Eat Healthy And Exercise #74

Beginning several years before having a heart attack, I was diagnosed as being borderline diabetic.   I have no family history of diabetes and never seemed to have any symptoms of diabetes.   But it was always hanging over my head and had sort of gone away until my last lab results from my cardiologist.   He was aware of my borderline history, told me that my level was going up and I should see the endocrinologist I had seen previously.  This was like dropping a bomb on me immediately after I had just gotten over the dreaded treadmill stress test.  Thinking living healthy was proving itself, to be told I could  be headed to becoming diabetic was not only scary, but also disappointing.  Those of you diabetic, please do not be offended or disregard the positive things I have told you about healthy living.  Let me finish this out.  I am ignorant of many facts concerning diabetes.  Why?  Because I have stuck my head in the sand and have not wanted to know anything about it ,other than I am not diabetic.   In my business, I had three people working in my office, and they worked closely with me, who were diabetic.  Two of the three had sad endings related to diabetes and it has been a scary disease to me since.  Enough said of the past.  Today I went to my endocrinologist and got my test results and had a long talk, (Cindy and me) with the doctor.  The results were that my sugar levels for the past year and for the last three months have decreased.  That I am not diabetic, and my borderline level is decreasing.  Thank you Lord.  I feel blessed.  What I want you out there reading to know, is my doctor attributed my improved condition and status as far as diabetes, is concerned on three things.  Her words. "Daily exercise, eating a healthy diet, and weight loss are the reasons you have improved, you are already doing what you need to do to not become diabetic." 

For some time I have thought that by eating healthy, we are not only bringing into our bodies nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants that improve our cardiovascular systems, we are protecting ourselves from other diseases that those healthy foods combat as nature intended.  What better reason could you want for changing your eating habits.  Knowing how important it is to us heart patients. Just think about all of you young healthy folks out there and what it could mean to you when you get to our age, if you changed now.

Along the thought of following the course of nature and looking back at our ancestors for answers to what are healthy food habits, I was searching for why is salt unhealthy to blood pressure?  We have always been told to watch our salt intake or you will have high blood pressure, but no one told us why.  Sodium is a basic chemical element found in most foods which is essential to the human body.  Table salt is a product of sodium and is 40% sodium.  One teaspoon of table salt contains 2300 mg of sodium.  The daily allowance of sodium for a healthy person is 2300 mg, for those of us with high blood pressure, it is 1500 mg per day.  Your doctor may wish for yours to be even lower, depending on your circumstances.  The following is a summary of a great article I found on the aakp website. (American Association of Kidney Patients)

In times far back in our past, water was not always easily available to our ancient ancestors.  And through the need to conserve water and control body temperature, a natural function of our kidneys is to conserve salt.   Conserving salt preserved water for the human body.  Over time our kidneys always kept functioning in that natural manner and maintained a healthy level of salt, at the same time many things happened which resulted in human intake of salt to increase, to levels that not everyone's kidneys could regulate.  Rather than absorbing sodium amounts found naturally in the foods man ate, he began adding unnatural levels to his food.  Example, salt was discovered and found to be an excellent preservative for meats, fish, and later, in the making of cheese and other dairy products.  So over time you can see how we came to consume amounts of a mineral that exceeded our bodies intended capabilities.   Osmosis, the process of salt retaining water, creates circulatory volume higher than it should be, resulting in higher pressure on our blood vessel walls. Result..more salt than your bodies capabilities, high blood pressure..  You can find the article on the aakp site.  I have greatly reduced and summarized here for the sake of space.

I find it intriguing that we can look to nature, for which foods and elements  intended for us to consume for our bodies to function in a healthy manner.

I think I need to finish up here by saying you can pretty quickly decide for yourself what snacks, food, beverages in your diet are putting you over your daily sodium limits.  Now we know why too much salt can increase our blood pressure.

Next time more on eating healthy

Heart Attack Survivor And Mean Lady #73

I got a pretty nasty look from some spooky looking lady at our fitness center and I am still po'd about it.  About midway through my routine, I was going to use the leg lift exercise equipment.   I laid my towel and jacket down on a window ledge in a small corner next to someone else stuff.  Several minutes later I went back to get my things and this lady walks in front of me to the same window ledge spot and picked up her things.  Rather than stepping aside or moving on, she stood there fiddling with her phone device.  Punching buttons, and touching screens and so forth. You would have thought she was operating a FedEx 747 or something.  Anyway, rather than just pushing her aside, I stood there like I should have, oh so politely, not saying a word, thinking, well any minute now she will land her plane, put her important i-phone aside, go on out of my way, and I can get my things.  Well, she didn't.  She remained frozen in that spot doing something so important on her i-phone screen. Finally, I contorted my body and squeezed myself gently between the wall and her, reached down and picked up my things without pushing, or touching her, but obviously aggravating her greatly.  She whipped around, staring me down and gave me the old "well you can just kiss my royal wide bodied hind end look."  I smiled, remaining the gentleman I am, and courteously went on my way....That lady doesn't know how lucky she was my advocate wasn't there, she would have knocked her out.....As I have said before, I like my fitness center a lot. They are just poor judges of character when it comes to recruiting new members.

