About a week ago, I was seated outside with my friends and neighbors when another of ours, who also happens to be a nurse, walked up to us and told us that she has a sphygmomanometer, which is a machine used in checking blood pressure.
We had asked her to go get it, not exactly because we were really interested in checking our blood pressure, but because we wanted to patronize her (she was doing it for a fee).
When she got the machine, she began to check our BP one after the other, and when it got to my turn, I found myself getting extremely nervous, and my heart was beating heavily, almost like I had done something wrong. When she was done with the testing, it turned out my BP was on the high side, although she said it could be as a result of my nervousness.
But I didn't need to hear anything from anyone to know that I needed a change in my life. You see, inasmuch as it could be that my being nervous kind of confused the machine, the fact that it even indicated that my BP was high was more than enough reason for me to try to do something about it.
So I immediately got to work on myself and began to cut off a lot of things that I've always known could affect my blood pressure, one of those things being my body weight.
You see, I've been proud of my body ever since I gained weight, and this was because the skinny me wasn't exactly a picture to look at. Also, there were a lot of perks that came with looking the way I look currently, one of them being gaining access into places because everyone just immediately assumes you have money.
But none of those things are worth my life, and I've been meaning to lose a bit of weight for a while now (I'm not exactly fat, just a lot bigger than the guy I used to be four years ago), but I would always find an excuse not to. But you see, I got to realize that nothing motivates a man quicker to do something if not doing that thing could mean the possibility of losing your life.
So ever since that BP meter went up, I've had a lot of changes in my life. I now eat healthy; I eat a lot of fruits. I've also stopped or minimized eating certain things that just aren't healthy for the body. Not only that, but I've also started exercising more, lifting weights while doing some intermittent fasting, because the last thing I want to do is go back to being the lean guy that I was; I would rather turn this fat into muscles.
I've been doing all I can for a while now, and I plan on checking my BP sometime later this month; hopefully when I do, it will be back to normal.