Ive been battling with chronic. Hypertension. For
10 years I use to get so tired of taking meed that from time to time I abruptly stop meed not a good idea I landed in intensive. Care with b-p 299" over 130 so I take my meed I wish I could get off this darn med I have to take 2 different. Pills but I'm not a doctor. All I can do is do the best I can everyday

I am trying to nip this situation in the bud. A few years back when sick my BP went up into the 160/98 area and my doctor flagged it on my file and called me back in. I have since been able to keep it in the high normal range (am in Canada so that is 130/139 and 85/89 My goal is to get it down naturally and not have to resort to meds, may be a slippery slope since it runs in our family but I want to hold off as long as I can being medicated.
Stopped smoking quite awhile ago so mainly now am trying to lose weight, reduce stress, reduce sodium etc.
Glad to be part of this group.

here is the link for a printable booklet from the "National heart Lung and Blood Institute" of the Dash Diet.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf

My name is Margo and 8 months ago (on the 2nd of this month) I had a rude awakening. A little history first: I was a stay at home mom the whole time my children were in school but lived a far from sedentary lifestyle. My son was in football and my daughter in chorus and that kept us pretty busy, as well as their million friends who were always coming in and our from our home on any given weekend.
A few years after they graduated we moved to large family home where the next winter we raised pigs, ON a HILL. Up and down that hill with one and two 5 lb buckets of feed, twice a day. Cleaning the house and feeding the pigs would seem like enough to keep my heart healthy and pumping but obviously it wasn't. I always was trying a new diet but always seemed to go back to around 180 or so, on my 5' frame, and stick there for years at a time. We love to eat, a lot! Even though I never seemed to gain weight but I also did not lose weight, even with all the walking I did. Fried foods, salty snacks, fast food and a history of heart problems, took its toll on me. At 42 years of age, on September 1, 2011 I was told I needed emergency surgery, single bypass surgery and the very next day I had that surgery.
Since then my life has been a whirlwind of issues, problems, ups and downs, happy moments and depression. My blood pressure they found was high and put on bp meds. I was fine until a few months ago, not losing weight though and I had actually gained weight after my surgery, up to nearly 40 pounds, now back down 10 of those so far, even though I still have about 70 pounds more to go to be a healthier weight.
In the last few months I have had some issues though. I had been having anxiety issues since my surgery and it was suggested that I have PTSD. Since then my blood pressure decided to hit the 160/100 marks again and the doctors changed and doubled my bp medicine and put me on anxiety medicine (sertraline). I have had one incident the other night when I seriously thought I would need to take my nitro fro the first time ever but I was able to finally calm my beating, hurting, tired heart and body. The weird thing is that this time it just started from a stressful situation, not work any other exertion. Who knew stress could be that deadly?
We started out trying hard to stay on the low sodium diet and it worked ok for a few months but slowly we have went to more 'regular' eating, with adding salads and more veggies to our meals, but the sodium has crept back in. We are wanting to work on adding more veggies to our meals and we do not use salt at all but there are enough foods (especially canned and boxed foods) that have more than I need on any given day so I try hard to not eat much of anything if I can, unless I know I will be ok with it. I am still having a few issues with anxiety and it has been suggested I hold off on going out in public as much until I get my anxiety in check unless I am with others who know of how I am. I worry but try not to, about having to have more surgeries and if losing weight will help get me off any of my meds, especially since my doctor told me to plan on being on all of my meds, except for my anxiety medicine for the rest of my life and my anxiety meds from 4 months on, depending on how I do when they start weaning me off of it.
My only other problem is that since my surgery, I am tired, a LOT. napping during the seems to help my moods and with staying up later than 9 pm at night. I can hardly do anything, from grocery shopping to gardening for very short times, without getting exhausted. Even little chores like standing up to the dishes seems to wear me out. I try to do some form of walking or exercise a few times a week but some days its hard to muster up the energy to do anything. I keep trying tho. I am determined to not let it keep me down for too long. At least as long as I am able.
So far, I have been pretty terrible at keeping a log of what I've been eating but I hope to get at it, a little at a time :-) With the support of my family, my daughter who is on this site too, I hope to be a success, one step, one day at a time :-)