Coffee and Blood Pressure...

Recently I wrote a post that was about trying to recover my health in preparation for the inevitable "next" health challenge. I have set up an excel spread sheet that is both a guide for me... and a recording device. A key part of getting back into a healthy situation is to understand where my baseline happens to be...

I have set up to have seven convenient (easy to measure) modalities with which to keep a weekly measure of my progress... they are Blood Pressure (systolic and Diastolic), Heart Rate, Breath Hold time, Push-ups to exhaustion, sit-ups to exhaustion, and Flexibility (distance +/- from touch toes). My intention was to establish the baseline today.

At about 11 AM I decided to measure my resting Blood Pressure and heart rate, which frankly is usually about 105/65 and 52 BPM when I go to bed. I measure it and guess what... it was 148/80!!!!! My heart rate was 54 this morning at the same time as my BP was elevated, especially the systolic. Now for some people that is not too bad, but for me it was a wake-up... and cause for pondering what the hell is happening.

So, I started pondering... easy to do here at the Oyster Pond... last night it was 108/64 and 51 (yes, I record these). When I thought through my morning, I had had my normal chopped apple with chopped nuts, cinnamon, blueberries, yogurt, and cottage cheese in a bowl. No issue there, it is basically the recommended ZONE breakfast, and both Lynnda and I eat it religiously.

I also had two large cups of coffee... three spoons of freshly ground beans in each! I think I have found the culprit. I had never measured my morning resting Blood Pressure, so I didn't know what was happening to me... the buzzz also raises my blood pressure. I Guess it will be either decalf or one cup or no cups... it isn't good for the system to be at elevated pressures.

I can doooooo this!