Steps to better eating without breaking the bank.

" I can't eat healthy!  It costs too much!"  It's true!  In fact I don't think a truer statement has ever been made.  DIET FOOD is expensive!  But food that is just good and good for you isn't so much.  What may cost more, can be replicated very simply at home.  Now I know you may think that takes time you may not have, but it really doesn't.  Many of the recipes I use now, were used when I still worked a full time job.  Now that I'm home, and my outside income is gone, these same recipes and tips have served me well in keeping expenses at a minimum.   So they come in handy either way.

The idea is to use your money to buy the normal food that isn't diet or processed.  Food can be processed and not diet so the idea is to get away from both.  Oh and, BTW, food can be Organic and processed as well.  Diet food examples are easy because they're clearly marked as "sugar free", "fat free", "Diet", "Lean", "Light or Lite", "Low Calorie", etc.  You get the drift.

Everyday processed foods are harder to identify.  Label reading can come in handy in this case, but if you don't have time to label read, here are some things to try and avoid:

1) Soda- I know everyone loves their sodas.  Diet or not, these things are a bad choice. On the diet side, they contain artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Sucrolose, Aspartame, Nutri-sweet).  These things can actually MAKE YOU CRAVE SUGAR!  On the not diet side they contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Both contain artificial color, flavor, etc.  Cheap or not, my advise is to take them off your list.  Replace with Water, Tea, or Whole Milk.  I mix up lemonade to keep in my fridge.  While it does have lemon juice and sugar in it, it has less sugar.  My husband only has a glass in his lunch and one glass with dinner.  We don't drink a lot of it.  I don't drink it very much at all.  By taking these out of your grocery budget you save that money.  Chaching!  Hey!  Use the savings to invest in a food item of better quality!

2) Speaking of milk, the powers that be are finally realizing that full fat dairy is actually better for you than the low fat /non fat dairy; even when it comes to losing weight.  SHOCK!  So you can switch from the low fat/ non fat versions of dairy to full fat dairy without a difference in expense at all.  In fact, if the calories in whole milk make you nervous, mix your whole milk half and half with water.  It's 75 calories per cup to skim milks 90.  The fat is cut in half as well, and you get a milk texture and taste similar to 2%.  You get 2 gallons for the price of one!  Plus you increase your water intake.  It's a win win.  I do this in baking as well. "Cheeses" that I don't buy anymore are: american cheese, Velveeta (or generic equal), anything made low fat or fat free, and Processed American Cheese Food.  What I do buy are the full fat versions of Cheddar, Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack, Pepper jack, etc; hard cheeses.  Soft cheeses I buy are 4% milk fat cottage cheese, and cream cheese.  I JUST EAT LESS.  In addition, eating less makes it go further and saves money!

*** BTW, don't worry about buying organic milk.  All organic milk in the store is "Ultra Pasteurized" which means it's heated so high there pretty much isn't any nutritional value left.  Might as well save some cash and just buy the store brand whole milk.

3)  PLEASE NO MORE HYDROGENATED ANYTHING-  I saw a commercial the other day for a brand of margarine.  The whole commercial was touting the fact that it is now made with sunflower oil.  Like that is all healthy.  Sunflower oil is not solid.  This was.  In order to get the sunflower oil to this state is had to be.......Hydrogenated.  Which turned a not so bad oil into a very bad oil.  I use Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Coconut oil (some).  If you opt to no longer fry foods, and you use sparingly like we do, the additional expense for using these items is very minimal.  So no more fried foods means you can afford a better quality of fat to cook with.  Again EAT LESS

4) Frozen Dinners/Meals-  I don't care if they have "Healthy" or "Lean" in the title, Frozen dinners are highly processed; especially the chicken tenders, kids meals, etc.  They have a lot of filler, hydrogenated fats, sodium.  A better alternative is to cook a meal (one pot is my choice)but make it for two meals.  Serve half and freeze the other half for later.  This time of year it's easy to do that with soups, chili, and stews.  Hey there goes the need for canned soup as well!  I've even made a big pot of spaghetti and frozen half.  I do buy whole wheat pasta.  I haven't figured out how to make it yet. (smile).

5) Label reading- It's sad to say, but this is the best way to make sure what you're eating and giving your family is the best.  When I read a label, I'm looking for the fewest ingredients possible.  I realize some things are going to have more ingredients, but I need to be able to pronounce them and know what they are.  If I'm buying sour cream, the ingredient label needs to say, "sour cream".  Peanut butter needs to say "peanuts and salt".  "Artificial", "Hydrogenated", "High Fructose", any Artificial sweetener, etc, and it goes back on the shelf.  Soy is out too.  If you can't pronounce the ingredients, or don't know what they are; move on.  It's funny, but once I began to read labels, I began to take things out of our grocery budget.  Boxed cereal is replaced by my homemade granola.  Store bought chocolate syrup has been replaced with my homemade equivalent.  The same can be said for all breads, sausage, pancake syrup, biscuits, pancake mix, season salt, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing/dip.  I used to love powdered coffee creamer.  It's out.  I've replaced it with whole milk, and really prefer that.  I even have a recipe for flavored coffee creamer, but in all honesty I either leave it with milk and sugar or maybe add a teaspoon of chocolate syrup or pumpkin pie spice.

6) Lunch Meats are highly processed and preserved with nitrates (a carcinogen).  To get the nitrate free meats is pricey.  Save your dollars and your health.  Buy a turkey breast, a whole chicken, a roast.  Cook them and save the meat for lunches and meals.  Use what you want and freeze the rest.  Much cheaper per pound, and much better for you.

