For As Long As...

...I can remember, I have always had high blood pressure and have worried about my weight. I remember 11 years ago when I was in college and a nurse took my blood pressure and screamed "how can you be only 19 years old and have blood pressure this high"!!!!!!!! I think that it actually read something like 170/95 that day. I was immediately send to a physician and have been on medication every since then. The problem with medication is that your body becomes immune to it and it stops working. So for about 2 years, you can have normal blood pressure and then it shoots back up. That's what's been happening for the last few years.

As far as my weight is concerned, i've never been overweight. I've just always watched it go up and down. Since college I have been as low as 165lbs and as high at 210lbs. When looking at myself in the mirror, I have always looked the same. But back in May of 2005 when I moved back to Atlanta, I weighed 210lbs. That day I joined a gym and went faithfully every day. Four months later I was back to 170lbs and was quite content. But that didn't last long and I was back to my old self not exercising consistently and definitely not eating healthy. On June 25th of this year I got on a scale and it said I was 207lbs!!! Oh hell no!!!

I went back to my room and took my blood pressure and it was 157/93. I took a look at myself in the mirror and even took pictures (hell no! I will not post them) of by body. I almost cried to think that I was back over 200lbs and I could have a stroke any day if my blood pressure didn't come down.

Well, I decided to actually change some things about my lifestyle. I could no longer sit on the sofa every day, eat and watch TV. I would eventually get fat as hell and die of a stroke or a heart attack. I could no longer eat high fat, high sodium, high calorie foods. The first thing that I did was change what and how I ate. I took a cue from 2 of my co-workers and cut out all beef and pork. I added a lot more vegetables, fruit juice, and water. It was no where near easy, but i've done it. Now I will have a lil beef every now and then, but no more than once every 14 days. When i'm not traveling, breakfast is a bowl of Cheerios. Lunch is usually some type of fish or chicken dish and a whole heap of vegetables.

The second thing that I did was to get off my ass and start moving. I am not a gym person, so I found something else to do. Since I had been learning to play tennis, I decided to ramp up my game so that I could get more cardiovascular exercise. Luckily, i've not been traveling for the last month so I have been able to play 4 to 5 times a week for 2 hours at a time. I've told myself that when I do travel I WILL make time to go to the fitness center in the hotels if only for 30 minutes.

Well, the results are in people!! After 45 days of my new lifestyle, I can say that I am proud to make this post. Both my weight and blood pressure are down!!!

My blood pressure is down past the goal that my doctor set of 135/85!!!!!

And my weight is down 14.5lbs (7%).

Since i've achieved that blood pressure goal I now have to maintanin it. So i'll be taking my pressure monitor everywhere I go.

As far as my weight, I want to get down to 180lbs and i'll be happy.

Ya'll don't know how happy I am right now.

Next step is to get these finances in a better place.