high blood pressure Archives — Thrifty Mommas Tips

How to Reduce Sodium in Your Diet Now

Paula — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 11:53:46 +0000

For years I have been living on, and enjoying, a restricted sodium diet. Those of you who have been reading Thrifty Mommas Tips for years now know that I have a history of high blood pressure. I avoid hidden sodium and never add salt to food, which was a huge shift for me. I loved salt. However, I really don’t miss it. It’s possible to reduce sodium now to create better health outcome. Sodium can cause your body to retain excess water, which can put extra strain on your heart and increase your blood pressure. Many foods we eat that are high in sodium are also high in fat, such as fast food, potato chips and French fries. Cutting down on these foods can not only reduce sodium intake but also fat intake, which can lead to weight loss and better heart health. A Bit About the Sodium Studies: A sodium study, done by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center, found cutting back on sodium by as little as half a teaspoon could result in 92,000 fewer deaths and 100,000 fewer heart attacks every year. The researchers estimated that if Americans were to reduce their daily salt intake by three grams a day, or about half a teaspoon (equal to about 1,200 mg of sodium), there would be 11 percent less heart disease, 13 percent fewer heart attacks, eight percent fewer strokes, and four percent fewer deaths. This would also offer benefits on par with people quitting smoking, saving Americans about $24 billion in health care costs. The impact of a high sodium diet continues to be studied. I recently read a study that also stated if your sodium is too low then you might have higher rate of cognitive decline when aging. But The American Heart Association indicates it’s highly unlikely to take in too little sodium based on our current diets in North America. However there are recommended levels of sodium in the US and Canada. So what are they? Recommended levels of dietary sodium: Canada In Canada the recommended level of daily sodium is 1000 to 1500 mg if you are between the ages of 1 to 3 years old. Ages 4 to 8 should not exceed 1400 to 1900 mg a day. From 9 to 50 1500 mg of sodium is the maximum level you should be consuming daily. And over 50 that level declines again. Read more about that on the Canada Health and Government site. USA The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) a day and is moving toward no more than 1,500 mg per day for most adults. (which is closer to what Canada recommends.) Top Sources of Sodium According to the American Heart Association, cheese, seafood, olives and some legumes contain sodium naturally, but most sodium is added to food when it is processed. Some of the processed foods with the most sodium include canned sauces, soups and vegetables; pickles; and processed cheeses and meats. As part of my journey here I have had to swear off of packaged soups almost entirely. The only soups I generally am able to eat now are the ones I make myself. And I never add salt to homemade foods. That said, only a portion of the sodium you consume comes from a salt shaker. Most of it is from pre packaged and processed foods. That frozen lasagna that is super convenient is likely extremely high in sodium and in fact one serving can have almost an entire day’s worth of recommended sodium in it. FYI if you search my recipes here you will find a few low sodium recipes like this one – Fireside Pie. How to Consume Less Salt Trust me when I tell you this may be an adjustment at first but it is worth it and you get used to food without salt. In fact, to reduce sodium in your diet you need to be disciplined. But, once it has vanished or been restricted you will realize sodium and salt are lazy spices and additives. They don’t need to overtake every recipe. And yes there are healthy levels of sodium and it would be virtually impossible to eliminate all sodium. But in my opinion it is added to way too much food and not necessary. Reduce sodium intake by modifying your diet in simple ways. In my twenties and thirties I added salt to everything. It was my Go to spice. I loved the way it tasted and it seemed to make me drink more water so that was a bonus, or so I thought. Then in my forties my low blood pressure began escalating into the high zone. My mother also had high blood pressure in her forties and I was concerned. Three or four times in a row I had a high blood pressure reading. My doctor was legitimately worried and seeing that the cycle actually because worse. I got stressed at going to the doctor to get the blood pressure reading taken and despite limiting salt and boosting exercise at home the readings in his office only got worse. I need to change my habits dramatically to manage the growing issue. So I did. You can too, but please remember this is not medical advice. Always follow your doctor’s recommendations. Limit Processed Foods or Eliminate Them Reduce the amount of processed foods you buy, or at least choose less processed ones. For example, if you usually by canned tomato sauce, choose a low-sodium variety of sauce or simply use canned tomatoes with less salt. READ THE LABELS Some foods that we tend to eat a lot of, such as bread and cereal, contribute quite a bit of sodium to our diets. By reading labels, you can avoid these sources of ” hidden salt ” and reduce your sodium intake without even noticing. Do not Assume Healthy Scrawled on the Package is True Don’t believe it is healthy just because it says so on the package. READ all the details on the label. Here’s a true story. I often get shipments of food products here and healthy living is a topic I write about a lot. One day I received a brand new snack food for families being marketed as HEALTHY. My daughter and I opened it without reading the label. I had hoped I could share the brand here as one we enjoyed. Teens and snack foods go together because teens have gigantic appetites during growth spurts especially. However, when my teen had eaten maybe two bites, she looked looked at me and said: “MOM this is too salty.” If my teen noticed that, then it’s WAY too salty. Lesson learned. We read the label together, my jaw fell open at the astronomical level of sodium in a serving – over 900 mgs – and then we had to remove that product from our home. NOT necessary and certainly not healthy. No Salt at the Table Add less or no salt at the table. It can take time for your taste buds to adjust to less salty food, but it will happen. In the meantime, liberally use flavorful spices and other salt free seasonings so your food is satisfying and tasty, not plain. Experiment, and you will discover how rich other spices can be. FRESH is best Choose fresh fruits and vegetables more often. By doing this, you’ll fill up on healthy foods with no sodium. Plus, you’ll get extra fiber, vitamins and minerals. Potassium, in particular, can help reduce the effects of sodium on blood pressure. Water Whenever I am trying to overcome something I reach for more water. Changing habits can be hard, but water is always a positive thing to reach for so no harm done when upping your water intake or replacing a bad habit with water consumption. Reduce Sodium for Your Health Reducing the sodium in your diet doesn’t have to be a tasteless journey. By doing it gradually, filling up on fresh fruits and vegetables, and adding flavorful herbs and spices to your food, you can improve your health while enjoying your new diet.

