If you don’t think stress can have a negative impact on your
health – think again. In March 2007, I attended an onsite health screening fair
we had at work -
they tested for blood
pressure, cholesterol, weight, and triglycerides. Having run the New York City
Marathon just five months before I assumed that I was in pretty good health – I
couldn’t have been more wrong.
My weight was up, my cholesterol was up 222 (180 LDL and 42
HDL), my blood pressure was up 130/80 - the only good new was that my
triglycerides were low. I understood my blood pressure being a little high as
my wife and I were expecting our third child that week, but the other numbers?
I couldn’t figure out how they could have gotten away from me. I’ve always been
pretty active and I generally eat well – admittedly I probably eat red meat a
little too often.
It wasn’t until I met with a health coach that I began to
understand what was going on - and stress was the only constant in the
equation. Stress had taken such a strangle hold on my life, that I didn’t even
realize I had gotten away from exercising and eating well. Not to mention the
physiological impact that stress has on your body (increased blood pressure and
cholesterol, etc…). When I was younger and my weight went up a little or I got
a little stressed it wasn’t a big deal. A little exercise cured everything. But as I get older ,the weight doesn’t come off as quickly and the stresses of
life (helping to support a family) don’t go away – in fact, they become
magnified.
At that point I made a conscious decision to take control of
the stress in my life. No longer would I let work consume me, I would make it a
point to get back into my exercise routine and I would start to really watch
what I was eating. I thought that if I started with these, some of the other
stresses in my life wouldn’t be so magnified (i.e., I found myself reacting too
quickly to some of the things my kids would do – after all, kids will be kids…).
Suffice it to say, 20 months later, I feel like I’m in a
much better place and my “numbers” show it. My blood pressure is still a little
high 122/88, but come on – I have a six year old, a three year old and a two
year – how can that not get your blood pressure up a little. My weight is down
and I knocked 32 points off my overall cholesterol (now 190), but more
importantly in reducing my overall cholesterol, I knocked 61 points off my LDL
and raised my HDL by 29 points.
My work isn’t done. I need to try and get my blood
pressure down and there’s still plenty of room for improvement in my
cholesterol numbers, but it’s good to know that I’m on the right path.
Jason
