BP – as in blood pressure, not petrol!

My valued readers may remember my post about ‘a bit of’.  A ‘bit of weight’; a ‘bit of cholesterol’; a ‘bit of diabetes; and so on. Looking back at older posts, I see that I wrote that post on 8th March.

What I said on that day is something I would like to repeat today and I will probably return to the subject time and again as I try to hammer home the crucial core message:-

There is no such thing as ‘a bit of’. You either have it or you don’t!  The ‘bits of’ have already started their destructive paths in your body and will continue to do so unless you take charge of your choices right now!

In my observations and personal experience, we typically see these (lifestyle induced) patterns manifesting around our 40th birthday. Very sadly, we are also seeing more of these conditions emerging in much younger people. I seem to recall reading that 19-year old Americans in the Vietnam war already showed signs of arteries clogging up; the trend has been growing for decades. Just look, really look around you in a shopping mall; particularly in the food courts. Obese parents loading all sorts of junk food onto their plates and ordering the same for their plump, chubby or already obese kids. I feel sick at heart as I observe it all.

I recently watched a 40-something man sitting at a small restaurant table with his knees spread wider than the table. He could not close his knees because his stomach was resting on the chair seat between his legs. He was simultaneously reading the morning paper, while shovelling bacon, sausage, eggs, toast etc down his throat as if there would be no tomorrow. His two obese kids of primary school age sat at the table with him also shovelling down… guess what?  Neither he nor his children were actually paying much attention to what they were so avidly consuming. It was a mindless, well practised exercise in gluttony.

Do not get me wrong, there is nothing more ‘lekker’ than an ‘English breakfast’ of bacon, eggs etc as an occasional treat to be savoured and enjoyed. My W-L  group leader says that she loves to prepare her own lunchtime version of the ultimate sandwich, cut it into 4 triangles and then really look at it with pleasure and anticipation before eating it!

One of the many lifestyle induced health dragons we usually face is hypertension -high blood pressure. My spouse W & I have to take our blood pressure readings on a very regular basis. W because of ischaemic heart disease – he now has two coronary stents – and me because of diabetes and the other other dragons of Metabolic Syndrome.

While on holiday this month, we took BG (blood glucose) as well as BP readings every day; our children were not even aware that this was part of our daily routine even on holiday. All readings are recorded and then transcribed into Benutriwise as data for our GP, Dr Anna.

I recently upgraded our BP cuff – we now have the type that takes the readings at the press of a button and gives digital readouts. It also averages the readings for the previous 30 days; all of which is crucial information for the GP as well as the cardiologist.

We have HARTMANN brand BP cuffs (a German make) which Dr Anna tells me are about the best on the market. Taking info from their user manual, I quote hereunder:

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) have developed the following classifications for blood pressure values:”

Assessment	Systolic pressure	Diastolic pressure
Optimal	up to 120 mmHg	up to 80mmHg
Normal	up to 130 mmHg	up to 85 mmHg
Normal limit values	130 – 139 mmHg	85 – 89 mmHg
Grade 1 hypertension	140 – 150 mmHg	90 – 99 mmHg
Grade 2 hypertension	160 – 179 mmHg	100 – 109 mmHg
Grade 3 hypertension	over 180 mmHg	over 110mmHg

“ Established hypertension is defined as repeated measurement of a systolic value greater than 140 mmHg and/or a diastolic value greater than 90 mmHg. Please note that this classification of blood pressure values is independent of age. Optimal blood pressure values have health benefits for all people. There is no generally recognised definition of too low blood pressure (hypotension). Readings of less than 100mmHg systolic and less than 70 mmHg diastolic are considered too low. Please note that, unlike too-high blood pressure values, too-low blood pressure values are not usually expected to be associated with health risks. However, if you are always feeling unwell, you should check with your doctor. “

“ Constantly elevated blood pressure multiplies the risk for other health problems. “

Also according to HARTMANN, high blood pressure elevates the risk for thickening and/or weakness of the heart muscle 7 times and the risk of stroke 8 times.

Constant hypertension also leads to vascular damage. Additional increased risks are quoted as follows: Heart attack 3 times; shrunken kidney/kidney problems/kidney failure 6 times; impaired blood flow 2 times; and arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) 8 times.

When W was admitted to a cath lab for the first stent, he commented to the theatre sister that she must see a lot of heart disease in her line of work. She looked at him, sighed and said, “ Yes and the sad part of it is that it is all self inflicted.”

My cardiologist showed me very carefully where my heart muscle has thickened due to poorly controlled hypertension. It’s sobering stuff I can tell you.