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Is A Plant-Based Diet Best for Your Heart Health?

Paula — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:02:28 +0000

Did you know approximately 75 million adults, or 1 in 3, have high blood pressure? Of those, about 7 out of 10 are taking at least one prescription medication to treat the condition? What if you could tackle heart health head on with diet? What would that diet look like? Dr. Stacy Mitchell Doyle is a Los Angeles-based physician, graduate of UCLA Medical School and the founder of FoodTherapyMD. This month, she is launching a consultation service called “Second Opinion.” The service is geared to help people develop a personalized, whole food plant based, prescription diet to combat chronic disorders like hypertension. Recently Dr. Stacy answered a few questions for readers at Thrifty Mommas Tips. Readers interested in diet and health will want to read this closely for information about making the commitment to a whole food plant-based diet. Question 1: 1. Can you tell me a bit about Food Therapy MD first of all? FoodTherapyMD is an online health resource for people looking for ways to achieve true health and longevity using evidence-based nutritional medicine. We promote using Whole Food, Plant-Based diets for disease reversal and prevention. FoodTherapyMD was the direct result of my frustration with traditional, pharmaceutical-based medicine. After 16 years in private practice, I realized my patients were on ever increasing doses of pharmaceuticals, but their health continued to deteriorate. Maybe at a slightly slower pace, but the result was always the same: death and disability. What I was doing was what I, and thousands of other doctors, was taught to do, and that is DISEASE MAINTENANCE. But I wasn’t interested in maintaining disease, I wanted to reverse it and prevent it from occurring in the first place. I knew there had to be a better option. Question 2: February is heart health month and I’ve been running a lot of heart health content here at Thrifty Mommas Tips. I’d love to hear a bit more about your take on impact of food on heart health? Food doesn’t just impact heart health. In fact, food is THE MOST important factor in determining the development and course of cardiovascular disease. Ignore all the conflicting stories on the internet about cholesterol and fat. That’s just noise. Focus instead on the underlying cause of heart disease, and that is CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. The inflammatory process and oxidative stress that goes on inside the heart and the sensitive lining of the vessels and arteries (called the “endothelium”) is what causes damage and destruction of the cardiovascular system. And everything you put in your mouth either CAUSES inflammation, or DECREASES inflammation. That is why a whole food, plant based diet has been repeatedly shown to REVERSE heart disease. The anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune boosting properties of the phytonutrients in unrefined plant foods decreases toxic inflammation. Question 3: There are many diets out there right now. From Keto to paleo to vegan and Gluten Free. It’s hard for many people to sort through which diet is best. Why is a whole food plant based diet best for heart health? Whole Food Plant Based diets are best for heart health because it is the only diet that addresses the underlying cause of heart disease, which is chronic inflammation and decreased immune function. It is important to distinguish it from “vegan” or “vegetarian”. A Whole Food plant based diet focuses on consuming nutrient-rich, anti-inflammatory foods (such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds), and severely limits or eliminates inflammatory foods such as processed sugar and white flour, animal products (including poultry and dairy), soda, fast food, etc. This is the difference between Whole food plant based diets and vegan diets. As a vegan, you can still consume processed sugars, white pasta, soda, etc. I know of vegans who don’t eat vegetables! So the key feature of the whole food plant based diet is eating large amounts of nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant foods and limiting those foods known to decrease immune function and increase oxidative stress. Question 4: Are most people doing what they need to do to build a healthy lifestyle right now? Most people are not doing nearly enough to build a healthy lifestyle. I can say that with certainty because of the rapidly growing rates of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. These numbers aren’t going down, even though pharmaceutical prescriptions and the number of people on prescription drugs is skyrocketing. So obviously, there is a disconnect between what we think is healthy, and what actually is healthy. In order to build healthy diets and lifestyles, we should go back to basics. No complicated diets, pills, or supplements. Just making the majority of your diet unprocessed plant foods (I recommend at least 90% of your diet be unrefined or minimally refined plants, with focus on fresh fruits, veggies, legumes, etc) and limiting inflammatory, disease-promoting foods to 10% or less of your caloric intake. Zero percent is optimal, especially if you are trying to reverse an already established condition, but there