The Journey Begins

today is june 1, 2009 and i'm starting on my raw journey... i got up this morning with a made up mind and took some baseline measurements... i have several issues that need to be resolved and i'm doing this primarily to improve my health... i'm also ready to lose some weight... carrying the extra weight of a large man is getting to be exhausting... anyway, just for the purposes of documenting this process and staying accountable to myself and to whoever decides they want to follow my progress, i'm going to put some numbers in print that i never would have been able to publish ten years ago... don't be alarmed... i'm taking full responsibility for my health and current status... i don't want to use drugs because i have very unusual side effects with most prescription meds i have been prescribed in the past, so currently i'm not on any medication and that is totally by my choice... so for the baseline numbers, here goes... 1) blood pressure (BP) 150/87 and five minutes later 136/89 ... you should know that i've been borderline hypertensive ever since i was placed on birth control pills to regulate my hormone levels at the age of 19... i had a MAJOR hypertensive response to the meds and was taken off of it after only 1 week of use... my blood pressure dropped but never again returned to normal which prior to that had ALWAYS been well below 120/80... 2) pulse or resting heart rate (P) 89... 3) blood glucose level (BGL) 274... this is the highest it has ever been and probably so high because i've had too many refined carbs in the last week... when i decided i was going to change my lifestyle, it seemed that i went on a kind of binge... i ate things that i don't even usually eat... so i know i have some sort of weird psychological issue... lol... i can't really restrict myself, because i'll rebel against my very own rules... but the BGL is definitely troubling... i used to say i was borderline diabetic, but right now i'm admitting that i must be a diabetic in denial... that's GOT to change... 4) weight (W) 374... need i say more???... this is the heaviest i have ever been... last year my top weight was 373 and i dropped about 20 pounds but never got below 350... it's sobering to know that at a height of about 5'8" i weigh more than big huge football players... more than the heavyweight wrestling champions... my goal this year is to be as healthy as i can be... i hope my choosing a different lifestyle will allow my body to choose a different weight... 5) body mass index (BMI) 56.9 ... i have this little machine that measures my BMI and my FAT... above 25 is bad... above 30 is very very bad, and i'm almost double that... nothing more to say on that... my FAT measurement was "E4"... that means i'm so fat that the machine can't even measure it... i was off the scale... my current goal with that is just to be able to be measured... lol... anyway, those are my baseline measurements for the day... i'm only eating fruits today... i know that some people are going to think, "is she crazy????... her bgl is that high and she's eating FRUITS????"... relax... there are several theories on what is best... i'll monitor myself and keep you posted on how i'm doing... i'm responsible for my own health... i need to be the one to understand what is going on and how i'm going to deal with it... don't get me wrong -- if i break bones or have a critical care crisis, i want a hospital, good allopathic doctors and drugs... but for chronic, lifestyle related diseases i believe that with the right kind of support, i can be my best health care provider...