Is this post meant to scare you? No, it is not. It is meant to present the facts about the serious consequences of uncontrolled or poorly controlled hypertension. It is also intended to encourage those not yet medicated and monitored by a doctor to most urgently monitor their BP over a period of time and take corrective action – be that drastic lifestyle modification and/or medication.

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So, how did it go?

As we reluctantly ease back into work mode after a lazy Easter weekend, W & I are pleased to note that we both lost a little weight over the weekend. We did indulge in a few, small easter eggs and sundry other foods such as a lovely bacon/egg breakfast and a couple of takeaways and visits to food outlets in CW (Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Century City)

We realise that it’s not about ‘dieting’. It’s about consciously making choices (indulging our love of chocolate which we seldom do) and then simply re-focussing on what we know is the right eating regime for us.

In past years, I – for one – would have polished off lots  of marshmallow eggs and any/all hollow eggs that came my way! The huge Easter egg market set up in CW was a sight to behold and I did buy a box of Lindor 60% balls. I dished them out very quickly! I could have polished off the lot by myself without much trouble but in truth I had no real desire to do that.

My glucose levels did not go haywire and we will soon see if there were any real spikes this week. I was due to go for my bi-annual fasting HbA1c test this morning but am fighting a cold that I picked up yesterday. Got up at 2am and swallowed a mega dose of Vit C so have had to postpone the test until tomorrow morning.

I will also make sure we both have our bottles of ice water on our desks – something that we tend to forget. So vitally important!

I have not posted about what I drink – I will try to do that this evening. At boarding school in the village made world famous by Alan Paton, Ixopo, a huge treat was to be ‘let out of’ hostel on a Saturday morning. We girls would all troop down to the village and settle in the ‘tea room’ and check out the boys while consuming large helpings of slap chips, hamburgers and Coca Cola!

Old habits die hard and if I was unwise I would still happily consume greasy burgers, fries and coke all these years later. Such is the influence of childhood habits!

Would love to hear how your Easter weekend went?

Chicks rule!!!

Right! Now I’m really getting somewhere!

Broken a plateau which really frustrated me for the much of February and this month to date.
Hovering between 21 and 22kg loss was not a joke and unfortunately my life is so crazy at this time that I had not posted here about it.

Stand by…….. drumroll…… 23.1kg down this morning!!! Whew what a great feeling – I’m on the downward path again. Decisively so.

Let me encourage you not to give up if you also experience no or minimal losses over an extended period – a few weeks in my case. Our bodies are not engines that we fuel and can then expect to perform to specification. Each and every one of us is very, very different and as we pay more attention to our health and bodies, we get to know what works and what does not.

I can honestly state that I did not panic and I did not think even for one split second about throwing in the towel. That option did not cross my mind.

So, what lead to the breakthrough? Two things only – portion control and eating right. In my case, as you know, ‘ eating right’ is a combination of my W-L plan, my plan devised by a dietician well versed in low GI/GL principles, ongoing discussions and shared info with my doctor Anna Hall and last but honestly not least my own research into the kind of nutrition best suited to slay the Metabolic Syndrome dragons.

Very bad grammar in the above paragraph but I am posting this nonetheless!! Or should I say I am nonetheless posting this? Eileen – get back to the subject at hand – you are fiddling again!

Please comment on this post or write to me personally if you are having similiar problems. A problem shared is a problem halved – most of the time anyway.

Chicks rule??
A real biggie is that I now weigh less than my husband – quite something that – as he is also now on his own journey which is a new development which I have yet to write about. That was another huge breakthrough in our little family.

Have a great day and a safe weekend.

BMR .. Basal Metabolic Rate .. what is it?

I’ve never really been a calorie (or kilojoule) counter. Over the years I have become used to simply eating the portions as prescribed for me by dieticians or by following the formula selected for me at Weigh-Less. So much easier in my view!

However, I have recently become curious and have swotted up about the balance of macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) in eating plans suitable for those of us with Metabolic Syndrome (Insulin Resistance Syndrome.)

Remember that according to the IDF (International Diabetes Federation), for a person to be defined as having metabolic syndrome, they must experience the following metabolic abnormalities:
– abdominal obesity (defined as a waist circumference beyond ethnic specific values (see elsewhere on this blog),
Plus any two of the following factors:
– raised triglycerides (above 1.7mmol/l);
– reduced HDL (good) cholesterol (below 1.03mmol/l in men or 1.29mmol/l in women);
– raised blood pressure (systolic >130mmHG; diastolic >85mmHg); or
– raised fasting plasma glucose (above 5.6mmol/l).
Ria Catsicas – The Complete Nutritional Solution to Diabetes. Publisher: Struik Lifestyle 2009.

