Felicia and I visited a mall today and happened upon a bloodpressure machine , so we decided to check it out. I was VERY disappointed to see that my blood pressure was 134 over 83. This is the third time I've checked it since going raw and although it was GREAT the first time, it's been high the second and now the third time. What the heck? I'm not in school right now so it can't be stress. I'm thinking it's high sodium from the cheese and nuts. I told myself I was going to finish off the remainder of both packages and just not buy any more, but maybe I should just stop right now. I also don't drink enough water and that could be part of the problem. It also could be that a lifetime of poor eating habits have finally caught up to me. We do have a family history of high blood pressure, so... Well, it is a wakeup call.

The reason we went to the mall was so that Felicia could try on clothes since losing weight on raw. She is down from her pre-raw size of 14/16 to a 12 (and sometimes 10!) now. Whoopeee! I didn't look for clothes myself- I don't get any jollies from trying on clothes. We did stop by a couple of plus-size stores, however, which made me decidedly un-jolly.

Have I mentioned that I played racquetball a couple of days ago? I did! For about 40 minutes. BOY am I out of shape. I was wheezing until midnight, too. A doctor told me that I might have asthma and offered me an inhaler, which I refused. But I can really see that exercise induced my wheezing and coughing. Very annoying, but not enough to stop me from playing racquetball again. Oh, I can't wait to get this extra weight off! I just can't stand being this large anymore.

Some people have joined the Raw Odysssey Cafe at http://rawodyssey.forumer.com. Welcome to all of you! I hope many more come by and drop a line or two. Tell us about yourself, your experience with - or simply curiosity about- eating raw!

Ok, gotta go. I'm sure being up at 2 a.m. is bad for my blood pressure! :-) Hmmm... Let me try this out... Honey, you know I can't take out the trash. I've got high blood pressure! Vacuum? With this blood pressure? What do you mean, do the laundry? My blood pressure is acting up, you know that! Heh- I shouldn't make light of high blood pressure, as for some people it's a very serious illness. I really have been lucky all my life not to have suffered more serious problems from my eating habits. I hope that eating raw really can turn things around for me. I just have to be patient and not expect it all to happen in a few short months, I guess.