Monday, November 14, 2011

After the blood rush.

So, I went a little crazy last week and ate A PINT OF CHEESEY POTATOES from Belmont Barbecue. Yes, they're that good. It took me a few hours to do it, and I hadn't meant to eat it all, but I kept dipping in an dipping in until I finally accepted defeat and dumped the mash in a bowl and stuck a fork in it. I'd already had a little pork and a little brisket, which I MEANT to purchase for my lunch.

I got the potatoes because they were an offered side. So was coleslaw, but look which one I picked. And I felt rather guilty about the potato pint, and then I felt really frigging terrible.

I felt stuffed, first, but more importantly I felt tired and sickly and my head felt like it could have exploded. I could hear blood rushing my ears, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. I was queasy and unhappy and sent myself to bed.

I did debate making myself throw up - that's how bad it was and how much I wanted to make it stop - but the thought of that scared me enough not to.

I went to bed. I woke up, still lousy feeling, and had to go out for the night. I felt okay while I was out, but when I woke again the next morning I could tell the ramifications of pigging out on cheesy potatoes were not quite over with. And I had a doctor's appointment first thing.

I've had this fasting appointment scheduled for three months, so I didn't skip. I went in for the blood draw because I want to make sure I'm doing ok with this diet. Results are still pending for that; however, my blood pressure that morning was 160/104.

The nurse wasn't going to take my BP as there wasn't an order for it, but I told her what I did and how I was feeling so she went ahead. Then she said... "YOU are going to see the doctor today."

The doctor stopped in and we talked about cheesy potatoes and my normally low carbs lifestyle and I asked "can the sugar cause my blood pressure to spike?" and she said no, it's salt. So, okay, salt.

Then she put me on Lisonopril. I agreed to take it because I felt worse than hangover horrible and I've been on it for three days since...but I was still curious about the starch/sugar of the potatoes being the problem.

I called Ivana who said heck, yes, the starches can work that way and she recommended a chapter of a book I already have and gave me the name of a doctor to call who is familiar with this low carbs thing.

Then I hunted Google to understand, if I could, how starches can be the culprit. I found that it's possible, but I'm too tired to show you how. But you can look it up: Sodium IS what spikes the BP but insulin reaction causes the sodium release that spikes the BP. Interesting huh?

So, I'm hoping the BP will get and stay reasonable and I won't choose to eat a pint of anything heavy salt and heavy carbs again soon. or ever.

In better news, I've lost 6 more pounds as of today.

1 comment:

  1. 6 pounds down -- YAY! Congratulations!

    As for the cheesy potatoes. Eating them isn't bad -- overeating is. I still eat various foods that I love -- burgers at Boylan Heights, chocolate, Belmont BBQ and onion rings -- but I eat in small portions, so that I can enjoy the taste of the food but not ruin my weight loss.

    On the few occasions this year I've overdone it with food, I've had the same reaction as you and woken up feeling terrible. In my case, it felt like a hangover, with an accompanying headache. I found that a day of drinking lots of water and sticking mostly with raw fruits and vegetables, along with exercise, helped me recover quickly.

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