Pecans are another healthy nut or seed I eat, not daily, but once or twice a week, mostly added to salads, and maybe sometimes a handful as a snack.  They are high in vitamin E.  Are a good source of lutein and zeaxanthin. Remember us discussing them earlier.  They are important cartenoids that combat free radicals.  Pecans also contain vitamin B6 and high amounts of oleic acid.  Oleic acid is a healthy omega-nine fatty acid found naturally in plants.  It contributes to healthy cholesterol,  increasing HDL levels, and reducing LDL levels.    Pecans are high in calories, 20 halves being 196 calories which is the same as saying one whole pecan being 20 calories.  I have a birthday coming up soon and I am going to mention to Cindy she can make a cake for the grandchildrens benefit, but I would like a pecan pie as my treat.  It is probably my favorite of sweet treats over all other cakes, pies, ice cream, and candy.  She makes a really good pecan pie and knows how I like it warm fresh from the oven. 

There is a group of healthy vegetables known as cruciferous for their plant shape of four flowering leafs that resemble a cross.   These vegetables are known to be good sources of vitamin C and K.  They contain high amounts of phytochemicals and are known to reduce the risk of several types of cancer.  Some of the more known cruciferous greens, and most eaten in our family, are collard greens, broccoli, horseradish, radish, turnip greens, kale, cauliflower, and cabbage.

I use to eat a lot of chips, snacking away while watching TV, or just whenever I felt the urge.  Lay's potato chips and Frito corn chips were my absolute favorites.   I have not done much research on either but I will share what I found for those of you still snacking just a little.  Potato chips are credited with being  an important contributor to weight gain, even more so than soft drinks.  One ounce of potato chips contains 150 calories, is high in saturated fat and sodium.   Fritos, my favorite, are 160 calories for 32 chips.  You do know Fritos are small and 32 chips are not much.  I use to eat 2 vending size bags for a snack.   Why am I bringing up chips?  We go over a lot on healthy foods, but very little about foods that are not healthy, and bad for you.   I guess one thing I am realizing is, if you do, on occasion, have a special treat like pecan pie, or butter pecan ice cream, the effort and previous gains are lost and don't make it worth it.   I mean immediately after you have swallowed the last bite you feel guilty and are saying to yourself - why did I do that?

I told Cindy about the lady who almost beat me up at the fitness center and she wants us to go down there and for me to point her out so she can approach her and  provoke an incident.    I'm looking for a new fitness club..........................

#72 Exercises For Heart Patients

I have been telling you about fitness center crowds, weight loss and exercise resolutions.  This morning for my workout I went in earlier than normal and the parking lot was so full I had to drive around to find an empty spot at the outer parking area.  It was packed, the ladies who swipe and check your card as you come in told me it was an unbelievable crowd for so early in the morning.  Many people come in around 5:30 a.m. on work days and stay until around 7:00 then leave to get to their work.  Currently, I normally get there around 6:30 and I would say by 7:15 a.m.  75% of the crowd is gone.   This morning I had a really good workout and as I do most times felt very good afterwards.  Usually when I get home I will check my blood pressure 105-115/55-65 is my normal after exercising.   My daily exercise routine consist of the treadmill and 8 strength exercises.  I don't know if you remember me telling you, but I dropped a couple of strength exercises a while back.   One, the assisted chin pull up, I would like to try again but it was stressing  my chest area and I can not risk doing it again.   I would like to add a couple of new exercises.  I gave Cindy an exercise book "101 Workouts For Women" which I use often.  It is the same exercise fundamentals as for men, only reduced rep's and such for women.   I mention this only to give you, who are just starting exercising, an idea.  When I started I was a little hesitant, or reluctant to try new exercise machines for the first time.  A book like this I use for the detailed instructions and pictures on how to use the strength machine and perform the exercise. What I like so much about her book is it is so more full of pictures and visual instructions than written.   There are all sorts of similar men and women's fitness books out there that you could use to get yourself started.  I want to add upper body exercises and have been going through her book this morning looking for ideas of what I may want to try.

I want to repeat something I have warned about several times. If you are a heart patient talk to your doctor who is familiar with your heart condition before you start any exercises or fitness program.   I have been exercising for two years and did not start exercising before getting approval from my cardiologist. I then started exercising with  very strict time and effort limits while slowly working myself up from there. For a while, I pretty much kept my cardiologist informed as I moved forward with exercising.  If your cardiologist is like mine, he will encourage you to exercise, but with caution on your limits.   My cardiologist told me my body would tell me what my limits were and I should stay within those.

I have thought the stairmaster would be good exercise for building your cardiovascular strength, but I am not sure it would be the right exercise for a heart patient.  I wrote in an early blog post about my using a personal trainer when I first started exercising who worked with heart patients like myself.  He would not let me use the stairmaster   He didn't tell me I would never reach a point where I was strong enough to, just it was too intense a cardiovascular exercise for me.  I think I could do it now on a limited basis, but I don't have that desire I had earlier to do it.   I now enjoy too much doing  upper body, posture, and abdomen exercises. I am not pushing myself into making too many changes to my workout routine.  Plus, remember I am a compulsive routine freak, and I don't want to screw up my morning deal.  Too many other things follow working out and if I get my schedule off, it would be like thumping over the first domino to follow one after another.  The whole deal would topple over and I would really be goofed up.........

