
Sunday: Leftovers
Controlled diet, exercises and herbs are alternative treatments for hypertension or high blood pressure. Hypertension occurs due to excessive pressure exerted on the walls of arteries. Commonly found causes of hypertension are genetic reasons, poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle, lack of exercises, side effects of medicines, bad habits and obesity. These causes either push heart to pump blood with higher pressure, promote blockages in arteries or harden walls of arteries, due to these problems pressure of blood remains higher than healthy limits and cause severe damage to health including life threatening conditions.