New Here and Like It

rileysowner

A friend of mine suggested this site. I have been using a different site to record information such as calories consumed, exercise done, weight, body fat %, blood pressure and more, but it was not nearly as easy as this site, not to mention it does not have an android app so I was tied to my computer. The other thing it did not have is a database of food, so I had to recalculate stuff myself and then enter the information. Needless to say this is much easier, which is good.

Now for a little about me. About a year ago (Jan 25th, 2010) I had a stroke. I woke up with the right side of my face not responding and slurring my speech. Arms and legs were working fine, and when I got to the hospital later that day they thought at first I had Bell's Palsy. Later they determined I had a small stroke, and I was hospitalized with extremely high blood pressure (something like 220/140). After a day or so the facial stuff started to go away and my speech started to go back to normal, and under a great deal of medication my blood pressure started to come under control. Once I was out of hospital I resolved to loose weight (I had already lost 20 pounds in a week and a half through this time) and got on it.

At first I just ate "healthy" and didn't really loose any weight, in spite of exercising daily. Man I was out of shape at that time. The stuff I did that would have tired me out barely raise my heart rate any more. After about 3 months I clued in that I needed to cut my calories. Then I started counting calories very carefully and from January to now I have taken off 60+ pounds. I still have about 30 pounds to go to get to my goal weight, and thank to God I am off of a bunch of the medications I was put on in the hospital, and my blood pressure is still good. I am hoping by the time all the weight is off I can be off the rest especially the cholesterol meds since even when I was in the hospital my cholesterol was not extremely high, and I am expecting when they test it next it will be normal, only time and blood tests will tell.

People often say to me that it must have been hard to take off the weight, but I didn't find it hard. I usually respond that if you have a big enough incentive, losing weight is not hard at all. However, at 44 I don't really want to have my extreme overweight be the determining factor in my health. I can change it, so I will. There are probably a lot of things I can't change, so I will focus on what I can.

Jim

kimcat73

Jim, it's so good to have you here:) MFP is wonderful, I can't say enough good about it. These are a great group of people and so encouraging and motivating. Good luck!