Oh, I had a letter to the editor published in the  newspaper...It wasn't a complimentary opinion I gave.  Neither Cindy or my daughters have seen it.....Yet.

I can't imagine why they get so nervous about me having, in the metro newspaper, some well written, and factual opinion correcting a misinformed population.

Heart Healthy Antioxidants #71

Today I have eaten one bowl of oatmeal, one banana, half a handful of sunflower seeds/kernels, and 10 raw cherries. And that is from this morning until now which is close to lunch.   This would be a typical morning for me, the fruit may vary, maybe orange and apple for the banana and cherries, but this will give you an idea.  The last posting we talked more about vegetables, which I do need to eat more of.  Eating a lot of fruit is very important in my daily diet and to me remaining healthy.   I eat raw cherries, I am not sure if they are the sweet or tart variety.  They certainly do not taste sweet, but they are not sour.  This is significant only in that sweet cherries contain about twice the calories of tart.  We will base calories on sweet.   Raw sweet cherries contain 5 calories each and -0- cholesterol.   Cindy and I eat a lot of cherries when they are available.  Cherries are high in antioxidants, contain melatonin, zinc, cooper, iron, and potassium.  They are credited with helping soothe your nervous system, help control your heart rate, and blood pressure.

While researching cherries, I came across one of their health benefits being they "fight free radicals."  I have found so many references to healthy foods containing antioxidants that reduce, block, or prevent free radicals that I need to know what they are.   Free radicals are atoms or molecules that are highly chemically reactive, believed to be involved in degenerative diseases, the aging process, and cancers.   I am not completely sure, but in my simple terms, free radicals are a natural chemical process in your body disrupting your living cells.  Antioxidants and certain vitamins protect your body against free radicals and their multiplying out of control.  I also researched antioxidants and they seem to be even more complex than free radicals.  Basically everything a free radical is and does, antioxidants prevent or reduce in your body.  Foods abundant in antioxidants are fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and some meats, poultry, and fish. 

According to the USDA, these foods are ranked the highest in containing antioxidants.  Small red beans, strawberries, plums, apples, blueberries, red kidney beans, cranberries, sweet cherries, pinto beans, russet potato, pecans, raspberries, prunes, blackberries, artichokes.  If a particular fruit or vegetable is not on this list it only means they were not in the top 15 in highest levels of antioxidant content.  Most fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidant levels.  Note, you don't find two of the healthiest foods, spinach and tomatoes, listed.  Why?  Although not being as high in antioxidants content, they are an excellent source of antioxidants and contain high levels of other healthy nutrients needed by your body.  For your reference, in my research I did not find any specific meat, poultry, or fish listed as a recommended source of antioxidants.

Here is some interesting information about counting calories I got from CalorieKing.  The actual weight of packaged foods is usually 5-10% more than the label net weight and in some cases up to 50% more.   Which means the manufacturer's calorie count listed is based on the net packages weight shown, and would be understated.  As an example, tested honey buns were 33% more in weight and calories than as labeled.   I found the book CalorieKing Calorie Counter extremely helpful to me when I was determining which foods I would and would not eat. When I began my initial weight loss, I was eating fewer than 1500 calories per day.

I sincerely hope you can take some of my information about the foods I am eating and my experiences in improving your health.    Next time we will discuss some exercises.

Healthy Vegetables or Fried Donut Cheeseburger? #70

Today I  read in our newspaper an article on a local restaurant that is serving glazed donut double cheeseburgers, which have become a popular menu item for them.  The owner says "they've been flying off the shelves."  What can you say about someone proud to be serving the public fried sugar coated pastry double cheeseburgers?  Here is how they are prepared.  Two glazed donuts are grilled and served as the buns on two beef patties with cheese, and a special "juke juice." Can you imagine the cholesterol and calories?  Maybe a good question is, why would someone eat it?  A glazed donut is typically 260 calories, and that's only one.  There are two of these sugar coated fried treats surronding the double meat cheeseburger. When they say grilled, that probably means in grease on a griddle. Well there's no point, it is just I think it is ridiculous anyone would serve it.  I do know one person who would like to eat a glazed donut double cheeseburger, and he lived with me from the time he was born until he got a good job.

Have you noticed it has been a while since I have mentioned vegetables as part of my healthy diet?  I have noticed and there is a reason.  Negligence is why.  Cindy and I eat a lot of salads, but I don't think I am eating enough other vegetables.  We have slacked off on that.  I am going to be thinking out loud here.   We are getting enough lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers (not one of my favorites), and some green beans.  I am pretty sure that is about 90% of the vegetables we eat.   Now what are we missing that we use to eat?  Spinach, one of my favorites.  Along with tomatoes, spinach is rated as one of the most healthy foods you can eat.  I really can't list all of the healthy nutrients and vitamins found in spinach.   Another I like, corn, contains antioxidant carotenoids, and is a good source of fiber.  Alpha carotene, beta carotene, zeaxanthin,  lutein, and cryptoxanthin, are predominant cartenoids found in vegetables.  These cartenoids provide a source of vitamin A, enhance your immune system, and help your reproductive system function properly.  They also reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer.  These cartenoids are needed by your body and found in abundance in carrots, squash, tomatoes, corn, green beans, spinach, turnip greens, collard greens, red bell peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, peas, and  sweet potatoes.   We will try to do better on vegetables by having maybe more of a variety, but in fairness, Cindy and I do eat a lot of vegetables, just not a wide variety.  Tonight for dinner we had baked potatoes, and a large garden salad.  I put mustard on my baked potato...... which is good.  Try it you may find as I did you like it.   Michelle and I also like worcestershire sauce on our baked potatoes.

