weightfighter

I had my one month check up since I started this journey. I have lost 19 pounds, let alone the number of inches. This was one of the best days of my life. I do need to work on exercising more and eating more veggies with my meals, but over all I am doing well. My blood pressure, which is always high, thus the blood pressure medicine, was initially 110/70. They took it three more times and could not get the pressure higher then 116/72. How cool is that! Last year when I lost 20 pounds, but blood pressure had not improved nearly as much (maybe only a few points). I was trying to figure out the difference because last year I was exercising more. Greta talked to me about the fact that not only was I still eating poorly (portions too big and misaligned); I was also drinking the same beverages. I would have my morning coffee. If I wanted coffee later on in the day, I would just have it. I am not one to pay endless dollars for specialty coffees so those really were only a rarity. But I would drink diet or sugar free drinks such as Diet Coke, Tropicana Light Orange Aid. Many of these drinks contain sodium, even just a little bit. Based on the research I have since done, apparently the salt or sodium causes the body to keep more water in the body and thus the blood and blood vessels to wash out the excess sodium. By drinking my 8-8ounces of water a day, drinking 2 ounces of water for every 1 ounce of caffeine, and changing my diet so drastically where the sodium intake is greatly reduced, I have reduced the amount of sodium in my blood. I look forward to next month when I can see if the pressure is still low. If it is, I am going to talk to Greta about doing a daily blood pressure check without my medicine for the month and see if the pressure remains low