Healthier Choices

November 26, 2009 – Day 330

My blood pressure has been borderline high and I’ve been on a diuretic for many years because of it. Earlier this year Jen forwarded me an e-mail about how beneficial bananas are for our health and it said (among other things) that a banana a day is good for controlling high blood pressure. Her dad’s doctor also suggested he eat a banana a day. So I started eating a banana – most days. I like bananas so that wasn’t difficult to do.

I have an appointment with my doctor for a physical in December so I started monitoring my bp (I have a machine at home) after several months of neglecting to do so. My doctor likes me to take a list of my numbers to her because I have “white coat syndrome” which is basically anxiety when visiting doctors and that causes my bp reading to always be high at her office. That’s why I bought my own machine. When I started monitoring my bp again a few weeks ago, I was happy to discover that my bp is lower than it’s been in a long time! Now I’m even more diligent about eating that banana every single day.

I’ve also been riding my bike faithfully since November 11th. My interest in making some healthy lifestyle changes brings me back to a book I bought about 5 years ago, after I saw the author on an Oprah show. Back then, I added most of the “superfoods” he recommends to my diet, I was riding my bike regularly – and I lost 30 pounds! Unfortunately I fell back into poor eating habits but I’m realizing now more than ever that healthy food is like good medicine. Maybe it’s because I just turned 50 or maybe it’s just that something has “clicked” but I really want to be healthier. I would like to lose a bunch of weight but for now I’m just going to focus on eating healthier and riding my bike at least 3 times a week.