For various reasons, I have been out of my regular exercise regiment since the last week of October.  To a compulsive person like me, that's not good and it is even worse for staying committed to doing all you can to be healthy.  There were a few days that I could go workout that I had to really force myself to do it.  I was looking for reasons not to go.  That is what happens when I get out of my regimented comfort zone.  I am not compulsive about every facet of my life, but time and a routine order hold a power over me.  And that very well could be why losing weight and keeping it off was not such a ordeal for me once I got into the routine of it.  Have A for breakfast, B for snack C for lunch  and so forth.  A daily structured routine worked for me.  To finish up, I have been back in my full exercise routine now for 2 weeks and I feel much better physically and mentally.  As a matter of fact, if my back pains do not return in the next few days I am going to be adding two new exercises to my regular workout session.   

Stay away from those fried glazed donut double cheeseburgers.
Next time antioxidants.

Fruit or Fruit Juices Healthy? #69

We stopped last time on soft drinks, sodas, Cokes, Pepsi, whatever you want to call them.  We were leading up to  how important eliminating the unhealthy foods are as adding more healthy foods to your diet.  You do know there are many people who eat lots of fruits, vegetables, no meats, no dairy, but they haven't dropped all their old foods like soft drinks, candy, pastry.  So you see the commitment you are facing if you really want to reduce cholesterol, lose weight, get fit, and live a heart healthy lifestyle. 

These calorie numbers may vary slightly depending on the source. Calories are based on a 12 oz. serving, Coke 140, Pepsi 150,  Crush orange 185, Crush strawberry  185 and so forth.  A honey bun, 370.  I have calculated on a average day I use to have a least 2 cokes, a honey bun, a fast food burger and french fry lunch.  A couple bags of chips from a vending machine for a whopping total of 2530 calories. Now are you sitting?  This is up through lunch only. I still had afternoon tidbits and dinner to go. This was not each and every day but it was not an unusual day. So if you went back and read my first and second post you would see when I made my commitment to change I was eliminating up to 2500 calories by lunch daily and  more to eliminate.  I am giving you an example of how you can help yourself by looking at it the same way I did.  Stop the bad eating habits first. If not, nothing else you try is going to work very well.

I drink about two 4 oz. glasses of orange juice daily.  Basically for the vitamin C.  I do not understand why there are so many calories in orange juice.  It  contains more calories than the same amount of most soft drinks.  We drink "not from concentrate," which means it has gone through a pasteurization process and no water, sugar, or preservatives have been added.  You just know there has got to be something wrong here. Why all the calories?  I have always justified drinking orange juice and the sugar as being okay because natural fruit sugar is healthier than refined produced sugars or sweetener additives.  I think I may have been wrong.  The pasteurization process eliminates most of the orange taste and flavor.  The orange juice product is then bulk stored for up to one year.  In the final process before packaging  the producer then adds "flavor packs" to the juice to give it the orange taste and flavors.  I am not sure why the producers are not required to show on the orange juice packaged label what ingredients have been added through the flavor pack.  I have read quite a bit about fruit juices, specifically orange and grape.  Most producers claim theirs contain   100% juice, no water, or sugars added.  Welch's grape juice touts that they do not add sugar or flavors, and are certified to be heart healthy by the American Heart Association.   Resulting from most of what I have learned, I am convinced most fruit juices are high in sugar, calories, and lose some fair amount of nutrients through processing and pasteurization.  Knowing that, I believe we are probably a lot better off, health wise, to eat more whole fruits and drink less 100% fruit juice.  After eliminating soft drinks I discovered that most fruit juices that I liked apple, orange, and grape are no better for you when counting calories than what I  gave up.  So I drink mostly water.   And coffee.   Cindy will verify I eat lots of fruits daily.....Calories in 100% fruit juices 8 oz. serving.  Apple 120,  Prune 180, Orange 110,  Grape 155, Grapefruit 95  and finally the one we should all be drinking Tomato juice 40 calories.......................

I avoid most political issues, not because of no interest, but because of maintaining my health.  Prior to having a heart attack, I was too intense in following political issues through newspapers, radio, and TV.  In the U.S. and worldwide.  After the heart attack and when making lifestyle changes, I decided I should no longer and would not follow so closely, politics or various media political reporting. I still maintain a basic knowledge and opinion of what is going on here and around the world.   It was a health choice for me. You can get yourself too involved in stressful situations of which you have very little or no control.  That is where I was, it was unhealthy for me and I made a change.

 I have had some readers express me sharing more of what I think of 2012 being the year of doomsday.  I don't believe ancient history and pagan beliefs will shape what happens this year..........................Current events and world leaders will determine that, whatever and whenever the outcome.

My purpose with this blog is to be considered by you, a credible, and helpful source of heart healthy lifestyle information.   You and I can control the outcome of our health.

