344 isn’t the only number that scared me into changing my life.
145 and 120 were scary, too.
These numbers were my respective systolic and diastolic levels a few years ago. They represented hypertension (high blood pressure). With numbers so high I was in very real danger of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
I was a ticking time bomb at the incredibly young age of 22.
There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt that I was going to die sooner rather than later the way I was treating my body. It wasn’t a question of how, but a question of when and where and who would be around to see me leave this world. Would it be my daughter? Wife? The whole family? If I had not turned my life around I wouldn’t have lived to see my 40th birthday.
Even more likely, I would’ve been 450+ pounds and dead at 30.
That was taken yesterday morning.
I have to say that seeing 199 pounds on the scale was exhilarating, something I’m very proud of and undoubtedly always will be. That number really isn’t the important one, though. Those numbers you see in the picture above — 113/74 — are much, much more exciting to see appear in front of me.
Go have your blood pressure taken. Find time today. Unless you live in the woods, you can drive probably 5 or 10 minutes in any direction and find a way to take it. I went to Wal-Mart (and do quite often) with the sole purpose of taking my blood pressure. You can either go there, most other grocery stores, drug stores, or of course the doctor to find out what your numbers look like.
Let me know what you find out in the comments below.
Grocery trip Monday night
Food is fuel, energy for us to function and live by. It’s not our crutch, companion, or way to solve problems or situations in our lives.
It only complicates them.
If we have a bad day at work, a few chocolate chip cookies when we get home isn’t going to go back in time and stop our boss from yelling at us. Sitting in traffic for twenty extra minutes and opting for fast food instead of a home cooked meal isn’t going to earn back that time we sat in traffic. Sure, the fast food may save us an additional 10 minutes as don’t have to cook anything, as well as provide a few minutes of joy as we scarf it down, but at what cost to our health?
Next time you pull up to the drive thru, know that it will take a day or two of work to gain back what you just gave away in a few minutes of temporary enjoyment. It should be enough to stop you from doing it often.
Food is fuel, not a fix or remedy to the following problems:
- Bad days at work
- Traffic delays
- Busy days
- Romantic breakups
- Lazy, rainy days
…or any other excuse we have for opting for fast, fattening food, or for being lazy and not preparing a nutritious, healthy meal. There are always times to celebrate and socialize around food, but not every day. And neither are the “fake holidays,” you know, Columbus Day, Groundhog Day, etc.
If you don’t get off work, don’t get off your healthy lifestyle.
We need to stop looking at food like it’s something more than just fuel, energy to live by. Once you’re hungry, eat until you’re no longer hungry (NOT stuffed!), and keep moving along. Next time you’re hungry, eat.
Food is fuel. Eat to live, don’t live to eat.
I shop for groceries about once a week. I go to the Piggly Wiggly (no, I didn’t make that up) near my house — the grocery store that Morgan Freeman drove Daisy to in Driving Miss Daisy.
A typical shopping cart looks like this:
I think this snapshot represents my diet fairly well (minus sushi). It contains a variety of lean meats (and not so lean), fruits, and vegetables.
Many natural foods, but a few processed.
I’ve neglected talking about food for so long on this blog. I don’t know a whole lot of fancy recipes and I don’t have my own cookbook (here’s looking at you, Joy Manning), so I haven’t felt qualified to talk about food. And while I still don’t feel qualified (to do anything, really), I do know how to make simple, quick low calorie meals. Meals for college students and people in a hurry. Meals for bachelors. Meals for people who aren’t culinary masters in the kitchen. Meals for people trying to lose weight.
I’ll start sharing some of my meals with directions and pictures starting on Saturday. These meals will be filling, low in calories, and easy to make.
Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?
