More sweat, less salt!

I had my follow-up doctor's appointment on Friday. The good news? I can go from monitoring my blood pressure daily and now only need to do it occassionally? The bad news? Three months of results have me at an average 120/80, or just BARELY pre-hypertensive. This prompted several pieces of advice: follow the DASH diet (which emphasizes fruits and veggies), cut back on sodium where I can, and aim for 45 minutes of exercise a day.

The goal is to fight the slight increase in BP I'll get as I age, so that I don't become hypertensive and need meds. So when I got home Friday night, Adam and I started scouring labels. It's really something to see how much sodium is in the items in our pantry! Sure, canned/jar food is going to have more than fresh, but it was quite an eye-opener.

This was good timing, actually. I've been following the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus program since it came out almost a week ago. I've been eating at least an extra piece or two of fruit a day thanks to not having to count them anymore. My new routine is an apple when I get hungry after dinner. Then if I'm still peckish, I have a few small squares of organic dark chocolate (translation: pretty low in points) and that does it. I used to carb up with toast, waffles, etc.

I even had a banana before my run today! I am not a fan of bananas, but I'm learning to love them since they help with muscle cramps and I don't have to count them anymore either. This week, I'm going to try to make bananas my breakfast (except the 2 mornings I have meetings) and keep up the nighttime apple habit.

The exercise recommendation has led me to settle on a goal of 300 minutes a week next year. I'm really going to have to work to schedule that in. I am already seeing benefits in an energy boost since kicking off my latest batch of activity on Thanksgiving.

The biggest other change? Having to visit doctors more frequently. Have to go back to my main doc in 6 months, and she said I should also be seeing my endocrinologist every 6 months also to monitor the synthroid. But if it makes for a healthier me, I'll do it. Just a big shift from someone who pretty much goes once a year and doesn't get sick much.