Annette Larkins' Journey to Health

I was researching for something a few hours ago but as you know with all the web links intertwining here and there and me being always curious about stuff, I stumbled upon this woman at this site.  The site had the word gossip there so I thought of probing some more because this might be some bogus, sensationalized article that is not uncommon on the internet.  Turns out to be legit, so it's not gossip after all! 

Nothing extraordinary about the picture of a woman, seemingly in her 40's right?  Except that as I was reading through, she was actually 30 years older!  I was simply dumfounded, realizing that I was looking at a 70-year old woman...and with a slim physique to boot!  One hot mama?  More like one hot grandma!  Woot woot!  Annette Larkins has truly found the proverbial fountain of youth.  Her husband has already gotten used to being referred to as his wife's father, or was that grandfather?  Hahaha! Watch this video so you'll understand what I am yakking about. 

Amazing woman!  I don't know if I could ever be a full-time vegan.  It takes a full turn around with regards to lifestyle and eating habits.  But enjoying slightly cooked vegetables is a good start for me, as well as eating more fruits in season.  I could learn to eat more raw foods that are plant-based.  Raw meats, I could only picture myself eating raw fish like those served in Japanese restaurants, but not anything that walks on two or more legs.  That is still repulsive to me and it would definitely require a huge change in mind set.  That would be a gigantic leap but I like to take my health journey one step at a time. 

Annette Larkins, you simply rock!

Philippine Society of Hypertension

 

 Philippines Society of Hypertension

It's time to be on the loop.  If there are societies for hypertension worldwide, there is definitely one in the Philippines.  Mr. Google is my research buddy so I head over to the site and keyed in this phrase "Filipinos and hypertension."  After 0.28 seconds, it coughed up 158,000 results.  Yeah I know...slow huh?  Just kidding.  It's good to know that we have our own Philippine Society of Hypertension.  After all, one of the country's top main health concerns is the "silent killer." 

I'm still reading some articles.  It was cool to know that there is one day dedicated to hypertension and as you can see from the above picture, it is this coming May 17,  2012.  In fact, as I have just read from the site, May is "Hypertension Awareness Month."   I suppose things that are important deserve a day or a month, either to celebrate, commemorate or to have meaningful discussions like conventions.  

As part of awareness campaign, they also have a downloadable comics written in Filipino.  Surely I wouldn't let that pass so I downloaded my own copy.  Who knows?  I might be able to share it to those who might benefit from it.  Anyway, I just had to laugh a bit as I scrolled to the last page,  right at the bottom where they put the sponsor.  It says there: "Compliments of Neobloc."  I would have been nonchalant about it but Neobloc is also known as tadaaaaaa...Metoprolol, my nemesis!  Talk about the irony of things.  Kidding aside, the comics is a good way to promote hypertension awareness.  There's just one thing there that I am not buying totally.  One of the characters there said that once you have hypertension, you have to take medication for life.  I'll try to prove that wrong.  

Going back to the badge above, I really heart that tag line :  

Healthy Lifestyle, Healthy Blood Pressure. 

Lipid Profile Update

Yesterday morning, as I was already at the top of the stairs going to the laboratory, that's the only time it hit me that I was going for a needle pricking session once again.  Getting used to it, I just took one deep breath and entered the room to see the phlebotomist again after just about two months.  Just to make sure, I reminded her again that it's me, the patient with the hard-to-locate veins.  I don't relish being poked by needles more than what was necessary.  Same as last January, she had to jab the needle where it really hurts, on a side vein.  I knew what to expect now so it wasn't that painful anymore.  After she inserted the needle, I even mustered enough courage to look as blood was flowing inside the syringe...my very own precious blood.  It was somewhat surreal, seeing a big needle enter my skin, pierce a vein, and see blood being drawn out.  Okay enough!  I'll spare you the gory details as I might be scaring someone who's about to have his or her blood extracted hahaha! 

I Heart Good Health's New Home

packing up, a photo by mitchgibis on Flickr.

I have packed up and decided to move to a new home.  Not literally though.  I'm referring to this site I call my home online.  It still looks the same.  I decided to retain everything else for now.  I'll get to the design part later on when I'm not busy with offline work.  So for now it's like moving to a new home with all your old stuff.    There are some loose ends that still need to be fixed because of the new URL (www.iheartgoodhealth.com).  This site is still in the transition stages so bear with it for a while.  

