“You are on the onset of having hypertension, watch out for your sodium intake” the doctor said when I was around the age of thirty-one or thirty-two. In my mind I did not understand how due to the fact that I do workout consistently and my diet is not the absolute healthiest but it is consistently healthy. I workout 4-6 days a week, I hardly eat red meat or pork but I did eat chicken, goat and seafood then. I took supplements and drank water a lot. However, I did eat gummy bears every other week as a cheat gift to myself. I did not drink everyday or even every weekend but I did still drink occasionaly. I then made the simple mistake of assuming that since so many other people I see around bigger than me or eat way less healthier than myself I was good.
“You have stage 1 blood pressure” sounded like a smack in the face. I thought to myself it can’t be what I eat can it? At this point in my life I was eating much healthier. I was barely eating any meat at this point but goat and only seafood. There were less occassional snacks and I was doing more than just my basic liftweighting those years ago. I was doing more cardio via running and shadow boxing. My mind instantly thought maybe it’s the pressure from my job at the time which I did not hate at all but our customer could be stressful. However I was remote at this point in Houston so it was a lot less stressful than it ever was in the past so it bewildered me. Then I thought it was the relationships I had. I’m not one to say I’m a nice guy. I actually have always considered myself more like a nice asshole. But I was a people pleaser (sort of still am in some ways but I have been working on it). I just do not care for drama and it seems like most people prefer that over conflict resolution so I would bite my tongue a lot until I could not any longer. To be fair I also did not help in conflict resolutions because I bit my tongue a lot I resented when someone did not get what I was saying so I would talk to them as if they were a toddler.
“It’s actually worse” the doctor said months later after medication, working out even more, eating an even stricter diet, a job change, removal of stressful things and people, and consistently going to therapy. I realized maybe this is my own internal stress I put on myself. I always strive to excel in my career in order to not mess it up for any other black people after me. For some reason I’m always the only black person and I would be lying if I said as much as I like to believe I’m unapolgetically black I work my ass off to prove myself. Imposter syndrome is real for me. It’s probalby why I have always wanted to build my own business to give me the freedom to just be me without the pressure. But that’s only one part of the why, I want the freedom of time too. So I dived into learning about investing and being an entrepeneur.
I thought I finally found the solution: the lack of relaxation and sleep. This has helped me fitness wise and a lot of other health benefits but it did nothing for my blood pressure. In case you’re wondering as I am writing this my blood pressure reading this morning was 166/90. The first time I was told was around 140/83 and the next time my reading was 155/85. There’s debates about the optimal blood pressure level but the rate at where people experience heart attack with a blood pressure reading of 110/70 is almost zero. Now of course you do not want to be lower than that because then it gets dangerous for being too low.
I wish I could say I have finally found the solution but I do not. However, I am not going to give up. Ironically the pursuit of a normal blood pressure has allowed me to feel more at peace. My relationships are healthier by enforcing boundaries and no longer being a people pleaser. I am in the best shape I have ever been physically and I am only getting better challenging myself pushing my limits further than I ever have in the past.
So my plan of action is now to take daily supplements or consume the following:
Beets (beet juice for me but you can use powder or just eat beets)
Hibiscus tea
Seaweed
Black Beans
Nuts (Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds)
Whole Grains (unrefined unbleached)
Flaxseed (two tablespoons daily)
Vitamin D3
Coenzyme q10 (30-360mg per dag6)
French Maritime bark extract 125mg per day
Antohcyanins 837 mg
Magnesium 500mg
Acetyl-L-carnitine 1000mg twice per day
Omega 3 1k-3k per day
Resveratrol
Fasting for 16 hours daily (8pm-12pm)
Vegan diet 3-5 days of the week
Strive for quality sleep (6-8hrs)
In addition to the above I will reduce social media usage to basically only sharing posts, no scrolling. Strive to reach 10k steps a day. Walk outside more and just sit and read in the park. Immersing yourself in nature is really critical to reset your brain and stop being overstimulated. Plus there are benefits to your body by breathing in the air surrounded by trees.
Looking forward to next time now! If this don’t work I’m just going to move out the USA permanently.
Yoruba Demons 