How My Fitness Pal turn me around!

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acobillas88
acobillas88 Posts: 7
in Success Stories
So here my story. I had to go to the ER a three weeks ago because I was stung by a wasp. I am allergic, I swell up like a balloon and if i get stung on the arm I get a Popeye arm. So I get admitted and they take my vitals. Such as blood pressure, temperature and heart beat. While the nurse take my blood pressure she pauses and looks at the other nurse pointing to the monitor then rechecks me and says your blood pressure is way to high for a 25 year old and then ask me my weight and height. I embarrassingly admit I'm 225 lbs and 5'7". Then she scribbled some stuff on a chart and walked away. As I'm waiting I hear the nurse talking to some one in the hallway. I hear her say his pressure is 158/103. We'll he 225 lbs what do you expect replied some one else. That hurt me bad hearing those words. So the Doctor comes in a little bit later take my blood pressure again and it reads close to the same. She asked if I'm stressed. I'm not the kinda person to stress over stuff to much I usually just shrug it off and go on with my day. So I replied "Nope". She goes on to give me a lesson on how my eating habits could be my problem and I could lose weight in the process. I shamefully admit that I eat fast food a lot and also eat canned chunky soups 5 days a week on lunch at work. So I leave the ER contemplating on what i should do. I'v had a lot on my plate to think about with just having my 1st baby and moving into a new home and now this lovely news. So me being the tech savvy guy I am (I work in IT) go to the internet and ask Google about ways to lower blood pressure. I read for a few day. Wrote it all out on a note pad and made a plain. Two weeks in started feeling better not so sleepy about mid day eating 3 meals and having 2 *snakes* "snacks" :P to keep me feeling full and learned to read and understand the nutrition facts on food packaging. Then I found the best tool ever while playing/looking for a food diary on my smart phone.... the My Fitness Pal app. I downloaded and started scanning what i was eating. Wow this is easy and it keep track of my work out too!. so after One week with My Fitness Pal and the 2 weeks before I watch my blood pressure drop down to a healthy 114/77 and also lost some weight too! I lost around 4 and still losing. Now I'm up at 6 a.m. go for a morning walk/jog eat a good breakfast go to work with a whole new attitude and out look on life.I play in a band also and they all noticed my energy is so much better I feel like I'm in-sync with my self. I feel amazing.I don't want to bet ripped with muscle I just want to be at a healthy weight and feel good. I want to live long and enjoy life while raising my doughtier with her wonderful mom. My journey to living healthy long life is just starting. Thanks to help from My Fitness Pal!

Replies

  • Kate7294
    Kate7294 Posts: 783 Member
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    Good for you. Are you watching your sodium intake?...I know my husband had T.I.A.'s when our daughter was around a year old. Since then he was put on blood pressure medication. In his case they had to add anxiety meds too. I try watching his food intake but he's stubborn. Good luck.
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    Thank You! Sodium is my main focus. They wanted me to take blood pressure medication. But I try to stay way from medication at all cost unless I really need it. I was hard headed about eating healthy for a long time. I kept thing everything will be ok its until I got the scare from the doctor. I was raised on Cisco fried chicken and hamburger helpers and so on... so eating healthy was a hard lesson learned. lol.
  • CallMeCupcakeDammit
    CallMeCupcakeDammit Posts: 9,375 Member
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    Yay!!! That's fantastic! :flowerforyou:
  • _Stardust_
    _Stardust_ Posts: 124 Member
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    Good for you for taking care of yourself. Wonderful that the medical professionals for talking to you about food and habits before drugs. +1 for faith in humanity.
  • mkcmurphy
    mkcmurphy Posts: 437 Member
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    Awesome! Kepp going!
  • tzulhelmi
    tzulhelmi Posts: 23 Member
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    awesome! good work man! me too before i started using MFP my BP is pretty high too. i scour the app store for weeks before i found MFP. after that it was a bless. i lose 2kg per week and still losing until now. best part people start following after me and at least 3 of my colleague on the same journey. good luck man!
  • fivethreeone
    fivethreeone Posts: 8,196 Member
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    Two snakes would make me feel full too!

    Great work,OP.
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    lol .Oops snacks!. good eye ;) Thanks.
  • OkamiLavande
    OkamiLavande Posts: 336 Member
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    That's fantastic! This site is such a great tool for many reasons and allows you to track whatever you need to focus on to help better your body. It's so great your blood pressure is now within normal ranges! That takes a great deal of work. My mom's blood pressure was out of whack because of her thyroid and as soon as it was taken out it went back to normal and she didn't need blood pressure medication any more. Good on you for finding a way without medication!
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    Thanks you all are awesome! Its good to here others say "good job!" It means a lot and good luck to other and their goals.
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    tzulhelmi. Oh I here you. MFP app + website is a big help. Good luck to you man.
  • KatieSvelte
    KatieSvelte Posts: 16
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    Great job! Have you watched "Knives over Forks"? Or "Forks over Knives" Your story reminded me of that Documentary. Im not vegan but it had a lot of good info.
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    KatieSvelte. thank you! No I haven't I'll have to look for it.I'm not vegan ether lol but i'm almost now days I don't eat too much meat with all the sodium that's in it from supermarkets. My diet is close to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. Good stuff mostly nuts and veggies with fish and little meat.
  • ShrinkinMel
    ShrinkinMel Posts: 982 Member
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    And it didn't occur to them that it was possibly from the allergic reaction??? I'm sure the eating changes helped too but they usually don't diagnose hypertension off one or two high readings. It goes off many over weeks.
  • acobillas88
    acobillas88 Posts: 7
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    ShrinkinMel I went back after my the reaction was gone for a fallow up it was still high thats when my Doctor wanted to me to go to meds. Heck even the day at the ER they gave me a antihistamine shot that should slow you down a little and they checked me about 10-15 min after and it still read some thing like 140/98. So I knew it wasn't just a reaction. they last time I was stung by a wasp 6 years ago my blood pressure was normal. They could be wrong and so could I but my eating habits were horrible and high BP runs in my family. So I rather take the scare are keep what I'm doing. Plus where I live they throw pills at you every time you go to the ER or most doctors. You go in with a headache and leave with codeine or the like to proscribe Hydrocodone like crazy here too like its some kinda miracle drug .
  • tzulhelmi
    tzulhelmi Posts: 23 Member
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    MFP website definitely helps! I sometimes too lazy to type on the phone..

    BTW anyone knows how to add ticker to posts?
  • Sophia0505
    Sophia0505 Posts: 2 Member
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    Good for you! Keep it up. You can do it.

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