Back to work today.
Started the morning off with my daily regimen of supplements.

For breakfast I had a green smoothie that had apples, bananas, kiwi, mango and pineapple in it with a crap load of supplements which included 1300mg Spirulina, 400 mg Chlorella, 100mg Broccoli, 100mg Spinach, 50mg Blue Green Algae, 50 mg Garlic, 75mg Barley Grass, 75mg Wheat Grass, 50mg Ginger and 50mg Parsley.

For lunch I had a fruit salad with cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pineapple and red grapes.

I made the decision today to end this detox. Yes, I know it went from 10 days to 7 days and now down to 5. Truthfully, I can’t take it anymore. I know what needs to be done and I’m making it happen. I just have to stay strong to do it.

For dinner Kenny and I went to subway. I had the roasted chicken breast loaded with vegetables, and most importantly NO SALT. When I got home I had a smoothie with mango, apples, orange, banana and some lemon.

With that my reading tonight looked like this:

There was obviously some spike. Catie called me and I was expected a phone call from someone else, so it sort of got me worked up when the phone rang. My bad.

Thank you for going on this journey with me. If you do not keep track of your health you should!

Last day of the 3 day weekend, tried to get things back to a somewhat normal state of being.

Woke up around 10am, went and took my morning reading:

Things looked good, so I figured I’d try to get a plasma donation in over at Biolife. Well by the time I got there I guess I worked myself into an anxious frenzy because my BP was 169/96 and my pulse was 111.

Yeah I know.

The upside of my visit was that I weighed in at 218 pounds! Dropped another 2 pounds since yesterday. SUH-WEET! It’d be awesome if I could see 200 by the time this is all said and done. (I know I’m a big dreamer :-P)

I figured well, I’m half-way there, so I decided to head out to IKEA and spend my labor day looking at all the stuff I want, but don’t need.

For lunch at IKEA I had some steamed vegetables, an orange juice, an apple juice and a bottle of water. Though the swedish meatballs were tempting, I did not give in.

When I got home I had a smoothie with Raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, apples, pomegranate, orange, banana and some red grapes. It also had 8g of flax seed, 4384mg of Omega-3, 2mg of VitaminB6 and 6mcg of Vitamin B12 supplement in it.

For dinner I caved in and grilled up one 3 ounce boneless/skinless chicken breast on the George Foreman Grill. Basically it was the driest piece of chicken I’ve ever eaten. I put it on top of some baby field greens, with a diced tomato, 2 chopped gloves of garlic grilled on the Foreman lightly, 5 black olives-sliced, some red onions lightly grilled on the Foreman grill and drizzled the entire concoction with a little red wine vinegar and the juice from the onion and garlic. It was alright.

After dinner I watched a movie then did a 4.5 mile walk and a .5 mile jog.

It’s too late for me to go get a reading, as I have to get up for work in the morning. Now that the weekend has ended I’ll probably be doing one reading a day, more than likely in the evening.

Ah, I love the weekends, the joys of sleeping in are overwhelming.

I slept until 11 so I didn’t have “breakfast” but I did have a smoothie, I guess I’ll call it my mid morning snack.

My first BP/Pulse reading for the day looked like this:

GETTING LOWER EVERYDAY! I am nearly at what the machines defines as “normal” and getting much closer to the maximum (132/83) for my age range.

I weighed in at 220 pounds. I’ve lost 7 pounds since Thursday! (Though my 227 weigh-in Thursday could probably be attributed to shoes, so I’ve probably actually lost closer to 5 pounds)

Mid-morning snack:
Smoothie with blueberries, blackberries, apples and a banana in it.
Also took my normal regime of supplements.

Afternoon Snack:
A bushel of green grapes.

Dinner:
A Mixed baby field greens salad with a whole tomato chopped and 5 black olives sliced, sprinkled with a little bit of red wine vinegar.

Still drinking about 10 or more 12 ounce glasses of distilled water throughout the day.