is some leeway for those that feel they require small amounts of animal products to feel satisfied. [tweetthis]Is a whole food plant based diet the best option? Read more and check out @DrStacyAnn for FoodTherapyMD details. [/tweetthis] Question 5: What other diseases or conditions respond to plant-based diet? There is not a disease I can think of that cannot be improved with a Whole Foods Plant Based diet, and many can actually be reversed/eliminated. That’s because nearly all chronic disease has, as its root, a chronic inflammatory process which is predominantly caused by the foods we eat, as well as the lack of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. Heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, lung disease, high blood pressure, many cancers, even autoimmune disorders such as Lupus, and psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression, all respond to plant-based diets. In my experience, I see improvement within 4-6 weeks ( even sooner in diabetes and hypertension). And the decreasing of prescription drugs starts soon after. Many are able to get off pills completely, but at a minimum, the amount and number of drugs needed is reduced. Question 6: I am one of the one in three who has high blood pressure and I tried many things to manage that and to get it down. I tried low sodium, low caffeine, unprocessed foods and I increased exercise dramatically and eventually I still needed medication. Are you indicating that a whole food plant-based diet can be a means of avoiding medication if you have high blood pressure or are you saying that it’s a preventative measure for everyone else? Can you clarify? A Whole Food Plant Based diet can ABSOLUTELY be a means of avoiding medication if you have high blood pressure. In fact, in my experience, high blood pressure is one of the easiest, most responsive conditions to treat with plant-based dietary measures. Blood pressure medication stops the SYMPTOM, but doesn’t do anything to address the root cause of the high blood pressure. That is why people have strokes and heart attacks every day while their blood pressure is “controlled” on prescription drugs. Whole Food plant based diets remove the inflammatory trigger by removing those toxic foods, and then, by consuming plant foods that actually contain phytonutrients that lower blood pressure, you can stop the dependency on drugs in many cases. For example, eating nitrate rich vegetables like beets and arugula, lowers blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels and increasing blood flow (in fact, a cup of beet juice has been proven in numerous studies to lower systolic pressure by 10 points). Hibiscus tea and pomegranates contain phytonutrients that are ACE Inhibitors, like the drugs captopril, lisinopril, and benazepril. ACE Inhibitors are the most widely prescribed drugs for high blood pressure, but consuming them in your diet is as effective without the side-effects. And for people who do not have high blood pressure, eating plant-based can definitely prevent high blood pressure at any age. [tweetthis]Still considering a change to diet and healthy habits this year? Here’s food for thought. [/tweetthis] Question 7: Can you tell me a bit more about Second Opinion? Second Opinion is the consultative arm of FoodTherapyMD. For individuals who are interested in an alternative way to manage their health, I develop “Food Prescriptions” which are tailored to a person’s specific needs and conditions. I use the unique properties in plant-based foods in order to tackle certain disease states. In addition to individuals, I also love to teach groups, including physicians and other healthcare providers, how to use and incorporate plant-based nutrition into their practices. Second Opinion is also available for corporate wellness programs, for those business owners that would like to see their employees thrive and be healthier. Question 8: Is there anything I have missed that you’d like to add? I would like to add, for those people out there that are suffering day to day with chronic illness, that there is definitely hope and a better option. But it requires work, and it requires doing something different in order to get different results. That applies to individuals, as well as our “healthcare” system in general. The rates of chronic illness and disability are skyrocketing, even with better technology and better, more expensive drugs. I believe the answer can be as simple as looking to the produce section of the grocery store instead of the pharmacy. Food For Thought Thank you to Dr Stacy for sharing her philosophy with readers this heart health month. To schedule a Second Opinion with Dr. Stacy, or to inquire about a group consultation series, interested parties can complete a brief application on the FoodTherapyMD website. You can also follow Dr Stacy here on Twitter – https://twitter.com/DoctorStacyAnn and on Facebook too – > https://www.facebook.com/FoodTherapyMD/ and Instagram as well. There are a LOT of points here that I will use to modify my diet in 2018. I’m starting with beet juice and arugula and I will also be hunting for more pomegranate and hibiscus teas. This has been a sponsored conversation which means I received compensation for sharing this important information with readers. My opinion is all my own and it is also truthful.

