I've been low-carbing for six months, 2 months semi-paleo, and did 1
month Anchell.  As un-paleo as it is, I smoke.  I know,
bad, bad.  I was really hoping to lose a good deal of weight before
trying to quit.  Low-carbing seems to make me want to
smoke even more.

My father has a BP machine at home, and I take mine once in a while
out of curiosity.  It was normal (around 120/70) as of
two or three months ago.

I went to the doctor yesterday and it was 148/95. I thought maybe I
was just nervous being at the doctor's.  I took it this
morning and it's even worse.

BP is supposed to go DOWN on low-carb.  I assume the smoking is making
it do the opposite?

I need to quit now.  That is SO depressing for me, because before I
found low-carb, I'd resigned myself to being fat for life.
Now that I have hope of not being fat for life, I have to stop for a
while.  Not stop low-carbing or paleo, but obviously, my
metabolism is going to slow dramatically.

You're all so wonderful with natural-type advice.  I don't want to do
Zyban or anything.  I'm also scared now of doing this
major change to my body while my blood pressure is high.  Any
suggestions?  For either lowering the BP or quitting smoking?

I read on the lowcarb list about celery helping BP.  I really don't
want to take drugs!

Denise