A social aptitude not to weight for the juice of life

I was aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight about 2 years ago and I saw the Jawbone UP in the in-flight brochure.

“£120! That's a lot of money for a bangle!” , I thought

What an UP was, simply didn’t register in my mind.

Sick Athleticism by a Basket Case

I was diagnosed as an athlete 20 years ago, which totally surprised me! However, I did take great pleasure in producing a print-out from St Thomas’ Hospital to show my Basketball teammates, who were half my age.
Every time they made a wise crack about my age, out would come the report and I would openly gloat “cos I’m an athlete, you know” .

The Weight of Cholesterol

I retired from my active Basketball participation in 1998 and if I was honest, I have proceeded  to get sick ever since.
20 years ago I was diagnosed with Hypercholesterolemia, which was why I attending St Thomas’ Hospital.

By July 1st, this year, my weight had climbed in excess of 252lbs but my cholesterol level remained static at around 11.

Statins

Some time back I decided to quit the Statins and all the other drugs that had been prescribed to fix my Cholesterol and I am glad I did!

Last year the film ‘Statin Nation’ was released, which refutes that Cholesterol is the killer that it is reported to be and that “People with high cholesterol tend to live longer” . The purpose of Cholesterol it seems is to repair damage to arteries, Cholesterol is not the problem, it is a symptom of something else and the wrong thing is being treated.

Not even being aware of that, for me it was a life choice:
“Is my life going to be about taking drugs?”.
It was a Brain Space thing.
I consider my present time and where I put my thoughts as precious, even more than my own longevity. 
Worrying about taking prescribed medications wasn’t doing it for me.

As my weight grew so did my blood pressure. It was high!

Walking up slopes for any amount of time produced tightness in my chest, I was aware of pains in my shoulders, tingling hands and even my teeth experienced strange sensations!

Last year my friend , Jason Jackman, referred to me to Superwellness  Nutritionist Coach, Angela Steel and my education began. Sweet!

SUGAR!

Its everywhere! from bread to Coca Cola, from ice-cream to ketchup, from hot-dog to cakes, jams, sweets, sausages, yogurts ... you name it!
In virtually everything I ate.

Great, as an athlete, I would burn it but as a Laptop Jockey ………. No

Research is reporting that the excess sugars in our diet are responsible for a variety of ailments, such as colds, flu, food allergies, high cholesterol, candida, cancer, diabetes, fatty degeneration, degenerative diseases, depression, dizziness, crying spells, aggression, insomnia, weakness, skin problems, heart and circulatory diseases... 

My eating habits changed and I discovered just how enjoyable AND SATISFYING some foods really are, yet alone how they repair my body!
Organic oats for breakfast with Strawberries and Blueberries and half a banana – even though the banana has natural sugar, it still has sugar!

Snacks of Almonds or Munchy Seeds – new sensations, new tastes – its all new experience and its fun!

This year, I re-mortgaged my house and a medical report was required by the insurance company. Blood tests were taken and submitted to my Doctor and off I went to see him.
My visits to the doctor occur about every 10 years.

He said “your Cholesterol level is 11”, I said “that’s good for me”.
We discussed how to lower it and given my decision not to take drugs, I asked what the alternatives were, expecting him to talk to me about food or alternative therapies.  Instead I was offered alterative drugs.

Strangely enough, the high blood pressure had disappeared and 2 weeks later, just by being aware, my cholesterol was down to 9.6 but I am a hypnotherapist

UP

Some weeks later, I met a client in Westfield Mall, in London’s East End, next to the Olympic Park. In the Apple Store I came across the Jawbone Up again – “why would the Apple Store stock a bangle?”

The UP wristband tracks the amount of steps that I take and sleep states, deep and shallow. I then plug it into my Android phone and it uploads its data to the UP app.

I use IFTTT.com to push other data to the UP from many sources:
YouTube, Foursquare, my Wordpress Blog, Flickr, the weather at the beginning of the day and at 3pm and scrobbles from Last.FM
It is like a life journal.

I also push data from the UP app to Facebook, Google Docs and Google Calendar.

But Weight!

I then discovered the Withings Smart Body Analyser (scales) which feeds my weight, Body fat measurement, CO2 readings from where I sleep and my heart rate thru WiFi to its app and from there to most of the other Life-style apps that I now use.

If any of the apps don't redistribute data to other apps, then usually IFTTT.com can.

The Runkeeper app measures my steps, tracks me by GPS and tells me (in a female voice) how I am progressing as I walk. She tells me about my pace and speed. Runkeeper is another app installed on my smartphone too.

All that remained was to monitor my heart rate on a continuous basis and upload that data to my phone and there I hit a problem!

According to Polar, in the UK, Polar Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitors don’t work with my Samsung S3! In point of fact nothing seemed to work the way I wanted but if I owned an iPhone, I would have been spoilt for choice.
I think that is pretty backward!

Eventually, I bought a Garmin Forerunner 110. Although this doesn't transfer data by Bluetooth or WiFi, it connects via a USB directly to my laptop and using Runkeeper,com, I can upload a map of where I walk, the elevation, my pace etc. etc., as well as to Garmin Connect  which records the same data and keeps a record of my activity on its own calendar.
Garmin also has an app for my phone.

The calendar can be added to my Google Calendar but so far I haven’t been able to make that work,

Next thing up was the  Joe Cross documentary on Channel 5, here in the UK:

'Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead' ( click here to see the  Official Trailer from Team Reboot on Vimeo )

So I bought the same Juicer, as he uses in the programme.
But

then I needed to measure the acid in my blood and that where it becomes lo-tech.
I ordered Simplex Health pH Test Strips from Amazon and add the results onto a Google spread-sheet

 

The great thing is that I dropped 10lbs in a week.
I feel so great and its getting better each day!
And everything is broadcastable through Facebook and Twitter and on Runkeeper’s own  Social stream – that’s quite an incentive!

Becoming accountable to my network and I even have one of my clients monitor me, which she does admirably!

So, the Universe conspired to get me well.
I got aware and I have had a fun time playing with gadgets and apps and being a ‘Social Tart’, enjoying reporting the progress in SoMe and all this while I heal …. Fabulous!

 

Become aware. Take responsibility for your own health and your diet. Don’t delegate and
Be well!

sources:

http://www.statinnation.net/
 http://www.superwellness.co.uk/
  https://jawbone.com/up#system 
https://jawbone.com/up#gallery:1
http://curezone.com/foods/sugarpage.asp
 http://www.withings.com/en/bodyanalyzer
http://runkeeper.com/running-app
https://garmin.com/
 http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
 http://www.lakeland.co.uk/