Hypertension, DASH Diet and CC

So I'm 29 and 30lbs overweight, and just recently diagnosed with high blood pressure, i.e. consistently around 142/99 for about 2 years (it slipped past the doctors a while). I have a month to try to lower my blood pressure, otherwise I have to go on medication - which I really don't want to do. I could go on and on about how I got here, but instead I'll share what I'm doing about it.

This has been the motivation I've needed. I found a book on the DASH Diet for Hypertension. Basically it requires certain servings of fruits, veggies, dairy, grain, meat, nuts a day based on your caloric needs. Plus of course at least 30 mins of aerobic activity 5 days a week - very limited alcohol consumption. So I've been logging my servings on a chart all day and my calories in calorie count. I hope they coincide, so I can lose weight too. And I hit the treadmill tonight. So all in all I'm off to a good start. So far, I feel like I've eaten a lot with more to come and my calories are relatively low. I just hopes all this lowers my bp.

Anybody else doing the DASH Diet?? Success or woes?? Or anyone else battling Hypertension???

Hey!  I'm 28 and am now about 10 lbs overweight.  With kids and all, I've worked a lot on my weight the past couple years. My baby is now 13 months.

Anyway... my BP was high during the end of my pregnancy and stayed high even 6 months later....  my doctor told me if I came in again with it high, I would have to go on bp medicine.  Long story, but I was on bp lowering medicine while I was pregnant as well, and it's horrible.  So, I left his office immediately and went to the grocery store and got all fresh food.  And got my butt back to the gym.  If I'm working out and eating healthy (and limiting my salt), my bp is great.  Once I stop working out and eat unhealthy, my bp gets high again.  (My highest was 180/100)  If you can stick with the diet and exercise, do that....  The bp medicine I was on made me have hot flashes and I hated it.  I'm doing everything I can not to get back on that.  I've never actually heard of the DASH diet.  Does it have anything to do with Mrs. Dash?  Mrs. Dash has a whole line of no salt added spices.  Does the DASH diet limit sodium?  That's a biggie.

Another tidbit of information....  I'm not quite sure why, but frozen chicken has more sodium than fresh chicken.  You just have to watch all those labels.

Also, Smart Balance has a popcorn that is no salt added (I don't think butter either).  Not the best taste, but it's better than nothing.

Keeping with the basics-something that is naturally grown-is best!

Good luck!  Keep me posted!

Betsy

The main reason I started to lose weight was because my doctor gave me three months to get my blood pressure down or I'd go on meds.  Didn't want to do that, and found what may be the same book that you have.  All the suggestions in that book are pretty  much the same ones you're going to find here on CC - lots of veggies, fruit, whole grains, etc etc.  Plus exercise.  Yep.  I lost a lot of weight, though that book was just the start. It worked for me.

DASH: stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Not related to Mrs. Dash, but yes all about a very low sodium, low fat way of eating. Basically based on your caloric needs you eat certain amounts of fruits, veggies etc. The goal is to not eat things over 5% fat or sodium and always under 20%. I'm eating 4 servings of veg, 4 of fruit, 2.5 dairy, 7 grain, 1.5 meat... the servings are like 1/2 cup fruit or cooked veg, 1 cup raw veg, slice of bread, 3 oz of meat...I'm loving it! I've only been doing it for a little over a week and I reduced my BP from around 150/99 to 130/77. I also got an at home monitoring kit. I can't believe my doctor didn't even suggest diet! He just said he wanted me to get more data for him over the next month since I only go to the doc once a year or less...they didn't have much. Yes I've been exercising too...only lost about 4 lbs...but not complaining!!

Here's to staying off meds!!!