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Today, I planned to take the bus to Walmart for a bit of shopping and I also want to be taking my blood pressure at least once a week. (they have one of those cool machines near the pharmacy)

There is a bus stop right outside of my apartment complex, but when I take the bus from here, I am riding the whole loop of the bus route. I usually opt for the option of walking for about 30 min. and then catching the bus on its way to the end of the route. (Walmart – my destination)

After waiting for the bus for quite awhile I called to see what was up and they told me that on Saturdays this bus doesn’t start until later. Doh! At the point, I made the decision to walk – it was a nice morning and I had lots of good podcast material to listen to on my Ipod.

It took me another 40 minutes or so to walk to Walmart and as I was doing so I realized how much my attitude has changed since the beginning of the year.  Back then I was SO depressed about not having a car. I felt stuck! Now I just walk or ride my bike and feel wonderful about it. (OK, I do have my moments still)  But overall, the fact that I don’t have a car since moving to NC has been a good thing. It’s definitely helped in my quest for weight loss.

I don’t know why I felt that I could only get to Walmart by bus. It’s really just around the corner and I can ride through the neighborhood that is right next to my apartment complex. When I first started riding my bike, I was concerned about the busy road that it is off of. But now that I’ve got more experience under my belt, I don’t think it will be a problem at all. WooHoo! One more place I can get to on my bike! And J and AJ’s neighborhood is right across from this part of town.

All in all, a very encouraging day AND my blood pressure was great! 😉

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Today was an important milestone for me.

When I started my weight loss back in January, my physical health was a very important motivator. I’d been on blood pressure medication for the past 3-4 years. I knew all the risks of carrying the extra weight – each time I would feel something was wrong with my body, I feared being diagnosed with Diabetes.

The time had come to make some serious changes…my body had been telling me this for awhile.

I think officially my blood pressure has been borderline or at least on the low-ish side of high…maybe? Maybe not. Typically a reading would be 130’s over mid-90’s.  Actually that’s with the medication, so probably not that great.

For the past months, it’s been normal when I check-in with the doctor and I’ve also been taking it myself with the machine at Walmart. Have you seen these? They’re great and my doc says that they are accurate.

As I wrote last month, I had already cut out the one medication – Metoprolol. Today we cut the Diovan and now I am medication free. WooHoo! Blood pressure reading today was 120/80 which is excellent.

OK, truth be told – I made the nurse take it twice. 😉 When I first arrive at the office, I’ve been walking or riding my bike and I know this means a higher reading. I’ve learned this at Walmart as well. If I take it and it’s high, but then relax for a minute and take it one more time – I’ll get a different/better reading.

So today was a great day – an achievement for all of my hard work so for and the almost  70 lbs that I’ve lost. A real feeling of accomplishment to say the least.

Doc wants to monitor me and see me in a month. I guess this will be the true test as to whether my lower blood pressure has been due to the medication or the weight loss – Of course I’m praying for option 2!

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I did order pizza again this month while I was in the midst of PMS and I thought I’d write a quick post about it as I was thinking about how I was feeling about the whole thing.

I’m always pretty deliberate when I do this and it definitely seems to follow a pattern. I figure if I let myself have this as a treat every 4-6 weeks or so (dare I say once a month) it’s not going to kill my progress. I mean, this is real life we’re leading, right? AND we’re bound to have craving, especially when we’re PMS-ing big time. lol 😉

I think there may be times when I can have the craving and NOT give in to it, and most often during the month, I do not crave this and I’m perfectly fine with my "normal" healthy meals. Also, I do hate to do this right before a weigh-in…especially if it is a monthly weigh-in, so I will definitely try to wait until after if these 2 events coincide at all.

Pizza and chicken wings…strange – I’ve always loved pizza, but never really went for the chicken wings before so I’m not sure what all that is about!

What are your craving? Feel free to share and also let us know how YOU deal with them.