Hours and hours

Hours and hours and searching, reading, list making, list editing, and finally satisfaction with my end result.

Things I eat regularly
broccoli
spinach
potatos
tomatos
garlic
onions

Things I eat sometimes
beans, any,  black beans and lima beans most suggested
bananas
olive oil
oranges

Things I eat rarely
celery
oatmeal
berries
low fat dairy (yogurt, skim milk, low fat cheese)
sweet potatos
unsalted sunflower seeds
apples
grapefruit
dark chocolate 50-70% cacao
lemon
avocado

Tea to try
Hibiscus

Dandelion leaf

Passion flower

White tea

RESEARCH
potasium, maganese, nitrate, potasium foods, etc

Other Stuff
Oregano
Cardamon
Hawthorne
Yarrow
Linden
Tummeric
Cinnamon

I was pleased to learn some of the most suggested foods I already do eat often. Some of the items I found are outside my budget or availability, but seriously, it was like three or four things, so no crying over it. Cold water fish YUM! Budget say NO. Family of seven here, and I spend $5-$10 on meat for one dinner for all of us, I can’t spend $8 on one portion of super delicious seafood just for me. Yes, I’ve wished many times I live by the coast!

I was excited to get my home blood pressure monitor yesterday. Not so excited to see my readings consistently at 148/105. Is this accurate? I will find out at the doctors office. It is consistent? Seems to be so far. I’m a stickler for reading instruction manuals, and this monitor has many settings I wish to use, but for now, I can’t wrap my head around anything. It will have to wait, but the basics are easy. The monitor is an Omron BP785 which won me over by having the most sensors, won’t give you a foul ball for detecting an irregular heart beat, either. I tend to have some annoying heart flubbing moments. Reading many reviews of people getting errors from some other monitors if their heart does some gymnastics, but not with this model, was encouraging. The memory for data is enough for me, also. I genuinely hope this sucker becomes a trusted loved one, but he’s still in the friend zone for now.

I also found some hibiscus tea and after more HOURS of reading reviews and inspecting products, this highly rated, sometimes possessing questionable content tea, it is the one I want. Out of all I am doing and testing, this one thing is the one thing I am most excited to try. My hopes are very high for this tea. The dandelion leaf tea I doubt I will try, I think it’s great but maybe not what I need specifically. The white tea, yes I will for sure. Proven in testing to be anti inflammatory and it wins over other teas in trials. Inflammation is the root of all evil, if you ask me. Well, it’s the symptom of whatever evil is lurking, but it wreaks havoc on your health, inside and out. The passion flower tea I will try in passing, right now from all my reading, it’s all about the hibiscus and white tea for me right now.

All the foods in my list which I eat sometimes, I can easily bump up more in my weekly and daily diet, and will make a more conscious and deliberate action to do so. Celery? Ew. But I’ll freaking eat it. Recommended four stalks a day….but, I know myself, I will start with just two a day and will probably stay at two a day. I could take pills of this stuff of course, but why? I don’t want to pop 40 pills a day of supplements when the real thing is right in front of me. I even dodged taking daily prenatal vitamins during my pregnancies. Taken daily prenatal pills I felt like CRAP all day and had scary dreams, nightmares, insomnia and night sweats. No thank you. I compromised by taking them twice a week and eating very well as usual, and my blood work was always spot on, so I was reassured I did right for myself. It’s a supplement, to add what you don’t have. I’ll think happy cow thoughts of chewing cud, and eat the stupid and potentially life saving celery.

Oatmeal? My kids eat oatmeal every morning, and now so does mommy! Yay for mommy….yay for mommy trying to stay alive and healthy. Oatmeal is not my favorite. I will eat it semi-happily now, and that cinnamon on the list, I just toss it in the oatmeal. Recommended 3 teaspoons a day for lowering blood pressure? That’s not gonna happen in my real life, but I will ADD it to my diet in some amount. I read some thing about it MUST be grated from a cinnamon stick or it doesn’t count! Um, ok, I don’t scare that easily and I have some ever so lovely tasting saigon cinnamon in my pantry. That’ll do until further notice.

Low fat dairy? I can do the yogurt, I love yogurt. Low fat milk, low fat cheese? No way, and don’t mess with cheese like that. Cheese is to be respected. Yogurt it is, then!

No exercising added yet, I can’t. And that makes me a little sad. I can barely walk across my house, much less take a 2 mile stroll, but it’s coming my way. And I can’t wait to get back out there. Yoga? Downward facing dog just isn’t on my list of things to do when your entire head feels like exploding from a simple sneeze, but I will have it back before too long. Although, jokingly I’ve said I will search youtube for some geriatric yoga. The stuff I was doing was a bit intense, so I will go towards EASY, simple, nice old people yoga. I love that two-feet-solid on the ground balanced feeling I have all day afterwards. My new parred down goal is simple alignment and smooth, happy, relaxed muscles. Happy body, less stress, less inflammation, yay! I am getting ahead of myself lol, but I miss it.

Onward, upward, till the goal ye win, dadgummit.