According to Anne Till, another leading South African dietician, the balance of macronutrients could look like this:

Proteins 15%
Carbs 45-55%
Fat 30-40%
The Ultimate Diet Solution. Anne Till. Published by Struik 2006

Through membership of the GI Club run by GIFSA (Glycemic Foundation of South Africa), I have direct access to Liesbet Delport and Gabi Steenkamp authors of the bestselling Eating for Sustained Energy books. The books published by these two dieticians are the gold standard on low/lower GI/GL, lower fat eating in South Africa.

Liesbet Delport has advised me not to have more than 20% protein and 30% fat in my eating regime so I have tweaked my Benutriwise software to reflect the following breakdown:
Protein: 20%
Carbs: 50%
Fats: 30%

“BMR / Calories Required Calculator

Basal Metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of calories needed by your body at rest.

For the average sized body the BMR is extremely accurate. However, for larger bodies (both muscular and fat) it can be inaccurate in determining your caloric needs.

For the muscular body type, the BMR can underestimate the number of calories required, and for the
overweight body type it can overestimate the number of calories required.

What you eat and how much you exercise are both important for achieving health and the type of physique you want.

But, the basic equation remains the number of calories taken in minus the number of calories consumed equals what’s left over to be stored as fat.

The BMR is calculated according to the formula :
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – (4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )

To calculate Calories Required, BMR is multiplied by a factor depending on your Activity Level:

Sedentary – 1.2
Lightly Active – 1.375
Moderately Active – 1.55
Very Active – 1.725
Extra Active – 1.9

Based on the above, a Lightly Active, 30 year old woman, 55 kgs, 155 centimetres will have a BMR of
BMR = 655 + (9.6 x 55) + (1.8 x 155) – (4.7 x 30) = 1 321
Calories Required = 1 321 x 1.375 = 1 816 (calories required to maintain weight)

Be in good health ”
http://www.benutriwise.co.za. Should you opt to download a trial version of this great nutrition software, please be good enough to quote agent code AG Hall. Thank you! More about how I use this resource in a future post.

The Weigh-Less Option……. 1

Good morning all

Hopefully this quick post finds you all well and chirpy this morning? 🙂
Here in Cape Town the days are slowly but surely closing in and winter is on the way.

One of my biggest resources and something I have not really mentioned much so far on this blog is the “The Weigh-Less Option”. By that I mean that I opted to ‘go back to Weigh-Less’ – as many people do – when I decided to take charge of my health and wellness.

Note please that I said ‘take charge of my health and wellness’. I did not say (or even think) that I decided to go on a diet again! I dislike the word ‘diet’ immensely and the word has not featured in my vocabulary for a very long time.

I returned to the Weigh-Less programme for one reason only – no! – make that two reasons.
Reason 1: The programme works!
Reason 2: Mary opted for GI/GL
Let me explain.

Mary Holroyd is the pint sized dynamo who founded the organisation on 25th February 1975. Today, 35 years down the line and in her early sixties, she shows no signs of slowing down and I am very much looking forward to attending a ‘Mary Event’ in Bellville next week. I last saw her ‘in the flesh’ in the late 1970’s when she addressed an open meeting in a church hall in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg.

The programme as presented by Weigh-Less has changed and adapted to new nutrition guidelines over the years and the cherry on the top for me was when I noted last year that the eating plan was based on Good, Better, Best options with Best being low GI foods.

Perfect for me with all my lifestyle induced health issues and I hasten to add pretty darn perfect for anyone wanting to reach optimum weight and wellness. The formula allocated to me has been vetted by two dieticians as well as my doctor and very little if any tweaking of the plan was required.

My husband has joined me on my odyssey and is also achieving good results. I have put him on the same eating regime with slightly increased quantities of starchy carbs, fat and protein.

Am I being paid by Weigh-Less to write this piece? 🙂 Hell no! As you may realise by now, I write about what works for me. I get a discounted rate as a member of Discovery Vitality and I pay by monthly debit order so I do not feel the cost at all. The cost is simply factored into my monthly budget and that’s that!

I think they also have a contract type scheme on offer at this time. I will check it out and report back here at the weekend.

Do yourselves a favour, go out and get hold of the latest Weigh Less magazine at your nearest supermarket or bookseller. The 35th anniversary issue is really special and has all the lowdown on the Woman and Man of the Year winners and finalists. Something there too for the men in our lives!

Have you got ‘a bit of’…? Yeah, so have I …

You know the drill. You see someone you have not seen for some time and one of the first questions they ask is always “And so how have you been since we saw you last?” or “How’s life treating you?”

