Non Scale Victory

 
   In the rare bursts of free time that I get, I sometimes enjoy spending my time on Cafemom.  It's a great website for moms, and has a group for just about anyone and everyone.  Among some of my favorites, is a group for healthy weight loss.  If there is one thing that can throw a person off on their journey to better health, it is a lack of support.  So this group is a wonderful way to talk to women who are facing some of the exact same struggles I am. Time, money issues, children...all these things are issues many of us share, and can relate to each other about.
    While the group is focused on weight loss, as the name suggests, loss is not the only important part of the group.  We have exercise check ins (which keep you honest), journals that we keep and share among our fellow members, and group butt-kickers when you come on feeling sorry for yourself and want to just sit around and mope.  But there is something else this group has.  A phrase they use that, I think, is easily the most motivational tool when it comes to losing weight, and just getting healthy in general.
    Non-scale victory, or NSV.  If you were to log on to the forum right now, you would likely see a large number of posts talking about this or that NSV.  You see, one of hardest lessons to learn when getting in shape is that the numbers on a scale really are just numbers.  While it is a good idea to make sure those numbers have a steady, but healthy drop, it is also a good idea not to rely on your weight as the only marker of your progress.  So when I have those weeks where my weight  doesn't go down as much as I want, I look to my non scale victories to encourage myself.
   I think it will help to sit down and write about these victories.  Honestly, I don't really take as much time as I should to write about them in the weight loss group, because I often am too busy writing things for this blog!  I figured why not make a weekly "Non Scale Victory" post for my blog instead.
   So what is a non scale victory?  Well it is exactly as the phrase implies.  A victory that has nothing to do with weight.  It can be a new pants size, a new distance you can run, a successful workout to 30 Day Shred without dropping to the floor and crying out for mercy in the form of a pause button...
    Really it can  be anything that you have achieved along your path to health. As I write and post about some of my own NSV's, some may surprise you, as much as they surprised me.   I don't think I realized how poor my health was until I started to become more healthy.  It was like the first time I got glasses back in middle school.  Suddenly the trees had leaves.  Yes, I know that leaves grow on trees, but what I mean is that the leaves went from big green blurs, to actual individual objects.
       One of the biggest ones is likely the most recent; Blood Pressure.  Unfortunately for me, blood pressure  is a battle I fight on two fronts.  Hypertension not only runs in my family, but my weight and salt-saturated diet was starting to cause it to creep up more and more.  My doctor wanted to put me on medication for it! In addition to him, my OBGYN was telling me not to get pregnant again because of the blood pressure issues I experienced at the end of my pregnancy.  Even months after delivering my twins, I struggled to keep my blood pressure in a healthy range. Not only because my weight was at the highest it had ever been, but because our diet was not exactly the healthiest.
     We were exhausted all the time because Ben was working nights and doing full time school during the days, while we were both trying to take care of new born twins, so we had almost no energy to really cook anything.  We had to stretch every dollar, so cheap food was a must.  While we made sure the twins ate healthy, Ben and I ate a lot of boxed meals, and fast food.  On top of that, we both drank more soft drink than I even want to think about.  In all honestly, with the amounts of processed sodium and carbohydrates we were consuming, we may have actually been better off just eating straight salt and sugar!
     Before starting my weight loss, my blood pressure was usually in the range of 160-170/90-100.  In other words, I was  hypertensive, but often so borderline that my doctor wanted to give me time to lower it through weight loss, exercise, and diet.  A healthy blood pressure should have been closer to the 120/80 mark, and I could only lay so much blame on stress or nerves.  I had to face the fact that my weight was hitting my blood pressure hard.
     To really understand blood pressure, you need to know what the numbers represent.  A blood pressure is represented as a fraction.  At that time, my blood pressure was 170/90.  The top number is known as your   systolic blood pressure, the bottom is your diastolic blood pressure.  If you're anything like me when I first researched pressure, these two words mean absolutely nothing!  Don't worry, I had to look them up myself the first time.
Systolic Blood Pressure--The pressure inside your blood vessels at the moment your heart beats.
Diastolic Blood Pressure-- The pressure in your vessels between beats, when the heart is resting.

    Now, if you are monitoring your blood pressure, it is good to do it at a couple of different times throughout the day.  It can be affected by things such as medications, illness, stress, even posture.  It is also important to find what is a normal range for yourself.  In my case, my weight, diet, lack of exercise, and family history added up to the real and scary fact that my blood pressure was WELL out of the normal healthy range.  However, if a generally healthy person goes to the doctor, and has a blood pressure reading of 140/80, it does not mean that they have hypertension.  It does mean that it would be a good idea to monitor pressure to make sure it does not become consistent.
    Over time, a consistently high blood pressure can damage and scar vessels, specially in your vital organs. It will have a negative effect on your body's ability to get blood to wear it needs to go.  Blood pressure health threats are not related to just the heart, the damage is systemic.
 
    So, to bring it all back to the non scale victory.  I have been monitoring my blood pressure, and the last few times it was measured, it has been in the range of 117-120/70.  In other words, I am consistently in what is considered the healthy range!
   So there it is.  I have been dealing with blood pressure issues since I was 19.  To finally have a healthy blood pressure, is a massive non scale victory for me!  I may always have to battle it, because of the hereditary nature of hypertension, but I certainly have made the battle easier on myself.  With a healthier weight, lower sodium, and consistent exercise, blood pressure is much easier to maintain WITHOUT medication.  Not to mention, at my age, blood pressure really should not be an issue.  If I allowed myself to have hypertension this early in life, there is no telling how much damage I would do to my body over time!  It is good thing, then, that I finally started to take care of it.

I want to post a link to a chart that shows the ranges of blood pressure.  Truth be told, I never really paid attention to charts like this, because it was embarrassing to admit to myself that I was hypertensive in my early twenties!  I am glad that I finally decided to get over it, because the alternative would have been far worse than a little bit of embarrassment!

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/blood-pressure/HI00043

 






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