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High Blood Pressure Facts You Need to Know

Paula — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 00:06:47 +0000

Last year right around the time I left for a big trip with World Vision Canada I got a high blood pressure reading. It was the first time ever and I figured it was a one off. Away I went on the amazing trip, and when I returned, I had another reading done a few months later. Still, it was high. Fast forward two months after that high blood pressure reading. As I often do, I tackled the issue with diet and exercise and it came down a bit. I thought I was managing beautifully. But tackling this health issue was harder than I ever imagined and so I set about trying to uncover all the high blood pressure facts I could find. I am continuing with my diet and exercise approach, hoping also to lose a few pounds and see if that will help. At the same time, I am researching more information about high blood pressure so that I can tackle this and advocate with my doctor if need be. High blood pressure impacts a lot of people so here are the high blood pressure facts you should know. 5 High Blood Pressure Facts You Should Know High blood pressure can be a killer. It directly affects a variety of deadly diseases, so it’s important to know high blood pressure facts to educate yourself. I’ve put together a list of high blood pressure facts that can help you get a better understanding of this deadly condition. Know These High Blood Pressure Facts High blood pressure is no joke. And since we don’t know the exact cause of it, it’s important to know all of the facts, so you can better guard against it and/or treat it with a doctor’s supervision. Causes One of the most important high blood pressure facts to know is what causes it. Although, as I said, the exact cause of high blood pressure is unknown, there are several things that have been clinically shown to drastically increase the risk of high blood pressure including: Smoking Obesity Lack of exercise High salt intake High alcohol consumption Stress Aging Genetics Family history Chronic kidney disease Adrenal and thyroid disorders While you can’t really guard against genetics or a family history of high blood pressure, all of the other known risk factors can certainly be remedied. (I have the family history. I also am 45 so I guess that’s the aging part and I had high salt intake, but I eliminated that back in October. As for the other factors, I have none of them. I rarely drink and I exercise a lot, but have a sedentary job.) Signs and Symptoms This is a sobering addition to my high blood pressure facts list. By and large, high blood pressure has no warning signs or symptoms. Most people don’t even realize they have high blood pressure. That’s why it’s so important to go for yearly physicals. This is the time when your blood pressure will be checked, and you may find that you have high blood pressure. What Makes it so Important It’s important to know your high blood pressure facts, because it is associated with so many terrible, organ crippling diseases. High blood pressure has been strongly linked with a number of potentially deadly conditions such as: Heart Attack: 70% of people who have their first heart attack also have high blood pressure. Stroke: 80% of people who have their first stroke also have high blood pressure. Chronic Heart Failure: 70% of people with chronic heart failure have high blood pressure. Kidney Disease: High blood pressure is a major, major risk factor in developing kidney disease. Age and Ethnicity Age and ethnicity play a major role in the development of high blood pressure. That’s why it’s so important to know high blood pressure facts. High blood pressure can vary significantly across age ranges and ethnic backgrounds. Age: Starting around 45, both men and women see a significantly higher percentage of high blood pressure in the population. The highest instance is in those 75 and older. Ethnicity: Across all ethnicities, black people have by far the highest percentage of high blood pressure, followed by hispanics, and then whites. Prevention Perhaps the most important of my high blood pressure facts is prevention. Almost all of the risk factors for high blood pressure can either be avoided or mitigated by us. Eat a healthy diet full of whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. Keep your salt intake reasonable, don’t drink to excess, and exercise. In addition, limit read meat, and increase your intake of healthy fats from sources such as nuts, avocados, and cold water fish. Protect You and Your Family with These High Blood Pressure Facts High blood pressure shouldn’t be taken lightly, so it’s important to know your high blood pressure facts. Knowing these facts will help you avoid or mitigate your high blood pressure risk factors. If you’re already on a high blood pressure medication, reducing the contributing factors to high blood pressure can only help you. So know your high blood pressure facts, and keep yourself healthy and happy!

