I’m eating a carrot.
I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life when I’ve gone out of my way to eat a carrot. Ever.
It’s been about a month since I found out I had high blood pressure. Coming off Memorial Day weekend, I went in for a physical at 7am and clocked in at 150/92.
My immediate reaction was denial. I had spent the previous day golfing, drinking beers, and enjoying the holiday weekend. It reminds of the Tires scene when Shane and Will are talking about how much they are going to drink. That was the conversation my Dr. and I had.
I was told to buy a monitor and started checking it regularly at home.
Over the next few weeks, the results were hard to ignore:
150/90.
158/98.
148/89.
No matter when I checked, I was consistently landing in the same range.
At that point, it became pretty clear that Memorial Day wasn’t the problem. The monitor is always broken!
When you Google high blood pressure, you get the usual list of suspects:
- Age & Family history
- Sodium intake
- Obesity
- Inactivity
- Alcohol and tobacco use
- Stress
Let’s begin.
Age & Family History
I’m 42.
My dad is 76 and spent most of his life abusing his body.
My mom doesn’t seem to suffer from the addictive tendencies of the male Stortz line and is considerably healthier.
Between the German, Irish, and English genetics, I figured I was working with a pretty strong foundation.
Dismissed.
Sodium Intake
I’ve never considered my sodium intake to be an issue.
My assumption was always that I could exercise my way out of whatever damage I was doing. Fast food, snacks, sports drinks – it all seemed fine.
Then I started reading labels. The amount of sodium in everything is absurd.
Replacing Gatorades with water can be the entire story.
Obesity
I am getting fatter. Or maybe I was super skinny in 2024.
Either way, 6 feet and 173 pounds is considered incredible by average American standards.
What concerns me more is that I seem to be getting shorter. It’s 5.9 by the way, not 5′ 9″. That chart looks ridiculous because I was never 6.15 so I’m not too concerned with shrinking. Yet.
Inactivity
I’m still logging around 25 miles a week running.
I golf. I travel. I work 5 days a week.
Not this.
Stress
I’d be remiss to say stress isn’t a possibility.
Whenever I mention the blood pressure, people immediately ask the same questions.
“Can you sleep?”
“Are you worried about anything?”
The reality is that the business is bigger than it’s ever been. The numbers are bigger. There are more employees, more travel, and more responsibility. There’s also the possibility that it doesn’t work.
That’s stressful.
The thing is, I don’t feel any different than I did when the business was building to get here. Maybe stress is the cause. If it is, it’s been remarkably patient.
That Being Said
Before all of this, the odds of me redlining on a run and dropping dead felt like exactly 0%.
Now? Maybe 0.5%.
Still low, but no longer zero. Hell, I thought I was going to have a heart attack after running in Palm Beach an hour after breakfast. I’m hopeful it was the bacon processing.
Since taking this more seriously, my readings have started drifting into the 135/80 range, which is a meaningful improvement. That’s enough progress to make me think sodium was probably the biggest offender. The alcohol certainly doesn’t help either, but who can quit it all?
Oddly enough, the whole experience forced me to think about a few bigger questions.
What if stress actually was killing me?
Would I be able to live the life I want without pushing the business as far as it can go? Would I enjoy some stress-free existence where I worked less, worried less, and accepted less? Or would I hate it after three weeks?
I thought about those questions for a while and eventually came to a simple conclusion:
It’s probably too early to make those decisions.
I also hated the idea of being put on blood pressure medication.
Once you’re on medication, you’ve accepted defeat. You’re no longer solving the problem, you’re managing it.
Before I start taking a pill every morning for the rest of my life, I’d rather make an honest effort to fix the things I can control: eat better, drink less, and pay attention to what I’m putting in my body.
And yes, apparently, eat a carrot every now and then.
Tom. I hope you can bring your blood pressure down in a way that suits you.
Mine was that high when I saw the doc that I was straight on the pills. Subsequently I’ve had another added to the mix. 3 pills everyday now but I still eat carrots.
Andy Rowley
Tom, you kind of buried the lead: ‘the alcohol certainly doesn’t help…’ That stood out on your checklist like mount Everest compared to those other reasons. BTW, I just had my physical and I shrunk too: it catching!