Thursday, November 19, 2009
Under Pressure
A few weeks ago, concerned about the weight I have been piling on since I left the gym all those months ago, I went to my GP’s surgery to have my blood pressure tested by the nurse. I have been keeping half an eye on it myself with a little monitor thing I bought from Boots but I wanted it checked by a professional and to anything needed to be done about it.
She ended up using the manual method known variously as sss-sss or jumpy spider (http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/unrepeatabletranscript.html - scroll down to Cats and Dogs). Basically she pumped up the cuff by hand and listened to my pulse in a stethoscope. I’m not sure that was accurate as, while the systolic reading (the bigger of the two) was about what I was getting on my home kit (150), the diastolic reading was way off at 100 instead of 90-ish. Anyhow, I have to go back in a month to see if it has decreased.
In the meantime, I have improved my eating habits (fruit for breakfast, salads for lunch and, the worst one, no salt on anything) and returned to the gym. I went three times last week and four this week so far.
I have a week or so to go before I go back to the nurse but I think something is working. My home BP readings have reduced a bit AND I think I have lost about half a stone in weight. That’s about 8 pounds for any American readers and three and a half kilos for anyone who’s feeling a bit metric.
I can also comfortably get into jeans that previously were on the tight side and had my stomach hanging over the top in a rather unattractive way.
I don’t know why I have been able to make progress with my diet and exercise regime this time when I haven’t at others. Not without help anyway. Perhaps knowing that there is a measurable detriment to my health is spurring me on and knowing that it is starting to produce an improvement is also helping.
