Pensive about hypertensive

I checked my blood pressure in May and it was something ridiculous like 180/130, which is dangerously high ("Stage 3" hypertension). At the time I was under a lot of stress, eating poorly and not taking my stupid pills.

I started taking the pills again after that, and at the time thought I was doing myself a big favor by drinking bottled tomato juice or V8 every morning. But I still wasn't really eating many vegetables. I was watching my sodium intake but that was it.

Today I walked to two different pharmacies on my lunch and decided to see what their machines said. They were very different. The first machine put it at 154/103. The next one, about half an hour later, said 135/99. Either reading is an improvement over a few months ago, and the second isn't too bad — but ideally it should be less. Both readings are back down in the Stage 1 hypertension level, which is a lot better than Stage 3. I think I'm going to get a kit of some kind to monitor this at home.