I quit

 DMSC. Again. And for good this time. 

I've been thinking about it for a while now and I just finally up and did it. There were lots of reasons behind it but I guess it really comes down to the fact that he just doesn't ring true with me anymore. I don't know exactly why. But I think the bottom line is that I'm moving in a different direction at this point in time. I feel like I've gotten everything out of DMSC that I could and it's now time to strike out on my own. I know what I need to do. I know what I need to work on and watch out for. I know the direction I want to take in my life. And he and I just disagree on some things. 

Had a meeting with my doc yesterday about my blood pressure. It is down but not down enough. I was faced with a choice of working more on my lifestyle; exercise and diet; or upping the medication. I chose to work on lifestyle for 2 months and see if there is any improvement. That means I need to step this up some. 

For food, I've been doing really good with that even though I've been sick. I had some butter mochi last night only because Hubby made it, but honestly it was kind of blah... Otherwise I've been doing really well on the food side. Not perfect, but probably 90% which is amazing. So I just need to keep that up and maybe tweak it a little here and there. 

Exercise. This is something that can definitely use improvement. But I have improved significantly over the past couple of months I just need to keep cranking it up a bit. This is one of the things that DMSC and I sort of disagree on. DMSC says that you don't really need to do any cardio other than walking. I disagree with that. It has been proven over and over again that moderate cardio improves your heart health. That's what I'm after here - heart health. DMSC says that long sessions of steady state cardio will actually have the opposite of the desired weight loss effect. On that I agree. I know from personal experience that continued, long sessions of cardio like running or biking or whatever, will eventually cause your body to store fat instead of release it. I've had that happen to me. I've also had my body store fat when I was doing Crossfit real heavy. Any constant, sustained stress on your body has the reverse affect and will cause your body to store fat. That I understand and get completely. But I believe that the human body needs heart-pumping, sweat-inducing workouts once in a while. Also, I think that 30-40 minutes of a workout won't necessarily have the affect that an hour or more will. I learned when I was training for marathons, that I could workout for up to 45 minutes and feel normal in terms of recovery. But once I passed the hour mark, my hunger became insatiable, I needed sleep like now, and a host of other things. So I believe that there is a limit to what the human body can take on a regular basis and if you exceed that on a regular basis your caveman body thinks the world has gone crazy and starts storing fat to protect you. So since I'm after heart health it's time to take it up a notch. Before I got sick I was in a good routine for working out. Starting tomorrow I hope, I'm jumping back into that routine. The gym on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Supernatural on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Saturday is a flex day. I can rest if I haven't taken a day off or if I missed a workout I can make it up then. That is a routine that is going to stick over the entire summer. I have until the end of June to lower my blood pressure and I fully intend to do just that. So that means getting my heart rate up a couple of times a week. Can't wait. 

Okay, everyone is up, time to get moving.