Continuing along the path I started on yesterday, I'll write a little on my plan to take myself off my current medications - meds for high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and cholesterol. To do that, I'll need to make small mention of our plans to eventually leave the USA for good and live near my wife's family in Philippines.
Without going into great detail now about our decision to emigrate, it was that decision which lead to my plan to get off the meds.
Currently all my maintenance medication is provided to me through my health insurance - with no cost to me, other than my insurance premiums, of course. When the day arrives when I've retired and said my fond farewell to my employer, I'll no longer have the free maintenance medication. Being retired and living on a fixed retirement income in Philippines, it will be difficult to provide myself with these medicines.
The plan has been for some time now to return to a regular meditation schedule - which will lower my blood pressure to acceptable levels - get back on the treadmill - which will help lower my triglycerides - and stop eating the food which I know is not doing me a bit of good.
Returning to a regular meditation schedule should be the easiest of the three to accomplish. After all, it's something I've been doing - off and on - for more than half my life. I'll get out of the habit from time to time but will return to it again and again. Finding the time for the afternoon meditation is slightly more difficult than fitting it into my morning schedule. It's easier to find peace and quiet in the house when everyone else is sound asleep.
There was a time when doing strenuous exercise played a more central place in my life. Weight training, and treadmill, that sort of thing; didn't spend much time running, however. Now, the nerve damage which prevents me from playing the guitar as I once did also prevents me from weight training. I just can't get a proper grip on free weights. I tried Yoga for awhile, but I finally settled on getting my workout on the treadmill. Sadly, I've fallen behind on that. I'm not fat by any means, but it wouldn't hurt to tone up a bit and the exercise will help with my triglyceride levels.
It goes without saying that changing my diet will be the most difficult of the three. Being a typical 21st century American, convenience is my curse. All the wrong foods are too easily within reach.
My plan to go med free may have started with the plan to retire, but it was still too convenient to continue as I have been. The proverbial slap in the face came when I noticed some unusual hair loss. I've lost hair on my arms and on the back of my hands; my beard seems to be getting sparser and my eyebrows, which were once notoriously, bushy have become thinner.
It turns out that the culprit for this unusual hair loss is one of my current medications. If I want to keep the little I have left, I'll have to get away from the convenience of daily pill popping and make a few inconvenient lifestyle changes.
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