How often we South Africans would answer something along the lines of –
“No,man, I’m fine thanks. My quack says I’ve got a bit of cholesterol – (here substitute with blood pressure or weight or sugar or bad indigestion or any other lifestyle related condition you have) – but, hey, I’m lekker. And you?”

I am here today to tell you that there is no such thing as ‘a bit of’. The ‘bit of’ that you have has already started on its destructive trail in your body. There will probably be no other indications (yet) of this destruction other than the ‘bit of’ that has manifested itself as glibly stated above.

The more astute of you will realise that writing on this forum is a huge motivation for me personally to stay the course and I truly hope that my scribblings do the same for you.

I should already be at my day job next door, so I will leave you to ponder your own ‘bits of’ and I will try to clock in again later today!

Goodness sake … I didn’t mention it……

In yesterday’s post, I did say that I was a mere 200g above the target weight for the Sunday BUT did not state my weight loss to date.

It may sound like bragging…. oh alright it is bragging… but I am sure you will forgive my exuberance in the light of the multiple challenges I face.

Drum roll……. 21.1kg …… so I have broken the 20kg barrier …. not bad for an old chick hey?!

Has it been easy? NO!
Is it easy? HELL, NO!

My Odyssey demands my ALL and the making of ‘Continual Course Corrections’ as propounded by Brian Tracy. http://www.BrianTracy.com

Keep strong everyone; have a great Monday. Hope yours is not too dark a shade of blue. EJ

Sunday showdown

Well, it’s not really a showdown at all. It’s a weekly record of our weight which is recorded on a graph every Sunday morning. Our weight being that of my spouse W and myself.

It all started in September 2007 when the CT branch of our family started a weight loss competition to see who could lose the most weight before 1st December. The competition was fair in that total loss was measured as a % of starting weight!

What was so special about 1st December? Well, that was the day the CT family met the JBH branch at JHB International and all 10 of us flew off to Ile Maurice! Headed for 8 days at Le Meridien Ile Maurice resort to be exact. (If anyone is considering Mauritius for a holiday, we can certainly recommend Le Meridien.) What a magic holiday we all had and it is fitting that the sponsor of the costly junket was also the winner of the weight loss competition! We each contributed R100 to the game and the winner took all – pity the R500 did not go anywhere at all to off-set the cost of the joll!

The point of this rather rambling post is to remind us that keeping a record of our progress is key to success. I am one of those obsessive types who weighs in every morning of my life; the result is then recorded in my Benutriwise profile. I also have a weekly Thursday morning date at Weigh-Less as well so talk about overkill!!!! I hasten to add (and my spouse will bear this out) that I have learnt over the years not to stress over the scale results. The results are simply recorded without any dramatics on my part and I sit down every Sunday morning and quietly look at the week’s results. The process serves to keep me focussed and to make continual corrections on the great odyssey!

To graphically illustrate my progress against a weekly weight loss target of .5kg, I use an Excel graph. I print it in colour on Sundays and keep it in a file until the following week. A bold red target weight line descends from left to right and it is intersected with a bold green actual weight line which is my Sunday morning weight. Vertical axis shows target weight descending .5kg weekly from my starting weight down to goal weight at the bottom. Horizontal axis shows Sunday dates for 1 year! 9th August 2009 to 8th August 2010.

Wow! those dates really show what a commitment I have made don’t they? As of this morning, I am .2kg (200 grams sounds better) above target for today’s date. The green graph line fascinates me in that it meanders all over the place but always reflects an overall downward drift.

If you would like a copy of my Excel chart to adapt for your own use, let me know and I will send it to you. I believe it could really help to keep you on track to your own unique destination.

Take these measurements now !!

On any journey (odyssey!) there is a departure point and an end destination. It goes without saying (but typically I’ll say it anyway) that we have to be really specific about where we plan to end up and we do this by writing down our goals. It’s often said that a goal not properly defined is but a dream.

I sincerely recommend that you determine your desired outcomes for 2010 and write them down – before New Year’s day! No need at all for the elaborate measurement systems that I have created, just a simple record of where you want to be is absolutely fine. The one action needed is to write it down!

In my case, I have had to define several concomitant journeys and determine outcomes for each one of them. As each goal concerns a potentially life-threatening disorder, I have made sure that each & every outcome falls within medically determined parameters.

“Hmmm, this food is fine for my blood glucose levels, but what will it do to my cholesterol and weight?!”

