Anyone else have this particular struggle? South beach is already getting to be a struggle, because I need things that are very low sodium. Exercise is also difficult because anything I seem to do..you guessed it...raises my blood pressure. Sigh. HELP.

I don't do any specific plan but home made food from fresh ingredients is probably your best bet. I'm not the best for staying totally on plan with that and I know thats bad for me but with medication I mostly have it under control. As for the excercise I think thats something that needs to be discussed with your medical care provider, they all suggest walking, but none of them have said I can't do my aerobics too. So it probably is a case by case thing.

I have a lot of health issues that are weight loss obstacles, including high blood pressure (and diabetes, and fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis and autoimmune disease, IBS, allergies.....)

It's a pain, but surprisingly there are work-arounds for almost all of them.

For me, it's been making changes very slowly. It's taken me 7 years to lose 94 lbs (20 lbs the first year, zero the next two to two and a half, and the rest in the last 3-4 years).

I'm not recommending that anyone try to lose as slow as I have, but it does show you that you don't have to make huge, drastic, rapid changes to see progress.

Sodium has never been a problem for me, because I never did have much of a salt tooth. Restricting the carbs for the diabetes are another story. But the solution really is the same, lots of label-reading, and lots of experimenting.

I couldn't tolerate any "real" exercise when I started. I had difficulty even showering (and used a shower chair, and a shampoo with conditioner because I couldn't keep my arms up long enough to lather and rinse more than once).

So, I started by getting off my chair to do dishes or tidy up slowly during commercials.

I also got a step-counting pedometer and clipped it to my shoes. On a calendar, I marked down my weight every morning, and in the evening I'd mark down the number of steps I'd made during the day. Every morning I would reset it, and try to break the previous day's record by at least a couple steps.

Then I started going to a warm-water therapy pool. Ask your doctor, or call the United Way or other social services in your area to see if there is a warm-water exercise program in your area. Sometimes insurance will even pay for them (mine doesn't).

The warm water pool is amazing, and at first the "exercise" was getting dressed and undressed to get into the water. Then I was able to do more and more - but I had to make slow progress, because whenever I overdid it, I would end up in bed for several days or more because of the fibromyalgia (in a nutshell, my fibromyalgia can be described as my body doesn't deal well with any drastic change. Any drastic change in weather, diet, exercise, or sleep, and I'm likely to have a pain, fatigue, and brain fog flare).

I had to be patient with myself, because I couldn't lose weight like I was able to in my 20's. I had to "unlearn" my expectations for weight loss. The only "secret" was to keep experimenting (if I had let those two no-loss years derail me, I'd probably be well over 400 lbs by now).

I agree with the others; label reading and watching your salt intake are important. Walking and doing stuff around your house are good exercises to start with; you can do aerobics sitting in a chair too which is less exerting but still burns calories. Keeping stress levels down by resting in a quiet place with soft music can help too ...

I had very high blood pressure when I first started my weight loss. The only exercise I did when I was 272 was to walk and do the Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds.

Good luck; you'll find something that works for you!