Strange Thoughts of a Strange Man

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.

Labels: Eatiing, Gym, Health

On the way to the station, I passed three London Lite peddlars but I didn't pick one up because I knew, yes, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had my iPod with me and that I would be able to spend the train journey listening to the next instalment of National Public Radio's version of Star Wars.

I didn't even say "no thanks" as I stomped past in my pre-Christmas grumpiness. Not once, not twice but three times.

Of course, as soon as I got on the train and sat down, I discovered my mistake and found that I'd left the iPod on my desk at work. Great! Nothing to keep the annoyances of the carriage out of my ears tonight or tomorrow morning.

And did I need it!

It was only a short journey as it was a fast train but it felt very long.

I wrote this in my notebook as I was sitting there ...

"I'm sitting opposite a man WHO CANNOT CHEW GUM WITH HIS MOUTH CLOSED and across the aisle from an idiot who doesn't know how to turn the beeps off on his mobile and is composing the longest text message known to man.

You'll understand why I have steam coming out of my ears."

One thing I absolutely hate without question is people eating noisily. I have mentioned it before. At least with normal eating it's over fairly quickly but with gum chewing it goes on FOREVER.

Noisy chewy bastards!

Labels: Chewing, Eatiing, Train