6monthshere6monthsthere

I am sure you are all aware that you live a healthier life in comparison to the UK but I thought I would post up as I went to a doctor 1 week before going to Italy in October and having just returned to the UK 2 weeks ago had a couple of tests again to see if there was a change. THERE WAS!

I was concerned about high blood pressure in October so I went to see the DOC also taken was my heart rate. I weighed 15 stone 7lbs


STATS (BEFORE TRIP)

WEIGHT, 15 STONE 7LBS
RESTING HEART RATE 91
BLOOD PRESSURE 139/90


NEW STATS

Weight, 13 stone 5 lbs
RESTING HEART RATE 61
BLOOD PRESSURE 121/71


To say I am happy with this is an understatement!

Just thought I would mention in case anyone is considering going to Italy, there are added benefits!

I feel pretty damn good/great!

ciao

k

ballerina

that's great! I lost a ton of weight within a few months of moving to Italy. However, I moved back to London for a couple of years and piled it all back on, plus more and now i'm preggers so all hope lost for that lovely lithe figure I had!

But I agree, Italy IS good for your health! except the stress level when I find I have to buy size L or XL in Italy (in england i'd still be size M booooo!!!!!!!!!!!!)

gelato

I'm 39 years old and I was in perfect health until I moved to Italy in 2005. Since moving here I've had:

-anaphalactic shock allergy reaction
-open heart surgery
-a minor stroke
-pleurisy

I'm always at the doctor's here and in and out of hospital. It's no fun. I'd only been to hospital before moving here to visit my grandparents when they were sick.

gelato

LivingHere

I eat better but I drink more.

duffer

I've put on weight since coming over and I'm depressed to be in Italy.

6monthshere6monthsthere

OK

Well, if you have serious health problems then aint going to change with a little better diet and more exercise.

I do not drink so there is no issue there.

Duffer are you in the North? I ask as I have been through Milan and Bologna airports probably 10 times and I would be hate to live in those places! The weather is brutal ESP Milan! Frikkin Fog, every time. Then the Summer you have no beach.

I am powered by sunlight! Sicily by the sea works for me.

No curries
No chips

No winter (Ok, it rained etc, but its NOT WINTER!!) friends were telling me before I went, that the weather is not great etc.

Newsflash. The weather IS GREAT, compared to WINTER in Scotland.

January in Sicily was like late April or Early May in Edinburgh! Actually, the weather in DECEMBER was/is better than the weather you get in the PEAK OF SUMMER in Scotland!

Another way to look at it,

Scotland is BAD for your health!

k

37100

Get out while you can!

gelato

I know, 37100 - Italy is obviously bad for my health.

And as 6months points out no amount of healthy food or exercise is going to cure my health problems. Not all of us with heart problems are overweight chain-smokers, you know (and even if we are overweight chain smokers heart disease is still tragic). Sadly, there is no magic bullet for good health - a lot of it is just luck.

Lorna at Vicenza

That's true. You could possibly have had the same problems in the Uk or anywhere else. Good to know you came out on top!

6monthshere6monthsthere

Just reading this and THIS ADVERT was below (google ads)

I Had High Blood Pressure
Now it's down to 120/75. Find out how I did it without drugs
RESPeRATE.co.uk


SPOOKY!

Lorna at Vicenza

It is uncanny how the banner ads seem to pick up on certain words.

Isakat

Just out of interest, did you drive while over here? My blood pressure goes up whenever someone cuts me up dangerously or flashes me with his headlights to move away when there is nowhere to move.
The food in Italy is better and healthier, but you need to cook it from scratch, so that is another bonus, although the odd M&S meal is welcome.

internationalbefky

Congrats 6months!

I have also lost a lot of weight since coming here, when I went back home at Christmas I found out I'd lost a stone, ('twas the first thing I heard my mum comment on when I walked through arrivals!) and now I can feel my clothes getting even more baggy. Unfortunately this is due to a lack of time to prepare healthy nutritious food due to work. I mostly live on kit kats and ryvita and philli. Although on Wednesdays we make ourselves have lunch out, but that's usually just a mountain of oily pasta which is far from healthy in my opinion.
Also, as I don't have time to exercise, I've realised that the weight I've lost is mostly muscle, so I now have unsightly wobbly arms and wobbly everything else.
When I get back to Britain in the summer I'll be able to eat healthier and exercise more and hopefully build up my muscle and nutrients again, until then I'm still chuffed I've lost weight!

6monthshere6monthsthere

Hey,


I did drive for a bit, but that does not really have an affect on blood pressure (Really) it just gets you annoyed

This is what I did for around 15 weeks

Walked 35 ks per week, harbour around 3ks away, walked to it nearly every day.

cycled 70ks (Not much) to the harbour at least and often went on longer trips of upto 20k

just a little walk each morning then a cycle around sunset, not exactly training for iron man.

Ate good food (Cooking from scratch), more veg, more fruit etc

Did a bunch of pushups, I can now do 30 pushups with 25kgs on my back, this was the only intense exercise I did. I started doing the push ups to a 4 minute song I liked and tried to see how many I could do before the end! Got good fast.

Pretty much it.

Was squeezing into a 38 inch pair of trousers before, now can comfortably get into 34s.

In Scotland now and ate 2 pies yesterday, the day I returned I would not even have considered them, 2 weeks back and I thought why not!

What was good for me was, I did not actually weigh myself at any point until the day I left and was not on a diet, I just had a routine that worked well for me.

I was astonished and pretty chuffed with myself when I did weigh myself but this does not approach my delight when I got the hospital readouts! THAT is BIG news.

Margaret M

Ditto, but I am cutting it down after a visit to the docs last light for swollen ankles and palpitation. Been referred to a cardiologist, and given prescriptions for 17!! blood/urine tests. They should tax the wine more (but not too much more) like they do in the UK