Saturday, June 28, 2008

Paleo Diet - Day 238

Things are looking very...well, normal today. My weight has remained at 164 lbs, where it was last week. Which, of course, leaves my BMI (Body Mass Index) unchanged at 22.2, also.

One change has been my body fat percentage, which is at 13.9% today, as opposed to 12.7% last week, which could have something to do with the fact I got in less exercise during the week this time. Still, 13.9% is at the lower end (11% being the bottom) of the "healthy" range for a man my age, just 2.9% away from "underfat," a designation I dispute, as such a classification system would make all bodybuilders (typically 2% to 4%) "underfat." Anyway, I gained a little this week, but, believe me, no one looking at me would call me "chubby." In fact, I really need to invest in some new pants!

On the blood sugar front, I'm at a perfectly normal 91 ml/dcl at around 2:00pm (got off to a late start today). So, nothing significant there, except that this is lower than last week's reading, which was 95.

Where my blood pressure is concerned, the trend is holding. This afternoon, my reading is at 100/84. The diastolic is a little above the suggested optimal of 80, but still within normal bounds, and the systolic is "low normal," where one would expect athletes and children to be. I'll continue monitoring this trend to see if it remains stable or goes even lower. If and when it does, I think it will be safe to discontinue my blood pressure medicine and then increase my monitoring to see how it goes without it. If, at that point, all goes well without medication, then I can called myself "cured" of high blood pressure. And, remember, this is the result of a simple dietary change that anyone can make, called the paleolithic diet.