Hi all, first time post.

I'm 25/M 1.8 metres tall weighing 92kg.

I've recently decided to sort myself out and get back into shape by diet and exercise, my current job has made that difficult as I'm constantly staying in hotels all over the country.

Anyway, before I started any serious training I just wanted to check that I was ok to do so, I bought myself a blood pressure monitor from Lloyds Pharmacy (BP 11 model).

Today I've completed four readings upon myself, giving me the following for SYS/DIA (150/90), (146/89), (161/87), (168/95) - the first two were in the morning and the second two were in the evening.

Clearly, they are are high and I am concerned.

I intend to immediately change my diet to keeping my salt intake to less than 5g a day and to increase activity levels, ideally to a 10 minute run and a 30 minute walk a day. Other dietry changes I will make are; switching to Benecol spread, eating oily fish and reducing overall calorie consumption. Also, I will cut back alcohol intake to 1-2 units every other day.

During this period, I will be taking four readings a day of my blood pressure, but my first question is really this - how soon can I expect to see an improvement on my readings - days, weeks, months?

Also, is there anything else I can do to help lower my blood pressure? I lead a fairly stress-free life, and I've recently taken up meditation (although I shall now start doing this every day) - are there other things I can do?

Finally, my initial problem was that I wanted to lose weight and get back into shape, and I intend to do this by following the Abs Diet which is basically a plan consisting of eating 3 small meals and 3 small snacks a day - 2 hours apart and all 6 being made up of only good foods, this is coupled with light resistance / weight training. What sort of levels of blood pressure readings should I wait until before I start weight training as training with weights puts pressure of the heart?

Many thanks in advanced for any advice you can give me.


- Craig.