Thursday, June 26, 2008

I am a walkin' foo!

Because I had nothing better to do this morning before work, I took my car and drove the route that I walk; both at home and at work. When I'm home, I walk 3.3 miles and when I'm at work, I walk 1.4 miles. Well, my blood pressure has been elevated since I've started fertility treatments. It likes to hang out at 140/90. I read on WebMD that this could be caused by hormone therapy. My doctor and my NP don't think it's because of that....probably the stress of infertility. Anyway, so I began an expirement to see what could be causing my high blood pressure besides stress. There was a list of things you could do to lower your bp on WebMD. It is as follows:

  • Losing weight if you are obese or overweight. (check, I've lost over 60 lbs since May 2007)
  • Quitting smoking (check, never did)
  • Eating a healthy diet (check, I started eating healthier in May 2007)
  • Reducing the amount of sodium in your diet (check, I've never salted my foods)
  • Getting regular aerobic exercise (check, I'll get to this in a minute)
  • Limiting alcohol intake to one per day (check, I don't drink....ever)
  • Limiting your intake of red meat (check, I cut it out completely)

So, basically, I've done everything I could to lower my bp naturally. A couple weeks ago, during the week before graduation, I had way too much to do and didn't walk at all around my home. My bp was high that week. The next week I had eaten a lot of red meat, but was walking at home again. My bp was high that week, too. So, this week I walked around my home on Sunday evening and Monday morning, didn't eat any red meat for a week, went to the doctor Monday morning and my bp was 124/62. YAY for me! It's got to be a combination of walking and eating healthy....with a little less stressed out Lisa thrown in.

I added up the distance I have walked this week and it was 25.4 miles so far. I plan to walk again this evening and in the morning so my bp is nice and low when I go to the doctor tomorrow.

2 comments:

I Believe in Miracles said...

I'm so impressed. That's almost walking a marathon!! Pretty cool.

Do you have any tips for changing your lifestyle consistently? I get on these, I want to change my life and start exercising a lot, but then never seem to keep it going (get injured, bored, busy, etc.).

Seems like you've done an awesome job with the BP. My aunt lowered hers naturally doing the same thing - watching what she ate and walking.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I just saw your comment on Nancy's board and I am cracking up!!!