Hypertension - I tell my spouse the bad news and the good news

Hypertension - I tell my spouse the bad news and the good news

I left my doctor's office two hours after I arrived. I decided to drive to my wife's work and tell her in person the bad and good news about my health. Instead of just sitting around and talking, we went for a walk and talked.

Honey, I have some good news and some bad news. Let me give you the short version during our walk, starting with the bad news.

I have high blood pressure that is off the charts.

My food consumption cannot contain more than 1500 mg of sodium per day.

Eating in restaurants is history for me.

Dried spices have sodium so I can no longer use them.

I will probably have to take medication for the rest of my life.

This information explains a lot of things that have happened to me, like why I get headaches when I eat certain foods. Looking back, my blood pressure had probably been high for some time, and high sodium foods like wings, burgers and fries, and meat lover's pizza were probably pushing my blood pressure to levels so high I couldn't imagine.

As a proud man, I never wanted to know how I had to live my life. Success or failure is something I want to control. Now I have to take medication every day if I want to live. The internal argument was short. It was almost a monologue, take the pills and live.

Now for the good news.

I found out I had high blood pressure before something really bad happened to me. This will be confirmed by a cardiologist in the next few days.

We can push the silent killer away for many decades if we do this right.

There are a lot of restaurants that serve crappy food, now I have a reason not to eat at any of them.

I can continue running and training.

When I was eight years old, my mother went away on a girls' weekend and my father had to do all the cooking. It was the worst week of my life food-wise. I asked my mother to teach me to cook. My favorite class during high school was home economics because we only learned about food and cooking. During my college and work days, food was always on my mind and we ate some amazing meals. This was all preparation for this chapter of my life.

Cooking food without using dried spices will be a big challenge. Foods need to be flavored with vegetables, fruits and meat. This will be a great way to change the way I eat and taste.

Inspired by Rick J Henderson