What got into me in the first place?  First it was the page ranking just last month.  I wasn't expecting to get a PR of 1 with just barely a two-month old blog back then.  I almost did a cart wheel over that hahaha!  I'm probably over reacting there but it was really unexpected so I was naturally raving over it and extremely grateful to all the site visitors who took the time to read, browse, and comment on this site. 

I was also inspired by a fellow writer and good friend from Online Writing Ideas.  Reading her posts and answers to all my queries further encouraged me to take the plunge and buy my own domain name.  So here I am, still figuring things out, learning the ropes, setting up some things but it's good to go.  Change is good, and learning new things is always exciting! 

Goal Update for February

My workload has definitely thrown me off track last month. With just four blog posts in a month...could you believe that?  It happens sometimes, I guess.  I cringe at the thought of giving the end of month update specifically because I have not accomplished much...and this update is five days late!  But I have given my word, and though this is late, here's a short rundown for the February goals:

Continue with the diet plan - to have increased servings of fruits and veggies

I am definitely having more fruits and veggies in my diet, but I feel I could still do better.  I get around 2-3 servings per day of combined fruits and veggies.  I am aiming to have four or more servings per day. 

Be more strict in limiting sodium intake to a maximum of 1,500 mg

I don't have the exact figures right now as I am not able to update my fitness pal account (my bad!).  But I still maintain a log of my food intake.  I have a separate planner I use solely for jotting down the food I eat, the number of daily steps, and my water intake.  I think I still go over 1,500 mg of salt in some days because I don't always prepare my own food.  

Healthy habit 2: Be consistent with 7 - 8 glasses of water (when doing normal activities)

This habit has not yet kicked in quite well.  There are days I manage 7 or 8  glasses of water.  But on the average, I am just on the 5th or 6th glass.  I have not given up though.  This seems to be easy for some, but it's taking me a while.  I'm getting there.

Take 6,000 steps per day (minimum)

I got good news for this one.  Although I may have gone below the 6000 steps in some days, my average for last month is 7,577 steps.  Being busy at work helped with the walking thing.  I had to go back and forth between two offices (yep I have two offices now).  But I feel better with all that walking, knowing I am more active and not confined to an office chair.

There you go.  I hope I perform better this month.

Step Up to Health With Omron HJ-005

I got a new gadget that I wasn't planning to buy anytime soon.  But "clumsy" me forgot to take out the credit card from my wallet and the temptation turned into an "indulgence."  I'm not a chronic impulse buyer but I just had the strong feeling last Sunday that it's a good time to finally buy my own pedometer.  Hahaha! Besides, it's already past the cut off date for my billing cycle so I have time to save for until April when I have to pay for the gadget.  

Anyway, I was trying out my Omron HJ-005 since yesterday.  So far, I am happy with it.  It has the basic function of counting steps and a way to adjust the sensitivity to plus or minus a number of steps.  I am not really that obsessed with getting the accuracy right to the dot.  I simply needed a way to count my daily steps.  That's it.  I didn't get the more expensive model that tells you how many calories were burned. The simpler the gadget, the better.  Well, here's my new "toy"

What I like about my new pedometer is that it's small compared to other models that look like bulky stopwatches or timers.  This one is just as long as my pinkie finger (and I have a relatively small hand).  It doesn't bulk up when I clip it on my belt.  The clip is really sturdy and won't fall off easily, but for added security, I put a short lanyard.  The best part is that it has a cover so one would not accidentally push the reset button.  Basically, you just clip it and walk away.  Nice huh? 

So I guess it's time to hand over the Pokewalker back to my nephews. Good bye Bellsprout.  It was nice walking with you for more than a month.

Bradycardia...What!?

Heart coronary arteries, a photo by Patrick J. Lynch on Flickr.

It was a fine Sunday morning some months ago, after having late breakfast, I took a tablet of Metoprolol, a medicine used to treat hypertension.  That was the second medicine prescribed to me since Amlodipine did not effectively lower my blood pressure.  About 45 minutes later while I was already walking towards church to attend the service, I felt like I would pass out.  However, I didn't see stars and my vision remained clear.  Thankfully I didn't black out although the feeling was like I had lead shoes and I was in need of a cane to steady my weakened knees.  I was alone so my instinct was to look around and find something to hold on to.  No poles, post, or wall near enough so I had to keep walking and get to church as soon as I can, maybe get help if the condition worsens.  It was like going extremely low on battery, like energy oozing from my body.  I was glad to be able to sit down after that walk that normally takes me less than 5 minutes only but that instance, it might have taken me twice as long.