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Are Your Getting Enough Fruits and Veggies? Printable Fruit and Vegetable Journal

Paula — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 05:25:43 +0000

Healthy eating and healthy living is a constant goal here. We each exercise a lot and we are a very active family in my opinion. In fact my kids are involved in many sports and we try to balance that out by building in our own sports and fitness goals and activities too. One area where we all need help though is eating. We strive to include enough fruits and vegetables daily, but don’t always get there. Eating well can be challenging for any family. There is always room for improvement. I have a brutal sweet tooth that is hard to get a handle on. But this year so far I have targeted my high blood pressure issue by making my diet over. In fact I eliminated a lot of sodium. Never ever do I add salt to anything now and I seek out foods that are lower in sodium. And also I have trimmed my caffeine consumption. So now I have dramatically reduced my coffee intake. But am I getting enough fruits and vegetables? Actually, I know I can do better with that. We squeeze salads in often but because of my Crohn’s Disease and high blood pressure I have some restrictions on food already so it can be challenging to get all the nutrients I need. Some vegetables don’t work for me and neither do some fruits. Sometimes I can fix that by adding smoothies. Do you get enough fruits and vegetables daily? Do your kids get enough servings of fruits and vegetables? Did you know that you are supposed to get 7 to 8 servings of fruits and vegetables if you are a woman and you are over age 35. If you are a kid and you are roughly my daughter’s ages 11 to 13 then you should get 5 to 6 servings. The Canada Food Guide recommendations can be found here if you are interested in more detail. Either way, regardless of your age we all need to be conscious of healthy eating and strive to add more fruits and vegetables to our diets. This printable fruit and vegetable journal can help you and your children to keep track of what you are eating and strive for healthy eating habits. I have some other printable healthy eating and food journals on Pinterest. All these printables are free by the way. To access the printable you can either right click on the above image and save to your computer and then print it out or you can download from the PDF link below. The PDF link below is typically clearer and bigger so I always recommend that. Printable Fruit and Vegetable Journal – red-green

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Operation Banish High Blood Pressure Week One Checkup #health #fitness

