Saturday, August 9, 2008

Paleo Diet - Day 280

This morning, I find I've dropped 3 lbs from last Saturday, to 162 lbs. Again, it's probably just a water weight fluctuation, as my body fat percentage has again remained stable at 12.7%. One factor might be that I am almost out of bottled water and decided to get some more this morning, as opposed to late last night, so I didn't drink as much before bed as I might have ordinarily. The weight change drops my BMI (Body Mass Index) to 22.0, which is in the middle of the "normal weight" range.

As for my blood sugar, it's slightly lower than last week at this time, at 94 ml/dcl, as opposed to 96. Nothing worth commenting on, really.

My blood pressure this morning is at 121/75, which differs a little from last weekend's 120/79, so, it's about in the same range. Again, this is with medication. I tried, last Saturday night, to go without my medication and only made it about five hours beyond my usual pill time, when I noticed my blood pressure (which I was monitoring once an hour) creeping upward, to a maximum of 140/something (should have written that down), so that was when I took my pill and abandoned hope of achieving my goal of getting rid of my medication. Maybe at some later point, then. This begs the question, if all other factors have normalized in response to my paleolithic diet, then what factor is maintaining my unmedicated blood pressure at a higher than normal level? One answer that keeps occurring to me is that it simply may take longer. Maybe when I've been at it for more than a year or so, it will finally be normal without medication. Another answer that occurs to me is, maybe it's the medication, itself, that is keeping me this way. However, if the cessation of the medication - even for a few hours - has the effect of driving my blood pressure higher, that doesn't seem to be the case, unless there is some dependency factor as a result of taking it for 8 years. Perhaps, when I dispense with it, I am seeing a rise in blood pressure that is due to "withdrawal" symptoms. Or, perhaps it was simply that I was anxious over the anticipated results - not to mention taking the risk of sleeping without my medication for the first time in 8 years, with my sleep apnea (which elevates my blood pressure during sleep). Or, maybe it's my sleep apnea that is keeping my blood pressure from dropping any farther without medication. It's hard to say, but there is evidently something that is doing so. Hmmm...