No exercise for a few days, up it goes

I haven't done anything remotely physical since Monday's 64 mile bike ride. This morning's reading:
138/87

The Omron machine I use to take readings has a nice feature that averages three readings taken one minute apart. Those are:
138/89
137/87
138/85

Top number is pretty darn consistent, as is the bottom, though I'll take that slight downward diastolic trend from 89 to 85 as I remained still for a few minutes.

Given this morning's reading, I would usually motivate to run around Green Lake or go on a bike ride to pull my bp down, but this weekend myself and seven others are climbing Mt. Adams, so I will save my weary muscles and bones for that and assume that it will be enough exercise for several days to come.

Also of note: my pulse rate this morning is 45. When in the 40's I used to assume the low number was due to Atenalol, which my doctor says lowers your heart rate. Now that I've been off it for a while, it's kind of nice to see that it's still in the 40's.

This blog's next post will be next week after this weekend's Mt. Adams trip. In the future I plan on writing about some of the many topics in The High Blood Pressure Solution, like why exercise lowers blood pressure, why the potassium/sodium ratio matters, my experience with two different blood pressure home monitors, and more.

As a final note, yesterday it was confirmed that I will be showing photos from our May Eastern Europe trip at Motore Coffee next month. The show will focus on Romania. Below is a Bucharest scene I think I'll include.

Still not so shabby

This morning's reading is better than I expected given last night's activities:
127/85

I'm still feeling the effects of pre-Sounder's game beers and post celebratory beers. A delicious hamburger at St. Andrews pub isn't exactly heart-conscious food, either. However, I skipped the bacon and the meat was 100% antibiotic free and organic, so there you go.

The reading above is especially pleasing given that I haven't popped an Atenalol in well over a month, and my readings in my pre-Atenalol days, about 4 years ago, were sometimes nastily high. Still, having the top number below 120 and the bottom number below 80 are my goal, so no resting on laurels!

Still down

After yesterday's bike ride, and a day of eating well, the reading is still good. Just a few minutes ago, my morning bp read:
126/79

Richard Moore in his book The High Blood Pressure Solution makes it clear that changes to diet do not take affect immediately. In many cases it can take weeks or months, especially when the bp has been high for a long time. Consequently, I don't pretend to think that a quick fix in diet can readjust blood pressure. However, my hope is that after doing this thing for a couple months and having good blood pressure for a little while that a brief respite from conscientious eating can quickly return the body back to where it was.

Time will tell. I am taking today off exercise to give my bones a rest, and I'll be having a few beers at the Seattle Sounders game tonight, so check in tomorrow to see where things stand.

For inspiration, I'll leave you with another picture from last week's Stujack Pass hike. The notch is the pass. Mt. Pugh is up to the right.

Just one reason exercise is good

I finished a 64 bike ride with lots of hills about two hours ago. My bp reading is now:
115/72

Sure this is temporary and will rise with time as capillaries constrict post-exercise, but it sure is nice to see.