interesting facts about blood

i donated blood again. i give blood every time the red cross is at lincoln...partially to be charitable, partially to overcome my fear of needles and being impaled, and partially to make my body work harder to replenish that blood, and thus "lose weight." it gets easier each time, too. this time the finger prick was almost welcome (almost) and i listened to music, so i squeezed around once every 3 seconds instead of every 5-10. i was done much faster that last time, and the blood flowed much more freely because i drank alot of water and basically was hyper hydrated.

a few notes (for my own benefit):
my next eligibility is april 22.
my blood pressure was 118/82.
my heart rate was something like 68.
my blood type from last time i checked was B+, i think.

some facts about blood, now that i'm thinking about it:
the blood pressure is measured with two numbers: the systolic/diastolic. the systolic pressure is the pressure from the heart pumping blood to the body, and has a normal range of less than 120. the diastolic pressure is the blood pressure between beats, when the heart is at rest. a normal range is something less than 80.
(sources 1, and 2. ) it seems my diastolic might be a bit high. it also seems that athleticism doesn't affect blood pressure (except that an athletic person should have blood pressure in the normal range.) of course, resting heart rate is lower for an athletic person.

foods that replenish blood: actually i couldn't find any facts on this. for some reason i thought i heard that grapefruit and spinach are good for after giving blood. maybe it's just because they're healthy in general, maybe it's because i like to eat them both. spinach makes sense because it's high in iron, but i don't know why i had imagined that grapefruit juice could be used to quickly replenish blood or at least act as a fluid in your system. i grabbed a can of grapefruit juice anyways, after devouring a cookie.