Paula — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:50:07 +0000

This is a check in along the way to tackling my high blood pressure issue that developed just this past year. High blood pressure is not something to be taken lightly and out can be deadly. I am committed to fixing the problem as I need to stick around longterm and be healthy for myself and my family. Follow along as I try to change this growing health concern. At the start of 2014, I was busy, getting ready for a major move to our new house, managing multiple accounts and a growing business and parenting some wonderful, but challenging kids. Somehow I still found time to work out on average three times a week. I look back at that and I am amazed and proud but frankly when the move was over and life started to settled down that’s when my exercise habits began to change and I placed work plus kid’s doctor’s and therapy appointments all at the top of the list. Where did that leave me? Well, at the end of 2014 I am less healthy than I was at the start and I have developed high blood pressure which is upsetting. At the end of 2014 I am struggling to get to the gym ever. I am certain I have gained weight from poor eating and sitting at a computer all day every day. I am not happy with that. My goal this year was growth and I have managed to grow and I have met the challenges along the way. But last September the doctor advised me I had high blood pressure. I figured it was a one off. So we just promised to monitor that. We trudged along and I travelled increasingly more often and kept up with demand at my business Thrifty Mom Media social media consulting. October passed and after a major trip with World Vision Canada I still had high blood pressure. Then two weeks ago when we got our flu shots the high blood pressure reading was indeed still there. It was higher than ever. So three months and no change. That meant it was now on me to change it. But how? The last 10 days I have tried to change my habits. I mentioned that back here in a post about what I needed to do to fix this high blood pressure issue. So this is my first check in. I need you to hold me accountable for what I say I will do to fix this. If I strive for a healthy lifestyle here, it’s because I have a family that needs. In fact, my Crohn’s Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, will remind me fast if I am losing control of diet and exercise. My stomach tells me what I am doing wrong by giving me extreme abdominal pain at times. Trust me, I do what I can to avoid that. Check in every ten days: First check in – I started chronicling my diet intake daily. Food journals are challenging for me, but I found a great app on the phone (My Fitness Pal) that keeps me motivated to eat better. I have stopped using salt. Because honestly there’s enough salt in food to begin with. I have dramatically cut processed foods out. That said I permit myself deli meats occasionally. And I allowed a family celebration at a restaurant this weekend because I need to have some breaks and incentives to do well the rest of the week. I am monitoring bread because it seems to be high in sodium. Note that I am reading labels a lot more and I am shocked at what salt is added to and what it’s not added to. Dairy seems to be pretty good. Fruits and vegetables are great of course (but because of the Crohn’s I have always been limited in what I can eat for vegetables so I need some help in that department.) The goal here has to be to add smoothies regularly. I ate a banana raw the first day I revamped my diet and I was not well. The gut pain from a raw banana was excruciating for me. My Fitness Pal app is working well for me. I don’t hate logging my food and exercise in there. Buying all of my food raw and making meals with my Hamilton Beach crockpot is working, I think. EXERCISE: I exercised a couple of times and I walked daily, but it’s not even close to enough and I know it. My goal was three times a week and I am only making it into the gym once a week. That has to change. I am going to cut myself some slack here and also remind me that I am doing well with walking. Even when it is freezing out I always walk 1.5 ams every single day. The tool I love that helps me with this is my Misfit Shine. It is an exercise and sleep tracker that I wear on my arm every single day and it tells me when I hit my exercise goals so I kind of love that it motivates me. I have had this since the summer and I know I walk more because of it. Also it’s waterproof so it stays on all the time and I can swim with it on to. Awesome little gadget. Last night I went to bed at 11 p.m. and the night before that I went at 10 p.m. so I am getting a bit better. One of the kids is almost done her group therapy work so that will create a morning free again and less stress for me and more opportunity to workout. Thank goodness. Her therapy and doctor’s appointments are really hard to manage. I cut my caffeine dramatically in the last ten days also. Now, I am drinking only two cups of coffee every morning. That is it. I am super proud of that because I am a coffee-a-holic. Instead, I opt for water and herbal tea. Yeah me! Here is what I pledged to tackle when I started this journey December 1. 1. Low sodium diet. 2. Watch weight and maybe drop 5 to 10 pounds. 3. Increase physical activity. Exercise more. 4. Monitor and fix stress in my life. 5. Get better at taking breaks. Stop working 15 hour days. 6. Less caffeine. (It’s hard to say cut back on caffeine because I think you all know I love my coffee.) 7. Food journal. I started one today after I tweeted that I have high blood pressure. 8. More yummy home cooked items. 9. Oh yeah and that estrogen I take because I was prescribed it when I had a hysterectomy has now been reevaluated. Cut in half and the goal will be to taper off I think. But I will do that with doctor’s help. So to recap I am doing well on 1, 6,7, 8 and 9. I need to do better on 2,3, 4 and 5. I am pleased with the work I have done on my diet and I will work hard on some of the other points this next ten days ( but as we head right into Christmas that will be challenging.) This post is not sponsored but it contains one affiliate link. Have you ever had high blood pressure? What did you change and how did it work? Do you have any tools that help you stay healthy?