Heart Attack Survivors Buffet or Sunflower Kernels? #68

I am so excited about working out tomorrow.  Michelle gave me for Christmas, new workout clothes and shoes,  name brand stuff.  I am going to be so decked out tomorrow in sporty looking new stuff.   You know that's really important at our fitness center, since I am one of the rather few aged members, I get a pass on being out of style.   Now Michelle does try to keep me all sporty looking, you do know she is a member there, and well, your children never out grow that thing about, "Isn't that your dad over there on the treadmill in those dirty smelly gym clothes? Nope don't know that poor misfortunate soul"......  This has been an interesting week at the fitness center.  They have really been on a new member drive, and they have done well in numbers.   It's kind of like a luxury cruise ship pulling into port and taking on 2000 new passengers who weigh over 250 each....and they all grab a diet coke and run down to the fitness center for a good workout before buffet time....Well, I give them two weeks and most of the new members and the wait on the strength machines, will go away.  No, I am not being rude or obnoxious, it's just the way things work.  Listen for about 40 years I would have been leading that crowd trying to be first in the buffet line on the USS Cholesterol.

A little more health info about sunflower kernels, first, I eat them daily, and like other healthy foods are part of my regular diet and are unsalted.  Sunflower kernels contain vitamin E and magnesium.  They also contain phyosterols which are a compound found in plants which reduces cholesterol.  I normally eat a couple of handfuls daily as a snack, or will sprinkle over a salad.  I drink and enjoy milk.  Every day since I changed to a healthy food lifestyle, over 2 years ago, I have drank and had milk with cereal each and every day.  Skim milk, which is fat free, is what I drink.  I prefer the taste of skim milk much more than whole, or 2% low fat milk.  In the past I have done research on skim milk and wrote a posting about it earlier in this blog.  There is much misinformation about skim milk and is, or is it not healthy.  Through my research I am absolutely convinced it is healthy for me. Based on the amount I drink and consume daily, my 2 year reduction in cholesterol and fat, I think I am proof of skim milk being healthy.  A 8 oz serving of whole milk contains 150 calories, 2% contains 120 calories and skim 90 calories.  The serving of whole milk has  24mg of cholesterol, and skim milk 5 mg of cholesterol.  Skim contains more protein than 2% or whole milk.  Read post #32 it contains more detailed information and may be more conclusive for you to decide for yourself.

Yesterday, while Cindy was watching the Today Show, I heard a segment where they commented about studies show a very large percentage of people who have gone on diets and lost weight gained it all back in some period of time.  What surprised me was there has been a government funded study to determined why you gain back weight you lose, after being on a diet.    I guess we could have told them it is because a diet is not what you need to do, you must change your eating habits, to a healthy eating foods lifestyle.  It is difficult for me to stay with the my daily program, even after being 2 1/2 years into a healthy foods lifestyle. The reason I say that is I have been on many diets over my adult life, and all of them resulted in weight loss, but it did not last.  For one thing, most diets, not all but most diets, are not such that it is anything you can stay with for an extended period of time.  The other problem was me, I didn't have the will power to completely change my lifestyle, I took the easy fix of a short term diet.  I am saying this not in criticism of people struggling with dieting, but for you with serious heart problems looking for a way to lower your cholesterol, eat heart healthy foods, and get back to a better than before lifestyle. To be strong, healthy, and able to function normally. Do the things you enjoy doing.

Another consideration about changing your habits is focusing as much on what foods you can completely stop eating. That can have more of an impact on improving your health as what healthy foods you eat.  One food I gave up was carbonated drinks, Cokes, Pepsi, fruit flavored soft drinks, orange crush, strawberry crush.   I have had a couple of sips of a coke in over 2 years and that is it.  I replaced those type beverages with water and limited fruit juice.  Give that some thought.  What foods or drinks could you stop having that would have a positive impact on your health?  More on this later............

Another Chance To Be Healthy #67

I will go over some foods I frequently eat, or consider a mainstay of my daily diet.  I eat a small amount of sunflower kernels daily.  I consider them a snack, plus they help improve my HDL (good) cholesterol.  I eat a banana daily, usually as an early morning snack.  I will have a large bowl of plain oatmeal each morning for breakfast.  For lunch, it may be either a small salad with a can of tuna fish, soup, chili, or a bowl of plain cereal with skim milk.  An afternoon snack of strawberries, plain from the carton, washed.  Maybe an apple or orange.  I will have a small glass of orange juice once or twice daily.  Dinner could be either baked or grilled chicken, baked potato with soup or chili poured over it, large salad, or oatmeal.   Now, I don't think I ever said this was easy, but as far as I know we don't have much choice, if we want to stay healthy....If any of you out there have any favorite heart healthy foods you want us to discuss, let me know.

There are regular followers of this blog who live outside of the United States. which I appreciate and hope what I write, helps readers in some way to be healthy.  I do not follow world politics, events, or economics closely and am not qualified to express much of an opinion on those matters.  I don't know for sure, but assume the world economy has resulted in many people having lost their jobs as it has in the U.S.  I read an article this morning about a 100 year old boot company in Maine. This company is experiencing growing sales demand for an original rather plain model, the duck boot, booming to the point of being more than they can produce.   Making a decision to not expand manufacturing to China for increased production, they are going to grow in Maine and add 125 full time employees.  That is such a small amount of the total U.S. jobs lost, and unemployed number, but it is an example of how we can overcome our economic woes.  One little step at a time, followed by another and another.   So what does that have to do with yours and my health?  Well I am not sure, but a little bit at a time over the last 2 years, I have gotten myself physically fit and as healthy as I can be.  That seems to be the best way to fix most things, very determined small steps leading to a larger goal.

