The stats for this week:
Weight: 105 kgBP: 162/92
Pulse: 74
Blood Sugar: 91
No change in weight or blood sugar, and pulse is slightly down from last week, but what the hell is up with my blood pressure? I realize that BP fluctuates throughout the day, but this is still not promising. My little BP device puts me in the red zone with those numbers. Should I start doing stairs training daily or something? What more, aside from actual weight loss, can I do to get those numbers down?
It's a constant battle.
I'll buckle down on carnivore this week, except for Thanksgiving, obviously. We'll see how the numbers are next week. As for those stairs, I ratchet up to 2.5 staircases this week. Since I won't be exercising on Thursday, maybe I'll do the stairs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
3 comments:
I was a bit wary of making any suggestions previously (for fear or an ornery put down!) but since you're more or less asking explicitly, I'll toss in my tuppence.
1. Probably complete anathema to you, but it's the one diet I haven’t heard you give full thought to: vegetarian. Even if temporarily. If you believe you might be heading for extreme times, then extreme measures are one route out. There's so much pseudo political claptrap surrounding the ‘veganism debate’ that most simple folk will be put off associating themselves even through diet with some of the orange-haired blowhards who profess hatred for dead animal consumption. But there are lots of ordinary types who take it up for solid reasons with interesting results.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/18/mans-severe-migraines-completely-eliminated-on-plant-based-diet
And it does for them over a period of time rather than in perpetuity.
2. You dropped 10kg in hospital for a variety of reasons. But during that time, you never climbed a set of stairs or walked to the next town. The food was bland by Korean standards, but regular, balanced in make up, and small in serving size. So something similar to that regimen or gentle, long term calorific restriction a la Buddha. Small quantities 5 times a day. Eat broadly but massively restrict carb intake. You may also discover a world of vegetables that serve as proper snack alternatives/substitute mini meals.
(Here's 5 you can munch on with little to no prep: 1. Bell peppers -red ones are seriously tasty. 2. Carrots - though don't go mad. Too much Vit A (or something). 3. Cucumbers - great in Korea, feel fullish after, and about 40 calories in a whole one. 4. Cruciferous greens - even certain dinosaurs got by on these, and Korean supermarket shelves are groaning with a variety of ready to eat leaves (don't forget to put under the tap). 5. Korean spinach is the best spinach I've ever had. Korean spinach is the only spinach I've ever had. Comes handily pre-prepared.)
3. When exercise and diet isn’t getting your blood pressure down it could be something else. Try thought management: meditation, breathing exercises, self-hypnosis, etc. Or/and: take up an actual sport. Once your shoulder is back rotating, try out one of those Korean driving ranges (the table tennis places here have a machine you can practice on). Make a few fun, de-stressing side goals ancillary to the primary goal of reducing weight and BP that help get you there anywhere. Just the thought of going on a 35km walk alone with the possibility of no measurable benefit at the end of it would be stressful to the average chap. Where does actually enjoying your life or cutting loose a bit fit into the overall pattern of recovery? I’d have thought it’s right at the centre.
No offence intended! And good luck. readers are rooting for you…
You may want to do some searching for potassium and blood pressure. Try taking some foods with naturally high potassium levels and exercising greater control over salt intake. Unfortunately most of these high-potassium foods are carby. Potassium supplements are possible but you may make doctors nervous by taking supplements, as ham-fisted consumption can make things worse. High potassium is a component of some execution drug cocktails.
When you measure BP you want to do it around the same time(s) daily to remove as many variables as possible. Ideally when you wake, and maybe at other times. Do you have a smart watch that samples heart rate throughout the day?
Typically, you will be exploring the lower limit when you wake, but apnea and sleep health can cloud that picture. Ever try a sleep study? Probably much less expensive in Korea than in the big PX across the ocean.
Neil,
I wouldn't bite your head off unless you were being rude or irrelevant. As for veganism... let me give carnivore a try for a few months; people say you need a few months to really start seeing results, so if I flit too quickly between diets, I'm not going to learn anything. Last week was bad, carnivore-wise, and this week, I've got Thanksgiving coming up, but aside from those hitches, I plan to be more disciplined.
$bill,
Thanks for the suggestions. I do have trouble sleeping thanks to the shoulder pain; I'd meant to see the orthopede last week, but I never got around to it. I'll try to do so this week, maybe Friday, after the chaos of Thanksgiving is over with. I'll look into potassium. There are a lot of foods and nutrients billed as Guaranteed to Lower Blood Pressure, though, so I approach everything with caution and skepticism.
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