My husband was told by the doctor that he has pre-hypertension. He was given one month to lower his blood pressure otherwise, he'd be prescribed medication. That was a rude awakening for us. Over the years, the doctor has told him time and time again that his blood pressure needs to be reduced. But we never quite heeded any advise and continued living (and eating) a rather unhealthy lifestyle.
When he was given one month to get his act together, we decided to really do something about it. This time, we are going to get it right. One of the most important things to reduce was salt. We never paid attention to how much salt we actually consume everyday and after we educated ourselves on healthy daily values and understanding nutritional labels, we were rather shocked at the junk we used to take for granted.
We threw out a whole bunch of stuff from our pantry and replaced them with healthier snacks, more greens and better food choices. We started following the philosophies of the DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) diet and began to eat and live a better quality of life. In fact, he had ordered a book on the DASH diet months ago but never read it!
Since Saturday, I have been cooking at home and preparing lunches (usually sandwiches) for work. I am doing this mostly to lose weight and to eat better. I am also doing this for my husband because I'd rather make this a life-time commitment than have him on life-time meds. Even though it's been barely a week, we are already seeing some results. His blood pressure has reduced and I actually lost a pound or two. This is pretty amazing and we now wonder why we didn't think about doing this before.
I made ginger chicken with spring onions for dinner and did not follow any particular recipe. We had this with a side dish of simple stir-fry bitter gourd and ate them with brown rice. The chicken was surprisingly good and very fragrant. I used less than half the soy sauce and sesame oil than what I normally add in my cooking. Actually, "soy sauce" is not an accurate term. My sister in-law recommended Bragg's Liquid Aminos a year ago and we have been using this in our home since. It tastes very similar to soy sauce and has a much lower sodium content.
Of course, we can still eat out and indulge every once a while. We just need to substitute our greasy, fatty favourites with healthier, leaner alternatives. I don't think it's a huge sacrifice especially when I know that it will help us lead a more wholesome life.
Anyway, we will find out in a few weeks' whether the changes we made really helped. I just hope to hear good news from our doctor :-)
5 comments:
Def, you're making the right choice: health! And your words inspire me to reflect about our lifestyle. It's a great thing!
Eating more healthfully is always a good decision. I'm really curious whether your changes have impacted your husband's blood pressure...
Eliana: Thank you! In our modern life, we do tend to take a lot of things for granted out of convenience.
Kathy: Yes, it has made a difference. His blood pressure dropped when he did a self-check at home. But we would know for certain in a few weeks' time. I am hoping for the best!
My friend was in a similar situation as well - doctor told her to lower her cholesterol or start on medication. She managed to bring down her cholesterol to a healthy level within a month by eating healthy foods such as steamed fish with porridge and exercising daily. I hope that there are great improvements for your hubby! :)
wiffy : Sorry to hear about your friend but it's wonderful that she managed to reduce her cholesterol :-) This is definitely an inspiration, thanks for sharing!
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