While reading this mornings paper, I came across some coupons for fast foods, which brought me back to how some of you may be struggling with lowering cholesterol, calories, weight control, and eating healthy foods.   You know, it occurred to me that when you know you are eating foods that you shouldn't be, considering you have heart problems, that sometimes you don't want to know about the fat, calories, and cholesterol content of what you are eating. If you are sincere about changing and becoming healthier you are going to have to overcome sticking your head in the sand.    I was never much of a pizza fan, it was not something I ate very often and I really did not care much for it.   But when I did, I always preferred Pappa John's.  So when I saw these coupons today, I decided to look into the calories of some of those foods I use to eat.   A  large Pappa John's original  "The Works" consist of 8 slices...each slice being 360 calories, and I know 3 slices was my minimum.  One of my favorite burgers was Burger King Whooper.  A double meat whooper with cheese is still a tempting memory.   A double with cheese, 970 calories, medium coke 290 calories, large french fries 500 calories, a total of 1760 calories.   Surely, if you have had a heart attack, you would stop eating that sort of food.   Let me tell you a long story.  A business associate of over 40 years, who became a good friend, had a heart attack and heart surgery.  This was a couple of years before I had heart problems, or before I gave good health and fitness, or what I ate any thought. After serious health problems he retired. This was prior to me having heart problems and changing to a healthy lifestyle. He and I would meet on occasion for lunch, and even I was a little surprised by what he ate and how much.   He was as physically unhealthy and ate as unhealthy as I,  maybe worse.  And after eating lunch I would see him lighting up a cigarette as he drove off.  He was over weight and didn't take care of himself even though he had heart surgery.  He was such a very good person and had a passion for helping others deal with difficult problems.  During his life he had enjoyed great success as a business person, and had also experienced the worst of what the business world can hand you.  He shared how he dealt with his ups and downs with others who were experiencing the difficulties he had gone through.  It would not bother him that I am sharing this with you.  When I  experienced the bad side of business, he was always encouraging me and strived to make me believe in overcoming those problems.  He recently passed away from serious health issues that probably could have been avoided, or overcome for a while, had he done more of taking good care of his health.   I tell you this because if you are not doing some of the things you could to improve your health, and have not yet changed to eating more healthier foods, you may not be treating yourself fairly.

I got a small bit off course today, but did make a couple of good points about taking advantage of our health opportunities.  You and I were given another chance and we don't need to fail in taking care of ourselves and living as healthy as we can.  I'll tell you it is not always easy.  I don't think I have had as many food cravings as I have had during these just passed holidays.  I didn't always succeed.  I did make it through our Christmas breakfast traditions, bacon, ham, sausage, country cured ham, but I wasn't as successful in denying myself all of the chocolate and sweets.  However, I got a lot of new workout clothes and some new training shoes that I am putting to good use.   I promise next time we are going to get into more about healthy foods.

How To Eat Healthy For Heart Patients #66

We were talking about you choosing between dieting to lose weight or changing to a eating healthy lifestyle.   Very early in this blog, within the first 5 postings,  I described pretty well why and how I changed to a eating healthy foods lifestyle.  I am going to review how I did it, made the healthy change.  First, I was ready to change lifestyle and committed to myself it was time.  Next, I gathered as much information concerning foods, healthy and unhealthy, to begin the process of eliminating bad and adding good foods to my diet.  To eliminate unhealthy foods, I had to take an honest look at myself.  My eating habits, what I liked to eat, and what I should not be eating.   That was the hard part, and some of my earliest postings document more specifically what foods I ate and why I changed.  Once I honestly determined what I was eating that was bad for my health, I stopped eating it.  Did you catch what I said there?  "What was bad for my health."  I didn't base what I ate or stopped eating on weight loss goals, it was for health.   I knew the weight loss would come as a major benefit of changing eating habits.  I wasn't jumping on the weight scales every day and counting the lost pounds.

I could determine losing weight by how I felt and looked, you will too.  Now next I did something which was very important to getting started.  I bought some books on foods.  Calorie counting, fat content, and cholesterol.  Books which, including foods you prepared in your home, fast foods, restaurant foods, and processed for you foods.  Everything you drink should be included also.    From that information you can determine what foods fit into your categories of bad for you, and foods good for you, that you are going to add to your healthy diet.   Some quick personal examples.  I was a big time snacker.  Chips, dips, cookies.   I replaced those tempting snacks with fruits.  Strawberries became my snack food, with a banana or orange as a heavier in between meal hunger pain snack.

The idea is for you to develop what works for you based on your eating habits.  You will find it more difficult to change if you take the approach of weight loss being your ultimate goal.  It is harder to stay with a diet over an extended period of time. Also, going on a diet to lose weight does not mean you necessarily are eating healthy.  An extreme example, the guy who went on the Twinkie diet, supplemented by all other sorts of pastry snack cake foods to prove you could lose weight eating sweet snacks only.  But you also send your cholesterol levels through the roof.... If you are a heart patient and your cholesterol is high, you need to change to a healthy eating lifestyle, to get to, and maintain heart wise cholesterol levels.  To do that there are foods you should eat to improve HDL and others to avoid to lower your LDL.

