Getting healthy!

When I started Test Driving Life in 2007, I just wanted a place where I could speak my mind. In 2011 I blogged daily as an experiment. By early 2014, I apparently had run out of gas, and so March 3 was the last post before this one.

I'll tell you where I've been. I've been on a crusade to avoid using blood pressure medication! The method was to lose 25 pounds by quitting eating sugar, supplemented by walking 5 miles a day. Let's hear it for the fantastic Fitbit for keeping me on track. You can see it below. I wear it all day long and it records my steps and extrapolates it to miles and "active minutes." The goal - 10,000 steps, 5 miles, 30 active minutes. I've found that I need 11,000 steps to get 5 miles.

In December, 2013, I weighed 190 pounds, my blood pressure was 160/100. Last week, I weighed 165 pounds and my blood pressure was 134/80. AND -- even better -- my cholesterol has gone down from 221 to 161 in that same six month period. I am now in 32-waist pants (from 34), and they're getting loose. I feel great.

This photo (I'm on the left in the white t-shirt and sun-protective hat) shows me at the top of Mission Peak, in Fremont, California, which I climbed with a group of hardy colleagues last month. It was the greatest day ever according to my Fitbit. I walked more than 10 miles (26,000 steps) that day. I made it without hurting myself, too!


I'll try to come here more often, if I'm not out walking.