“Strange Feelings – Difficult Questions” – Update

I woke up about 3 this morning, feeling rather strange. 3 is a little early for me – even with my irregular sleep patterns.

After I got my basic daily journal entries set up, I decided to take my numbers – BP and so forth. My BP and blood sugar were high – not good. My weight was actually down 1.4 pounds from last week. That is good.

Those lines are how I started my “Strange Feelings – Difficult Questions” post two weeks ago.

Since that post was fairly alarming, I wanted to update what I could.

What I’ve been able to change

Much of what I talked about in that article is going to take more time to change.

But, in these two weeks, I have been able to make a change to some of the immediate, health related items.

My root problem, in the health arena, is eating – “food, glorious food.” For most of my life, that’s been my problem. It was a problem even before I knew it was a problem.

Weight is my key metric. It impacts my blood pressure and my blood sugar – these are the two elements, apart from weight, that I can measure. It also impacts my blood lipid profile, various aches and discomforts, and surely a myriad of other things.

I have evolved a pretty reasonable eating pattern. Plain Cheereos with half a banana for breakfast – almost every morning. I have a broccoli-salsa salad most days for lunch (this salad is similar to the salad I described in Super Salad with Salsa). Dinner is usually baked chicken nuggets and steamed vegetables – or Progresso soup with the addition of an 8 oz can of tomato sauce and a quantity of fresh bits of broccoli.

My eating pattern has two difficulties. First: some of these meals can get larger than is altogether helpful. Second: and by far the worse problem – is extras – add-ons. After dinner is my worst time – before dinner is my second worst time – and I can do damage just about any time.

And the havoc that my weight, and especially any evening eating, can play with my sleep patterns – which are irregular at best, these days – is a truly awful experience.

After I got so alarmed, two weeks ago, I made a few changes.

I got pretty tight on eating – for me, and for my partner. We cut out almost all betweens and afters. And I tightened up some on our meal size.

Another change was in the area of exercise. We have a treadmill in our basement, and we’ve used it almost every second evening for the past two weeks. Or, sometimes, we go to a nearby regional park, and we walk – up hill and down.

One other thing I’ve done – some – is to increase my use of deep breathing. A few years ago, I got a book called Conscious Breathing by Gay Hendricks. I find that step one, of what he calls “The Short Form,” can definitely improve the way I feel.

What has changed

These changes to our routines have yielded some changes to the alarming situations I described in my post of two weeks ago.

My “strange feeling” – which was a tightness in my chest, when I breathed in deeply – has gone away completely.

In the past week, I have had one weight reading that was under 200 pounds.

Now, I’ve been keeping weight records irregularly for a bit over fifteen years. Before the past few weeks, the lowest I had ever recorded was 206 – the highest was 230. 199 is a glorious step in the right direction.

My most recent blood pressure and blood sugar readings were good. My blood pressure was under the usual normal guidelines – 120/80, and it was very nearly where my doctor said she would like it to be – 115/75. My blood sugar was in the normal range – under 100.

And so …

With these behavior pattern changes – and the numeric changes that resulted – I have been able to reduce my clear and immediate health alarms.

I need to keep that alarm reduced. And I need to reduce it further.

I also need to work toward changing what of those other difficult elements I can change.

That is a story yet to unfold.

Well – I wanted to post an update to my earlier, alarming story. So – there it is.

Once again, thank you for listening.