Once you start eating differently and it becomes more of a routine and habit you will also begin to enjoy the benefits of weight loss.  In the beginning I would not be very concerned about watching how much weight I was losing, that will come as you progress with changing what you eat.

Okay, I hope you get the idea, and I don't want to get boring here.  If you want some specifics, read the earlier posts or let me know and I will post some more specifics on healthier foods.  Also, if I were you, I would make oatmeal a daily part of my diet for the health and weight loss benefits.  Oatmeal is one of the healthy foods that works on improving cholesterol, and is a satisfying food which aids in weight loss and contributes to overall health.  When you start multiplying  the number of similar healthy foods you begin to eat, and  you  eliminate some of the bad habit foods, you will quickly begin to feel a difference in yourself and the difficulty level begins to lessen.

2012: Doomsday Or A Healthier You #65

Yesterday and today were the first consecutive days that I have been able to do my complete workout exercise routine in almost 3 weeks.  I adjusted one exercise from 3 sets of 10 to 2 sets of 10 and that was the only change.  I told Cindy yesterday...  I exercised and she opted for going shopping....that it felt very good to workout and be able to do all of my exercises complete with no back pain. Today I went, bright and early, to try and go through the complete routine again.  Which I did with no lower back stress.   Tomorrow is a Monday so I am going to make a serious effort to get back in my daily regimented exercise routine.  I am sure you could tell I felt like I was slipping backwards and losing some of the progress and benefits I had gained from being so consistent in my workout routine.

Cindy and I quietly celebrated in the New Year with dinner out and coming home to watch a movie.   We ended our New Years Eve with champagne, I had to cheat just a little and move my celebration up about an hour, Cindy made it to official midnight.  I couldn't do that.  I blamed it on all the medication I take.

I am wondering how crowded my fitness center is going to be for the next couple of weeks.  Lots of members at our center don't come often, but you know how New Year resolutions are, with exercise and weight loss promises for the coming year.  So I figure there is going to be a pretty good crowd at first and then it will thin out back to the regulars before too long.  How about you?  I hope you are not one of those slackers.  You should have learned from my recent experience of  how important consistency is in exercising for heart patients.

Diet is another major issue and a New Years promise that a lot of people make to themselves.  What I am about to say is for heart patients.  Those with heart problems who need to lose weight.  Going on a diet is not, I repeat is not, going to be the fix for you.  What diet are you going on?  One of those info commercials you see on TV?  Some quick, big weight loss diet a friend told you about.  I don't think so, your heart and overall health are too important at our age.  Take an honest look at your eating habits, and decide if you are ready to make a commitment to yourself to change your eating habits to begin to eat healthy.  You won't make it work if your not ready to do it.  This is not like some diet where you stop eating burgers and fries for 3 weeks, eat some microwaved prepared meals, and magic happens and you lost 4 inches in the waist.  No this is different.  It is small steps of change over a long period of time.   We are not looking for big weight loss real quick like.  It won't happen that way.   You don't even have to weigh yourself for the first 4-6 weeks.  Who cares?  You decide what you are eating that is not healthy for you and replace it. Replace Cokes, diet and regular, for water and fruit juice....chips and dip for strawberries, and so forth.   We are going to continue this next time.

Finally, let's get this part over with...2012 doomsday year, we're done, it's over, some discovered stone tablets and crystal skulls in the jungles of Central America have sealed our fate.....Well, I remember at the stroke of midnight when we went from 1999 to 2000, the world would erupt into uncontrolled chaos as all computers and expensive gold watches with calendars and such, would destroy world order.  I don't know about your computer but mine is so slow I am pretty sure I can out run it should it decide it wants to take over and rule us.

Let's focus on making 2012 the year we get and stay healthy.

Stress Test Day #64

I completed my stress test and nuclear imaging today.  I have been dreading and nervous to the point that I have gotten Cindy worried about me having this done.  Like most things in life that you anticipate with anxiety and dread, and work yourself into all sorts of reasons not to do it.  Sooner or later you find yourself actually doing it, and that it's not as dreadful as you had convinced yourself it would be.   Finally after it is over, you're feeling pretty good about yourself for doing it and not wimping out.

First I will go over my cholesterol results.   My triglycerides were 45,  which is good in the sense it is very low.  Triglyceride levels below 150 are considered normal, 200 and above are high.   My LDL levels were 54 which is also very good.  Below 200 being desirable.  My HDL was 49 is also good.  The higher the HDL the better, which is just the opposite of LDL and triglyceride levels.   My total cholesterol level is 112 which my cardiologist has told me if I can maintain it would be ideal for me.  There is a formula for calculating your total level.  I use to think it was the combined total of the 3 which is incorrect.   You multiply your triglyceride level by 20% and add that result to your LDL and HDL levels to get your total cholesterol.   Or you can go to hughchou.org/calc/chol plug in your 3 numbers and it will calculate your total.  I am wondering how many of you are struggling with lowering your cholesterol.   Obviously I have preached about eating healthy and your diet being so important, but in reality if you have had a heart attack, and or heart surgery you should really do whatever is necessary to lower those numbers to healthy levels for you. 

