Lower My Blood Pressure: Update

It's been seven months since I finished this challenge, but I thought it deserved an update. By the time I'd finished this challenge, the journey really only just begun, and it's not over yet.

As of today, I've lost 62 pounds and a bunch of inches off my body. I ran a 10k in September and finished right in the middle of the pack at 1:07:04.55. I exercise every day. Every. Single. Day. I count my calories. I go to bed early. I stretch every night.

In short, I am quite a nauseatingly healthy and boring person.

But today, I went to see my doctor for the first time since we talked about me changing my lifestyle habits to check to see what my blood pressure was like. I was nervous about it, because it was at the end of the workday and I'm always a little hyped after that. I was sure that I was going to hear him say, "You've done well, but there's still so much more to do."

But he didn't. In fact, I didn't even get to see him at first. I saw his medical intern first.

She said, "What can we do for you?" I told her I was there to follow up on my blood pressure problem. She looked up my file and saw all my tests and asked if I was on medication, to which I said no, I was changing my lifestyle habits instead.

"What have you been doing?"

"Exercising, watching what I eat, and losing weight."

"And how much have you lost?"

"Sixty-two pounds."

She did a double-take, blinked twice, and said, "Ww-ow." And when I explained that I didn't want to go down the medication road, and that I wanted to try to change my habits instead, she sighed and said, "Hearing that makes me so happy."

And when she took my blood pressure, there it was:

I am normal.

After that, I saw my own doctor because I wanted to give him something: a photo from me running in the 10k. On the back, I wrote, "Thank you for helping me to learn to live a healthy life." He thanked me and said, "When I drive to the hospital, I always see you walking and running up the path there. Keep it up!"

And well, I have to keep it up, because I'm 16 pounds away from my goal. There have been plenty of days when I just wanted to give up, but I haven't. I have mixed feelings about today, because it feels like I don't have to keep going now, but I know I can't stop yet. And maybe this will always be a struggle... which is a bit depressing. But I've been living like this for seven months, and it won't always be so hard. It's certainly much easier than the alternative.

And that's the point: I am fortunate to get great health care, but I've chosen to try to focus on "care of health" instead. And it's paying off.

Keeping on keeping on...