Dear Group,

About a week and a half ago I took my blood pressure
on the machine at the grocery store pharmacy and was
amazed to see it reading 140/93. Then I got on the scale
and was even more amazed to see I weighed 190 lbs.
Ugh! Well on the way to becoming another Bobsprit.

While some people resort to prescription drugs for reducing
their high blood pressure I maintain it's because these people
are lazy and don't eat right and are overweight and don't want
to change their bad habits so they pop pills which have all sorts
of unwelcome side effects. People these days simply are
enamored of pills, but pills, for the most part, don't solve
the problem, rather, they mask the symptoms. High blood
pressure is a symptom of overweight, bad diet, stress and
lack of exercise.

So, instead of even considering taking pills I commenced
eating a good diet and with under 1000 calories a day. I
stopped drinking beer, soda and coffee. I started an exercise
program of riding my mountain bike 20-30 miles a day. I
stopped posting here so much to reduce the stress involved
with dealing with the aggravation of a bunch of idiots and
wannabes and I'm going sailing more.

The results prove how right I was and am. In about a week
and a half my weight has gone down to 180 pounds (10 lb.
loss). I will continue the diet and exercise routine until I'm
down to 165 lbs then gradually up the calories and variety
of food. I'll even allow myself a few beers a day again.
I will continue the exercise program when possible to
balance out the calories in vs. the calories out.

My blood pressure for your information shows a constant
downtrend. I'm amazed with the results. Check it out:

11th - 140/93
12th - 130/84
13th - 126/84
14th - 133/86
15th - 129/76
16th - 124/73
17th - 132/80
18th - 117/77
19th - 111/68

These reading were taken after completing my workout
and long ride after cooling down.

So, don't ever doubt the power of your own ability to
take charge of your health and your life. Don't do the
usual cop-out job and continue your bad habits while
taking handfuls of pills to mask symptoms of underlying
curable problems.

Pills are in many cases bad medicine. Taking pills to
mask the symptoms of a problem is like installing
roll-up sails to mask the symptoms of a problem, said
problem being lack of respect for traditional sailing
and lack of respect for the pocket book and lack
of self-respect allowing yourself to be seen with
sausage like objects permanently hanging off your
forestay and lack of respect for safety and reliability.

There are many more analogies like relying on an
oversized, smelly, heavy, and sailing performance
robbing diesel engines and never learning how well
a sailboat performs under working sail alone. You're
masking your failure to learn how to sail by using an
engine all the time. Engines, like roll-ups, are an
unnecessary pill taken to mask the symptoms of
bad habits and sloth.

Get with it all you who don't take charge of your
life and do what's RIGHT instead of what's EASY.

Stop being so damned lazy!

S.Simon