Now for my stress test.  I felt pretty good about myself after it was over.   But frankly, it was not near as intense or intimidating as the one I had while in the hospital 2 years ago.   Images of your heart are taken by a gamma camera, which is a large machine that rotates around your body.  They inject you with something named radionuclides which flows through your heart and arteries.  You are lying flat on your back and must remain motionless for 15 minutes, while surrounded by the machine.  You then rest briefly, then take a treadmill stress test, rest a few minutes, then go back and have another 15 minutes of motionless images taken.   Then they flip you over on your stomach to get another angle of your heart, and do the motionless images again.

After reviewing the test stress results, my cardiologist gave me some good news.  I did very well on the treadmill, able to go the full time and achieved 90% of the target heart rate for my test.  I am no longer going to be wearing the nitroglycerin patch, and will instead begin to take medication to increase my heart rate.   So I now feel relieved and much less concerned about my low heart rate.

Today was the first day in more than 2 weeks that my nagging lower back pains seem to have gone away.  When I work out tomorrow I may try some of the least stressful exercises to sort of begin to get back to a full workout routine.  Now with the holidays, medical exams getting over, and feeling more normal, I am excited about getting back into my daily workout and exercise routine.

Wearing the nitroglycerin patch was really wearing on my morale, contrary of not living with the fear of being a heart attack waiting to happen.  My instructions were to put it on daily at 7:00 a.m.  Well, I have told you that I enjoy deer hunting this time of year, especially on cold mornings.   Other people who enjoy the outdoors will understand this, but there is something special when in the woods, by yourself, on a freezing morning and watching the daybreak sun come up and melt away the frost  from a field you are watching.  Well, on such a morning, I peeled off a pair of warm insulated hunting bibs, one windproof insulated vest, one windproof lightweight jacket, and one long sleeve jersey pull over, in 24 degree weather.  There I stood, all by myself, bare chested, in the blowing freezing wind trying to apply a nitroglycerin patch at 7:00 a.m.  I wonder what those just awakening squirrels looking down on me were thinking?
Happy New Year

Coffee, Nuclear Stress Test #63

Today I tried some of the exercises that had been bothering me.  It has been 2 weeks since my back problems began and affected my workout routine.  I could do a couple of exercises I have not been doing.   Still 3 of the exercises I can't do yet because of the back pain.   You know, I can pick up from the rack two 30 pound each dumbbells.  One in each hand and I can do lifting exercises with them and no back strain.  But in between the exercises, I can not bend over and put the weights down on the floor without winching with pain.   I can put them in the upper rack with no problem, I don't have to bend over to do that.  It is getting embarrassing trying to do some exercises and having to quit before even getting a good start.   Fellow work outers look at you like you're some kind of a weenie man.

I drink a lot of coffee, probably too much.  I have not done any research, or looked much into health benefits, or harm to your body caused by coffee.   I guess because I feel bad for myself for giving up so many foods and drinks to be healthier, I convinced myself coffee couldn't do me any harm other than perhaps keeping me awake.  And since I don't drink coffee before bedtime I was okay.   I do not want to stop drinking coffee if it is not hurting my heart or creating weight gain is my thinking. The coffee health benefits I found were admittedly a little weak in medical evidence.   Coffee drinkers are thought to be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, or have abnormal heart rhythm problems.  Coffee does contain high amounts of antioxidants but it is unknown if your bloodstream absorbs those antioxidants simply by you drinking coffee.   It can raise your blood pressure and increase blood levels of adrenaline.   Drinking a lot of coffee has been associated with lowering the risk of Parkinson's disease, and dementia.  A 6 oz. cup of coffee only has 7 calories,  if you add cream and sugar that changes to 76 calories, assuming you are conservative with the cream and sugar.  I couldn't find anything close to describing brewed coffee as being healthy for you.  Neither did I find anything indicating coffee was bad for your overall health.   Whew..... am I glad.  I don't want to think about starting a morning without a cup of hot black coffee.   I think that is enough on that subject, we will leave our coffee well enough and alone.

I have not had my nuclear treadmill stress test yet, as soon as I do and know more I'll let you know whats up. Since wearing the nitroglycerin patch my heart rate is staying in the mid 60-70 range.  I guess that is a result of the patch?   What is this type stress test?  Well, very early in this blog we talked about it, I had one a few weeks after having heart surgery.   I believe the one I am having this week will be a little bit different.  It is also known as an isotope test.  There are 3 segments to the test that take about 4 hours.  There is a treadmill stress test.  Then you are injected with a tracer (nuclear isotope) while resting, and images are taken of your heart.  Last you are  injected again with an drug to stimulate heart stress, or put on a treadmill to induce heart stress and images are taken.  The purpose in my case is to determine if blood is flowing to all parts of my heart muscle, and to ensure the blood flow through my coronary arteries is not restricted.

I am concerned and nervous about this test.  I was not worried about the one I had 2 years ago, but this time I feel completely different.  My concern is should I not respond or react well to the stress, either immediately or afterwards.   This is being done as an outpatient so there is no overnight hospital care.  Should I react, meaning have a heart attack later,  well there you go.    So yes, I am worried not so much of what the test results will be, as much as the test effects on my heart.....

If you want to know more about this type test go to heartsite.com and look up isotope stress test.  Wish me luck and and I will be reporting back to you......