New Year with New Challenges
I went back for a yearly check-up with my doctor the other day. The good news is that I reversed the pre-diabetic trend according to my labs last year. The bad news is that the elevated blood pressure had gotten worse. It was not unexpected. High blood pressure does run in my family. The difference is the age of onset. I'm not proud to say I'm on the younger side of things, but I remain optimistic about my overall health.
Fortunately, my doctor told me he was not the type to prescribe blood pressure meds immediately. He'd like me to make some changes and return in about a month and see. I don't know how much could change, but I would try.
When I exited the doctor's office, I saw multitudes walking around the city center. There were people of various shapes and sizes. I thought, "There is no way in hell most of these people are healthier than me."
To an extent, it is coping, but I know I can make lifestyle changes like I did this past year. When I lost excess weight, I could feel pressure lifted from my knees. I can't imagine overweight and obese people who lob themselves around daily.
I did find ways to help manage blood pressure without medication from the Mayo Clinic. The article lists ten ways one could do to help mitigate elevated blood pressure.
Right away, I knew I could use more exercise. I've recently started jogging with a colleague during our midnight work break. It's only about twice a week, but it's a start. I've also started doing evening strolls daily to hopefully offset things.
I could have better sleep habits. I was better about going to bed soon when I came home from work in my 20s. Over the years, I stayed up unnecessarily before finally going to sleep.
The most challenging aspects are reducing stress and reducing sodium intake. Stress at work has been a constant pest since the pandemic. Our department continually faced challenges in staffing and supplies. Maybe I should adopt the attitude of "that's above my pay grade"?
The bulk of my sodium intake is most likely from fast foods. I would have to cook more at home and plan to make it as convenient as possible. I don't know if I need to vet the ingredients I get at stores. I'll have to get back to you guys on that one.
This year is going to be another year of lifestyle changes.
"There's no way in hell most of these people are healthier than me."
The most important thing is that you were able improve and maintain it.
I find the concept of "not skipping twice" very helpful:
https://jamesclear.com/second-mistake
I’ll have to read that during my break.
This has been a good read about consistency.
Do u have any Yoga teachers in your area? Yoga has cure to these problems and cut down the dependency on medicines a lot. If there are no certified teachers, you can search for online.
I’m sure there are. I’m gonna have to look them up.
I love the way your doctor is handling your condition, Glad to know you reserve your pre-diabetic result and I'm pretty sure, you high Blood pressure will also be controlled if you focused on your health according to the doctor's suggestion.
We shall see.
Best of luck ;) Just have faith in yourself, you can do it.
I hope you can get the changes in place in time :( Maybe @scholaris can help you, as he's a good ways into that journey.
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We shall see.
You might want to drop him a dm on Discord... I know he's trying to get back into writing, but the PsyberX server also has his attention.
Thanks @wrestlingdesires. I hope you're successful on your path to improving your health @enforcer48. In my ignorance, many of the problems I've experienced with diabetes were my own doing. I didn't react fast enough. I've never known anyone to reverse their pre-diabetic trend. That is amazingly impressive. My wife is attempting that very thing in her struggles.
I'm hoping to get rid of my Type II starting in June once my doctor clears me from restriction following back surgery. It's a tough road, but I have to move forward regardless of the setbacks my ignorance had placed before me.
I was heading in that direction as warned by my doc. I made changes and kept to it last year.
Good luck on your struggles as well.
Sleep is something I need to improve badly too. The coming of a second child won't help though 😂
You can do it!
I went almost two weeks ago and received bad news about my blood pressure, also. I made the necessary changes immediately. Food is nice, but I can change my eating habits. Reduced my sodium to not more than 1000 mgs a day. Reduced (almost eliminated) saturated fat. It's already showing. Systolic and diastolic both down significantly. I know that's the salt reduction. It will take a while, but medicine is not the answer if it can be avoided.
As my doctor told me, a stroke is not a good way to die.
I hope you can make the changes you know are necessary. Bland food is boring, but there is so much to enjoy in life, it's worth the loss.
Take care, truly.
Yeah, I've started keeping track what I'm eating. I've also been sleeping more.
So far, I'm only managing to keep it at around 1600-1800mg a day. The goal is to go below 1500.
I have see some 10-point drop in both systolic and diastolic, but they are still high.
Good luck to both of us. We will do it.
Health is wealth as they say!
Way back in April, I saw you used Threads. I was wondering why you abandoned it. It works better now! Do you want to give it another try?
Oh, the new UI had a lot of issues when it first started, so I stayed away until the kinks work themselves out.
Health is wealth, and definitely you will get back to the Altima.
Hey, I noticed you used Threads back in April and you have not been using it from then. The User interface works better now, maybe you want to give it another try!