In the evening I walked for 3.5 miles and jogged for 1.5. After I came in from my walk/jog I had an 8 ounce glass of cranberry juice, which taste not so good in it’s organic raw state.

My evening read-out looked like this:

WOO HOO! Blood pressure at 125/79 excites the crap out of me. I’m fairly confident that high pulse reading is from the fact that I took the reading within an hour and a half of finishing up 5 miles of walk/jogging. Though I’d like to have a good BP and pulse, having my BP down to 125/79 makes me feel really good as it is VERY close to my age ranges average of 120/79.

The true test is does it stay that way. I guess we’ll see in the morning.

Thank you, by the way, for going on this experiment with me. Hopefully it teaches you something.

I slept in late today. I woke up at about 11. They say lack of sleep can cause high blood pressure, so I am going to take this three day weekend and sleep as much as I can.

As a result of sleeping in I did not have any breakfast, nor did I do a morning stat reading.

It started raining after I got up, so I decided to do laundry while I waited for it to stop, then take back the Blood Pressure Monitor that I bought from the pharmacy last night back. While I was there I took my readings and this is what I came up with: (at 2:30pm)

While I was at the pharmacy I walked over to the grocery store in the same complex and weighed myself. I weighed in at 222 pounds.

For lunch I had:
Some diced pineapple and mango, with some white grapes

After lunch I wrote a fairly lengthy blog entry about my fantasy football picks and while I did that I snacked on some grape tomatoes. (I Love tomatoes!)

Mid-afternoon snack:
1 Banana

Dinner:
Broccoli and Cauliflower with some diced red onions and 2 cloves of chopped garlic
A Whole Sweet potato with skin.
A Smoothie that included: 3 apples, 1/2 a banana, 1/3 of a kiwi, 1/3 of a mango and 1/4 pineapple as well as 1300mg of Spirulina, 400mg Chlorella, 100mg Broccoli, 100mg Spinach, 50mg Blue/Green algae, 50mg Garlic, 75mg Barley Grass, 75mg Wheat Grass, 50mg Ginger and 50mg of Parsley.

My evening blood pressure/pulse rate results looked like this:

In my continual internet research of high blood pressure and how to lower it naturally, I ran across the American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Health Risk Calculator. To say I was thrown back by the results would be a lie. I know my situation is pretty bad, yet after researching it’s not bad as some people who wont or don’t take the time to fix their situations.

According to the risk calculator I am obese, I am 5.4 times more likely than the normal person my age to die of a heart attack in as little as 10 years, 13.5 times more likely than the normal person my age to die of a severe stroke in as little as 10 years, 2.5 times likely to have some sort of heart failure in as little as 10 years, and 6 times more likely to have kidney failure within the next 16 years.

Take a look at the report:

Now unlike a lot of crap on the internet the American Heart Association lets you see what the benefits of making lifestyle adjustments would be. If I loose 20 pounds, increase my regular physical activity, eat a “healthy” diet, lower my salt intake, and limit my alcohol use I could easily lower my blood pressure to normal levels.

Also, while doing some research I came across a chart on some doctors site listing the minimum, average and maximum blood pressures that doctors like to see for different age groups.
For my age group the minimum is 108/75 the average is 120/79 and the maximum is 132/83. So as of my 2:30pm reading today I am 28/21 points from average and 16/17 points from the maximum. Don’t get me wrong, those seem like small numbers but when you consider that the red cross said I’d loose 11 points or so if I lost 20 pounds it helps you put things into consideration. Loosing points is a lot harder than gaining them. :-/

High blood pressure is a risky business. I would suggest you have your blood pressure checked regularly. If you don’t like doctors, buy your own monitor available at most pharmacies, or use the machines that most pharmacies have to take your results. I am lucky, I was able to see a problem because I donate plasma regularly and have noticed a gradual build up of my blood pressure over the last two months. I should have been smart and started something earlier, but I didn’t. Luckily I am starting something before it’s too late. If you need to you should too.