I haven’t really been taking good care of myself which is highly inadvisable as someone with diabetes, but last week I had an extremely high blood pressure reading and so this cannot go on. At the same time I had a very high blood glucose reading although that wasn’t a surprise to me as I’ve long found it difficult to control this.

I have actually been taking my diet and level of activity half seriously and as a result I am currently at my lowest weight in over 25 years, though still at the lower end of “obese” by BMI standards. To put that into some context, in 2006 when first diagnosed with diabetes I was almost 140kg.

Anyway since my weight while not ideal is better than it’s ever been, the high blood pressure was even more of a worry. I was concerned that my kidneys might have packed up or something. Happily the result of yesterday’s bloods had my GP saying that my kidney and liver function were “perfect” (his words), which is very relieving but does leave me wondering what else I can do.

For now the GP has prescribed me some pills for blood pressure and told me to come back in a month for another blood test and blood pressure check, so it seems like he isn’t overly concerned. With the blood pressure as high as it is I was seriously wondering if he was going to call me with the results and say “go to hospital now”.

Clearly even though I thought I was doing okay with the weight loss I am going to have to step things up a bit.

Also I am hopelessly addicted to (sugar free) fizzy drinks but I’m going to have to do something about this. Although there’s no proven link to high blood pressure, it is a bit more likely that the artificial sweeteners are going to be playing havoc with my blood sugar levels and appetite.

My habit was at the ridiculous level of over 2 litres per day but since last week’s shock I’ve started by instituting a policy of one full pint of water between any fizzy drink. Small steps but I don’t feel like I can do cold turkey.

What I have found after sticking to this policy for the last 9 days is that I often can’t physically ingest any more liquid so I don’t reach for the fizzy drink, and that it really does seem to have reduced my appetite as well. Today I had my first fizzy drink of the day with dinner, whereas before I might have had 2 litres already by that time. At the moment I’m at around 500ml a day. I hope I can keep to something like that.

The caffeine withdrawal is not pleasant. I don’t think it is a good idea to try to find another caffeine source until my blood pressure is under control. By then I might not feel the need.

If I don’t get the blood pressure under control then my near future will feature a stroke or heart attack. If I don’t get the blood sugar under control then my near future will include insulin injections.