Back On Track…
So after abusing myself by eating crap food, not exercising and generally getting stressed out to take my blood pressure back up again as a guinea pig. I’m happy to announce that I’m back on track. From my testing it’s proved to me that 3 things are key to me personally in keeping my blood pressure in check.
- Exercise.
Something I have never been a fan off, and probably one of the main reasons I have always suffered from Hypertension. For 20+ years or so I’ve been pretty fucking lazy to be quite honest. When I was a kid I used to play football a lot, go swimming at least once a week, cycle all over the place and generally get shit loads of exercise. By the time I discovered the pubs, bars & clubs at the age of 16 those pastimes kinda took a huge backseat. I attempted to play football now and again (very badly I might add) up until I was in my early 20’s but that was probably the last meaningful exercise I did (other than a couple of years in my late 30's when I took up Kung Fu). I’ve spent most of my time sat in a bar or at a computer from 1989 onwards.
So now things have changed, no more taxis, motorbikes or buses for journeys under 20mins. I’m walking a lot now. I’ve signed up to go swimming regular both in Bergen & Bangkok and I’m doing 1Km+ each time I go (Which is 3 or 4 times a week now).
2. Stress.
I found out years ago the massive impact stress has on anyones health. Many years ago when I was working in York I suddenly developed alopecia and saw 15–20 bald patches appear all over my head. Not ideal, I can tell you. It was put down to stress and when I packed the office job in and moved to Thailand to chill out on the beach, miraculously all my hair came back. So I also know that getting stressed must be one of the reasons behind my escalating blood pressure. The last couple of years have been pretty stressful with the hassle caused by the UK government refusing us to settle in the UK as a family, then being laid of from my job and generally the stress and hassles of living in the western world again as we settled back in Europe. I knew being in Thailand these last 3 months was a good way to test the stress levels and obviously they went down again. so much so that Im going to spend most of my year back in Asia. It’s just a much better and stress free way of life, and that’s a fact I have to accept.
To counteract the stress when I got back into Norway, I’ve decided to spend as much time as possible with Jasmine and forget about the stressful things in life by just ignoring them. It seems to be working. I’m sleeping really well for the first time in years and I’m not getting worked up over anything anymore. All this has been made possible recently by gaining financial freedom thanks to the “Super Funnel”
3. Diet.
I was never one to really think about what I was eating. Saying that, a lot of people would have said I had a better balanced diet than most, but I was a sucker for eating and drinking a lot of things that are loaded with badness, as well as having the good stuff, I used to be a sucker for bad stuff too. Pizzas, Pies, Steaks, Crisps, Donuts, Biscuits & Lager all played a huge part of my monthly diet at some point. Some more than others. Now I’m not here to say “I’m never eating steak & having a few pints again” BUT I have seen a huge boost in my wellbeing, productivity and all round feeling of loving life, since I cut back on all the crap stuff.
My fix for the recent guinea pig test was just to resort back to no packaged food or takeaways, but instead plenty of nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, veg & fish. I also ran a test on alcohol where I still have not had a beer, lager or spirits since the 10th Dec 2017 but I have been experimenting with red wine. It’s actually not a made any difference at all to me if drinking 1 or 2 glasses a day for 5 days which I tested. The Blood pressure never went up significantly or down significantly. So I’m yet to test 2 or 3 bottles in a night like I used to get through…
So with that little test out of the way, I’m now on a mission to create a healthy drink that tastes good, and will also help in the fight to reduce HBP. Don’t forget to join our Facebook Group here Blood Pressure Choices
