[jayone]

I'm very happy at the moment. Thought I'd share with you guys.

3 days ago I left for a short break. I went to Blackpool (UK) with my parents and girlfriend. Previous to going away I was having bad skips, couldn't sleep.

I work from home, and suffer a lot of stress. I also smoke. During the time away I left the laptop in the suitcase and decided to enjoy myself. I also stopped smoking and had a couple of alcoholic drinks with meals.

I must have walked about 12 miles a day. Considering I don't get much exercise (working on a PC all day) I was amazed I did it without any problems.

To top it off on the last day I went to the theme park. I rid every roller coaster there. I was very scared in case I had a skipped beat whilst on one. I had a couple of beers and just forgot about my illness.

NOT A SINGLE SKIPPED BEAT DURING THE WHOLE HOLIDAY! (even after beer).

The only problem I had was I woke up in the morning, had a cigarette and my heart rate shot up to about 160bpm. I thought I was going to pass out. That's when I said "NO MORE SMOKING" and just quit there and then. It's not happened since.

Something is telling me I need to exercise more, and stop getting stressed.

[Jeff]

HEY! That's fantastic!

I'm very glad you were able to get a bit of time for yourself to just let go, unplug, and forget about all the day-to-day stuff. Being able to set that aside, but then also have some minimum level of activity to sort of burn off that stress that just sits there, all bottled up when you spend hours upon hours locked to your monitor, day after day, for weeks, months - it makes a huge difference.

But forget about never getting stressed out again. It's gonna happen.

And also forget about never having another run of PVCs. That WILL happen. Sorry to say it, but you can probably take that to the bank. I make a point of saying it so you don't lull yourself into complacency, that you can go back to doing what you did before and everything will be fine. Because you'll find yourself back where you were.

So come up with some ways you can continue your progress - keep getting exercise. The less you weigh, the lower your BP, which in turn lowers the chances for getting PVCs. One of the rotating links at the very top of every page shows a direct correlation to high BP and PVCs.

Take baby steps, change how you do what you do, your approach to your daily grind, and keep us updated!

Congrats!