1. High Blood Pressure!!!??? Weight Loss? Workout? WHAAAT?

You may be wondering why I have the number 1 outside of my post & guess what if you’re not – I’m going to tell you anyway! 

I am participating in NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month.  I must write at least 1 post a day for the entire month of December.  Now we all know that I’m a busy ass person, but I’m gonna try this out & see how it works.

The NaBloPoMo theme for this month is Mitzvah.  Mitzvah means to express an act of human kindness. 

My bloggie friend Soph! asked me how I started running & if I had any tips/tricks to this workout/diet thing.  So today’s post is just for Soph! – sharing my experience so she (and others) can benefit is my act of human kindness for today! :)

So here goes….I’m going to lay it all on the line…well on the blog! ;)   

How I started:
I went to the OB/GYM to talk with him about my birth control pills & the problems I was having with spotting.  At my visit he told me that he would switch my pills, but also was a bit concerned that my blood pressure had been consistently high in my last 3 visits, not alarmingly high at like stroke level or anything, but high for a fairly healthy 26 year old.  He told me a nice, doctor-ish, round about way that from the blood workup that he’d done in a previous visit, he didn’t see any factors that were contributing to my elevated blood pressure other than my weight, which then turned into a conversation about the foods that I ate.  Love my OB/GYN BTW, he’s the best!  I told him that I had a family history of high BP & diabetes & asked what I could do to decrease my weight & ensure that my BP was at a normal level.  He first suggested that I limit my daily caloric intake to 1500 calories a day, get at least 30 minutes of cardio a day, and STOP DRINKING SODA.   He also gave me an appetite suppressant to help with the first part (daily caloric intake) cause I probably would have eaten myself out of house & home if I didn’t take the diet pills.

Let me just say before I go into details about my “numbers” & my “plan” – I travel for a living, so finding something healthy to eat on the road EVERYDAY is a bit hard (hence the reason why I gained so much weight). ANYWAY!!

My starting numbers (5/09):
I’m totally not ashamed of my starting numbers so I’ll share them with you..

• Age: 26
• Height: 5 feet 11 inches
• Weight: 180 pounds
• MY Goal Weight: 150
• Doctors Goal Weight: 157-160

My meal plan:

• No more soda, no diet soda, no X-zero (you name it sprite, coke, etc) soda…NO SODA!
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
• Eat a healthy breakfast.  My usual breakfast consists of a cantaloupe bowl from Publix, Yoplait yogurt, and 1/4 cup of bear naked granola & a bottle of water with Crystal Light strawberry & lemonade mix ins.
• Subway for lunch – usually a 6 inch ham on honey oat, no cheese, toasted, with onions, regular mustard, light oil & light vinegar, a bag of baked lays chips, and a bottle of water with crystal light strawberry & lemonade mix ins.
• Snacks – 100 calorie cookies, chips, trail mix, etc – you get the picture!
• Dinner – I eat whatever I want, but I don’t go overboard!

My Workout Plan:
So this is the part that people really want to know about – how did you go from not working out to running like a maniac?!  I armed myself with a few handy gadgets. 

• I already had an iPhone 3GS so I could mark that off of the list. 
• I ordered myself some NikeID shoes that were also Nike+ compatible.  (FYI there is no need to order any NikeID shoes – they’re too damn expensive so skip that step, just buy some shoes that are Nike+ compatible)
• Purchased the Nike+ sensor to put in my shoes
• Registered at the NikeRunning website & joined several challenges that they have on their website – nothing like motivation of other members on your “virtual” team.
• Purchased a handy dandy sports case for my iPhone from the apple store…Marware Sportshell Convertible for iPhone 3GS
• Turned on the Nike+ iPod application on my iPhone & performed the calibration for both running & walking.
• I made a playlist of songs to listen to (If you want the list let me know and I’ll hook you up) & I told myself the following: “I will run to the chorus of each song & walk through the verses.”

I went on for about 2 months of running to the chorus only & walking through the verses, each session my workout time was getting better & better – totally proven by the workout history on my Nike+ iPod app!  I ran more on days that I was super stressed out because somehow running became an effective way for me to get in my 30 minutes of cardio, but a way for me to release the stress of life & work. 

Each run I pushed myself to run a little longer than the chorus, to see if I could make it through the chorus & the verse, then walk & try it over again & that’s how I made it to 3 miles in about 35 minutes. 

I also downloaded an app from the iTunes app store called C25K – Couch to 5K which helps you train for a 5K run.  The app is pretty sweet & can be found in the iTunes app store. 

My best mile to date is 10 minutes 12 seconds & my best 5K is 31 minutes 53 seconds.  My longest distance is 5.30 miles which I did in 1 hour 1 minute & 34 seconds. 

My current numbers (12/09):

• Age: 26
• Height: 5 feet 11 inches
• Weight: 152 pounds

Some days my scale says I weigh 154 pounds – some days I say my scale is a POS and can’t make up it’s f*cking mind how much I weigh! ;)

Yesterday I got back on track – I ran 4.21 miles in 45 minutes 58 seconds with a pace of 10 minutes 54 seconds per mile.  Not too bad considering I had just finished eating dinner & was running on a full stomach.

I’m well on my way to being a much happier & healthier me!  When I go back to my OB/GYN for my annual visit, I’m sure he’ll be happy to see that I’ve lost the weight and am keeping it off.