It wasn’t all that long ago I was celebrating being off blood pressure meds and musing poetic about losing 20lbs. On Oct 15, just 5 days after my fortieth birthday I had a follow-up with my doctor for my blood pressure. It read 145/97. That is not what I was expecting.
I had arrived early, drank little coffee and had been relaxing in the waiting room, confident I would be in the 120/80 zone. I had met my first weight loss goal of 10% of my mass, which for me is 27 lbs. I had picked that because of what I read on the Heart & Stroke Foundation website and that amount of weight loss was correlated to reduced blood pressure.
Friends had cautioned me (I’m looking at you Cato, you very well informed and smart woman) that weight loss may not lead to lower blood pressure and I’m glad I opted not to have bariatric surgery. I would have been in the position of having had surgery and still be on blood pressure meds, pretty much intervention hell for me.
So I was pretty bummed out, actually I was really pissed off. (ya, ya “Type A” blah blah blah). When leaving the treatment room, with my new prescription in hand, I ducked into the washroom and had a pretty good cry. I pulled myself together enough to book my follow-up appointment, got to the car and cried the whole way to work. I looked like a red puffer fish. Thankfully I have an office and could quietly be a wreck as I went about my work.
I had started some intensive therapy in April because, like a great post on here by Moira said, I shouldn’t confuse the therapeutic benefits of exercise, blogging and my support network with actual therapy. I knew I needed to make substantive changes for my health including attitudes to food.
So it is disappointing, but not devastating, that I will be on meds for the rest of my life. I will also eat food, mostly plants, not too much. I will keep moving my body and accessing the services I need to be well, like my doctor, chiropractor, massage therapist and psychologist. I’m ridiculously resourced. I better leverage that for the best outcomes because it turns out I’m worth the effort after all. :)