I wrote recently about a fun afternoon I spent trying on clothes that had been hanging unworn in my cupboard for yonks – too small to fit bum, boobs and thighs!!! UGH! How did I ever let myself get into this situation?? To my amazement, I was able to button or zip up some of the clothes that I had last worn when terrorising poor little bank clerks!
So there I stood, grinning inanely at my own image and feeling really great. Little achievements such as that serve to renew my commitment to stated objectives.

The fact that said poor little bank clerks could sure as hell show today’s bank clerks a thing or two about efficiency and courtesy is a story for another day! But – really – they did love me; they staged an amazing surprise Chinese Braai farewell function when I transferred back to KZN …. oh s**t, perhaps that was because they were so glad to get rid of me!!! But I digress…..

Weigh-Less (don’t knock that organisation – more about my experience with them in a future post) recommends recording the following measurements at the start of a health journey:
Date:
Weight:
Hip:
Bust/chest:
Upper arms:
Waist:
Thighs:
Calves:
I have a little Excel worksheet on which I record the above measurements about every 2 months and the results are amazing. Total cm loss as of this morning is 33.5cm! Huge motivation to continue I can tell you especially when the scale is not showing substantial losses. 25% of the total cm loss is from the waist which is very significant given the specific dangers associated with abdominal obesity. (Good subject for a future post)

Weigh-Less also strongly recommend that full-length ‘before’ photos are taken; from the front and from the side. Be brave! – don’t suck in your stomach and turn purple in the face with the effort while the photographer fiddles with your camera or cellphone!!! Stand naturally – publish and be damned!!

I have had this done and sometimes I look my ‘befores’ and shudder. Don’t get me wrong, I do love and respect who I am but – already – only about half way through my weight loss journey the difference is astounding!

Who knows, I might even have the courage of my convictions to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos on this blog on 15th August 2010. All my journeys lead to that date…

ODYSSEY – a series of wanderings…

Ja well no fine (as we say in RSA), my series of wanderings will no doubt make the most boring of reading. But, what the heck, it’s my odyssey and I can do what I like with it! ☺

Since being diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome a few months ago, I feel like I am surrounded on all sides by 4 leering dragons that I have to slay with the help of my guardian angels and cunning moves learnt from a number of resources. Cunning moves being sound knowledge of what I should be doing to rescue my health and well-being.

For over 30 years now, I have had an abiding interest in nutrition and the books on my shelves bear this out. A good few of them dating back into the 1970’s and the time of Adelle Davis, Linda Clark and others …

My kids well remember ‘Momsli’ – my own unique brand of muesli and the fact that they drank half fat milk for years when they were in their teens and did not know it! (I used to mix full cream milk half/half with powdered skim milk, refrigerate it overnight and the following day nobody was any the wiser!) Those were the days of wheat germ, digestive bran, vitamins and minerals and all those good things!

I even recall that I drank rooibos tea for a long time until I decided that I could not stomach the smell that assailed my nostrils when I drank it. I have not been persuaded otherwise even though all sorts of good things are attributed to that particular bush tea these days!

The huge problem for me has always been the poor application of the knowledge gleaned from so many worthy tomes. Not so simple for a Type A, nit-picking personality that has always expected everything in life to be perfect. Anything less is not good enough. ‘All or nothing’ – that’s me but I have to say that I have learnt to temper this approach and settle for some compromises along the way…. the series of wanderings has not always been along the path of perfection.

In some ways the nit-picking is helping me now as I struggle to deal with the stresses of a demanding business ruled by constant, unbreakable deadlines and the need to take some time out to give my personal life and health issues necessary effort and commitment.

I have realized, for example, that the more time I spend readings books on diabetes and tracking down the glycaemic index and glycaemic load of the foods I eat, the less time I spend on wandering into the kitchen at all hours looking for something to eat! Recording nutritional information does not increase the size of one’s butt, thank goodness!

Being anything but ‘a broad-strokes person’, I like to get down and dirty and ferret out all sorts of useless information. So I land up being rather well informed about many unimportant things! But it has to be said that the more I apply what I am learning, the more I am succeeding in losing weight and getting my own
personal show back on the road!

Reducing my weight down to an acceptable level is key to vastly improving the other ‘dragons’ I am confronting – Type 2 diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels and hypertension that has not always been well controlled.

So, here I am today 15.6kg lighter than I was over a year ago.
Still a long way to go but with a GP who watches over me like a hawk and a dietician who devises eating plans I can live with, I can only succeed.

I have had to seek out the health professionals I need and can relate to and these are my ‘guardian angels’. They deal with my fears and nit-picking questions with humour, empathy and genuine concern. Several of them have also faced life threatening conditions and stressful career/family challenges and their strength is my inspiration and support. So stand up and take a bow one each of you; I cannot do this without you!