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Strange weight gain, considering that I have not changed what I ate or my portions. These things happen I guess. I haven't moved around a lot this week, but this has been true since the beginning of this lockdown (7 weeks completed), and it was also true before back when life was normal. I know it's not my period (it stopped this week after 12 days).
I am more worried about my blood pressure that keeps creeping up. Still hovering around 130 systolic or slightly lower in the mornings, but always above 125. Same thing for my diastolic, always over 75, sometimes over 80 (my top number this week was around 81). Pulse is a bit high, over 80. It may be because my medication is not working anymore, but I really don't want to have the dose increased right now. One of the drugs I take is an ARB, or -sartan type of medication, which apparently increases ACE2 expression in the body and provides more "food" to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, since it hooks to the ACE2 enzymes in the body. So complications and death become very likely when the virus destroys all the ACE2 after hooking to it. So long story short, I do not wish to increase my medication.
Maybe in a few months, assuming I survive these crazy times, I may have my amlodipine increased -- it is a calcium channel blocker, so no impact on the ACE2 enzyme -- but I would rather not.
In any case, I am still checking diligently my BP, maybe skipping a day once in a while. This way, I will not end up with a bad surprise such as 160/100 and I will be able to take action before it goes to that uncontrolled level. It's the same thing with my weight. When I weigh in once a week, it fluctuates a few pounds up or down, but it maintains. When I stop weighing in for many months, I end up 10 or 20 pounds heavier!
I keep reading that intermittent fasting may help. I am afraid to try it because I know I will eventually stop -- it won't be sustainable for me. Like exercise, once you start it, you cannot ever stop because you then end up in a worse position than before. I usually read that it helps with losing weight and controlling blood glucose. Only WebMD states that it might help for BP.
I also keep reading that keto and low carb diets help decreasing BP better than the DASH diet. I can confirm that eating the DASH diet (basically low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar, high-carb diet) does not help with BP. For keto/low-carb, same thing, it may help other people with BP but not me. I even took up a bit of exercise at some point, but it never helped. I suspect I did not do this long enough, though. I am also a bit lazy. Based on what I have read, I often notice most people on the Internet who were able to control or reverse their BP had a lot of weight to lose -- 50 to over 100 lbs on average. For diabetes, some of these people lost a lot of weight, some did not.
I think that my hypertension is genetic. My father is a stroke survivor and probably has it, but used to pretend he doesn't have it. One of his sisters has it. My mother has high BP tendencies, but not full blown hypertension. My sister has completely normal BP. She is usually health-conscious and does some running, but she can eat, drink and even smoke as much as she wants and her BP remains normal. So I probably lost at the genetic lottery. I think a better lifestyle might help mitigate my personal risks, but I always live in the fear that I will die from a hypertension-induced fatal stroke or heart attack before I hit 50 or menopause. Despite what may seem like pessimism, to paraphrase a rap singer, I want to get healthy or die trying.
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69.5 kg
Lost so far: 9.4 kg.
Still to go: 0 kg.
Diet followed: Reasonably Well.
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Gaining 0.9 kg a Week
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