Friday, November 19, 2021

frustration

There are, on YouTube, many videos for us dieters about "how to get past the stall." I'm feeling that frustration right now, but more about my blood pressure than about my weight. In September, when I visited the hospital for my appointment, I had been given a little log book in which I was told to jot down my BP every day. Since I went on a trans-Korea walk right after that hospital visit, I was unable to record my BP for a whole month, and I've been making up for it ever since. But my BP has been high this whole time, and despite the fact that I've ratcheted up my stairs work to the point where I'm now doing 2 staircases twice a week (with jump rope over the weekend), my BP just won't go down.

All of this is enough to make me think I should go back to the Newcastle diet. Caloric restriction really seems to be the best thing for me, and weight loss leads to lower BP. I have little self-control on keto (that's my fault for not tracking my macros more closely, and for eating overly large portions), and carnivore varies between being easy and being difficult. (This has been a bad week for carnivore. I'll make more of an effort next week.) I'll keep trying carnivore for a while, but if that fails to produce long-term results, then I'll think about Newcastling it in some form or other.

Anyway, regarding weight, one lady I watch on YouTube says that "maintenance" isn't about maintaining exactly the same weight every single day; it's about fluctuating, which is normal, but trying to keep those fluctuations within a certain range. I find that reassuring, but I guess I need to get down to a weight that I can maintain before I even worry about fluctuation. I'm nowhere near that point yet, but when I get there, I hope my BP will have improved. High BP is a marker for stroke, and I can't afford another one.



1 comment:

John Mac said...

I don't know, it sounds like you are doing everything right. When you see the doctor next month you might want to ask about adjusting your BP meds. Not all of them work the same for everyone. Could be your body is just not responding well to the medicine you are on.

Good luck!