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Operation Banish High Blood Pressure

Paula — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:42:43 +0000

It’s time for fresh starts. December 1st. What could be a better time? I’m not waiting for New Year’s resolutions this year because I need to tackle this new health challenge head on. I have high blood pressure and it’s not going away. It started in September and I assumed it was because I was hyper about taking a trip with World Vision Canada and I assumed that the high reading was a one off. But in October it was high again and then this past weekend when we went for flu shots it was astronomical. So it’s time to kick it to the curb. First here’s a bit about me. I am in my 40s. I don’t like to share my age and that’s my own little vanity but the reality is that I am 45 and at a point where health doesn’t improve without Herculean efforts to change something. Metabolism is such a fickle thing. She was my friend for most of my life and then I turned 40 and she started vanishing, taking long holidays even. Now I have to kick her to wake her up and that’s on a good day. On a bad day, well she’s still in bed at 3 p.m., and I’ve been up for a good nine hours by then. Weight loss is harder after 40. That’s reality. I’m not that worried about shedding a few pounds. I have typically been slender because I also have Crohn’s Disease, an incurable inflammatory bowel disease that means wild swings in weight and then periods of time with severe stomach pain which usually keeps you from eating. I have traditionally never had issue losing weight. In fact, I have had trouble keeping weight on, so weight loss is a strange concept for me. But I have gained some this past two years since I started my own business. Business is good, great even, but I am sedentary for long periods. I work for long hours on my computer. I have ended up with blogger butt. In fact most days, I blog and run my consulting business on an 8 a.m. to 11 p.m schedule. That’s stressful and I eat poorly sometimes when I work long hours like this. So I know I have some changes to make. I need to eat lunch again. Dumbest thing in the world – I work right twenty feet from my kitchen, but still I rarely break to eat it and then I am ravenous by dinner. And there are a few other things I know need to change. I also know this past year with both of my kids needing extreme increases in therapy appointments and educational meetings and so forth that this been incredibly hard on my health. I know and can feel the stress that never goes away when you parent kids with special needs. It is chronically exhausting and it damages your health. But that has got to slow soon. We’ve been doing intensive therapy for anxiety for one of the kids which ironically is making me sick. If it helps her, and we get through this period of time, by 2015 she might be better able to manage her anxiety symptoms. That’s the goal. Then my schedule will lighten a bit. I lose a day a week to their appointments right now. This isn’t a rant but a fact. And I am fully aware I can’t save anyone if I don’t apply my oxygen mask first. I started reading about high blood pressure immediately this weekend and I am ready to make the changes I need to in order to fix this because I plan to be here for a long time writing and, you know, parenting my kids. So here’s what I have to do. (I started today. See the picture above – that’s me being really happy to be planking): 1. Low sodium diet. 2. Watch weight and maybe drop 5 to 10 pounds. 3. Increase physical activity. Exercise more. 4. Monitor and fix stress in my life. 5. Get better at taking breaks. Stop working 15 hour days. 6. Monitor caffeine. (It’s hard to say cut back on caffeine because I think you all know I love my coffee.) 7. Food journal. I started one today after I tweeted that I have high blood pressure. 8. Less packaged food and more yummy home cooked items. 9. Oh yeah and that estrogen I take because I was prescribed it when I had a hysterectomy has now been reevaluated. Cut in half and the goal will be to taper off I think. But I will do that with doctor’s help. I can do this! I hope. Have you ever had high blood pressure? What did you change and how did it work?

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