"But I can't make all those things!".  Never fear!  I am including recipes on my page.  Look to the right top of my page and you'll see the recipes.  You can choose from everything from main dishes to desserts.  Click on those and you'll see what I've added so far.  I will continue to add til I get them all in.  If you don't understand any of my instructions, just let me know.  I'll be more than happy to help.

You may not be willing or able to make all of these changes at once.  Pick one.  Just one, and stick to it.  Get that one down and try another one.

I strongly believe the vast majority of chronic and terminal, in some cases, illness can be linked to what we eat and how active we are.  If you're the parents of small children, now would be the time to start so your children can grow up healthier.  Sad to say, this generation coming up, which includes my two grandsons, is the first generation to have a life expectancy less than their parents.  Don't wait to make changes.  Start where you are.  Don't worry about past mistakes.  The body is a fabulous thing, and, treated right, can do wonders.

On an entirely practical level, making these changes will actually save you money!  Promise!

A Tale of two Doctors

The day I went to the ER with my heart attack, I was asked if I had a cardiologist.  I requested a certain cardiology group.  This group had performed a stress test on me years before and I knew that was who I wanted.  Due to my past employment, I knew many of the cardiologist in both groups, mostly by phone or reputation.  Things went well as I began my stay in the observation unit.  The cardiologist I requested was the one who read my heart echo.  So far so good right?  But some how, between the reading of my echo and my being told I had officially had a heart attack; I was switched to the other much larger group.  Hmmmm.  I won't go into that one.  I will just say, always stand your ground with the doctor you want.  Just FYI.

I was told of the "mix up" prior to my heart cath.  I thought it was right prior to my cath (my cath ended up being later in the day).  At the time, I had no idea the group I requested had been the one that read my echo.  Had I known that I would have made them switch me back to the group I requested.  As it was, I thought the group I was assigned to had read the echo, and not wanting to have someone come in last minute and put a tube in my heart I opted to stay where I was for the cath.  The group I was assigned to had very nice nurses and nurse practitioners.  I met many of them.  I actually met the cardiologist for my cath as I was getting ready to go in.  He did give us an idea of what to expect. The Cath team was wonderful; nice, and fun actually.  The doctor was very competent.  I was awake during the procedure (I know sounds weird, but wasn't.  I felt nothing).  I don't remember the cardiologist addressing me during the procedure, except at the end when he said I had a clean cath, and my heart attack must be stress related.  This was spoken over his shoulder as he turned away to prepare for the next case.

*** According to the American Heart Association, stress will not cause a heart attack, but can make you engage in things that can lead to a heart attack; over eating, smoking, excessive drinking, etc.***

That night I was given my first cholesterol pill.  Because my cholesterol was good and I had a clean cath, I asked the nurse why, she couldn't answer.  The next day I was to be discharged, and met another cardiologist, who came in during rounds.  He told me I was being prescribed a cholesterol drug to take daily.  I also asked him why.  His response was pretty much just take it for three months.  Okay.  Why.  "We would like you to take it for three months.  You can ask your endocrinologist".  Really no other explanation.

I won't go into the whole saga again, but, needless to day, I've spent the past 6 and a half weeks trying to get answers for; Did I really have a heart attack.  How did my attack happen?  Why am I on this med?  Should I take this new med prescribed when I haven't even spoken to the cardiologist?  Can I recover from the heart attack or is this my life from now on.  Will it happen again?  Etc.  My follow up to my cath was with a nurse practitioner, who said to me " with a lot of patients we know, but you are in that gray area". They don't know why I had my heart attack.  Okay.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with nurse practitioners, but when you're following up after a procedure, it's nice to see the doctor that did the procedure.  I saw a nurse for my stress test as well.  In previous stress tests a cardiologist was present, but that was when I was being seen by the other group (the one I originally wanted).  In fact I haven't seen a cardiologist, or spoken to one since I was discharged from the hospital.

I didn't know how all of this was affecting me until I went ahead and made the switch back to the original group I requested.  Once I had wrapped up with the group to which I was initially assigned, I made an appointment with the group I wanted.  Specifically the Dr who read my initial heart echo.  I found out later who had read my echo.   I always knew I would switch back to my requested group.  I didn't realize how much would be resolved when I did.  I was blessed in that there was a cancellation for first thing yesterday morning.  So I got in quick.

* Met with the cardiologist; female cardiologist.  Being female, this works for me.
* She spent an HOUR with me
* Using models, diagrams (that she drew)etc.  She explained everything to me.  BTW, She believes my heart attack was caused by one of my arteries constricting.  Something more common in women as is a heart attack with a clean cath.
* She also explained WHY she wanted me on two medications; one to lower cholesterol ( there may be build up in the smaller vessels that feed my actual heart)and one to strengthen my arteries (keep them from constricting).
* She worked with me to get me on the lowest dose of these meds to alleviate side affects, but for them to still be effective.
* She reassured me about the meds.
* She also reassured me that this wasn't forever.  In fact she said this might have been something residual from my days of NOT eating healthy and being active.  As I continue in this healthier lifestyle, the need for meds and/or concern may disappear!
* I have a friend who recently had a heart attack and this Dr was her cardiologist.  She told me yesterday that during her cath procedure, this doctor spoke to her the whole time, explaining everything as she went.

That one visit with this cardiologist, changed everything.  Fear dissipated, and hope lifted up it's
head.

 I don't fault the previous Doctor.  He did a good job.  His bed side manner leaves a lot to be desired, but I really think that all can be laid at the feet of their practice just being too big.  You can't turn a big ship on a dime.  There comes a time when you're too cumbersome.  There's no way to give each patient the time they need when you have multiple patients needing that time.  Just no way.  There needs to be a good mixture of competence and bedside manner.  A practice large enough to be successful, but small enough to take the time needed for a patient, any patient.

A change in perspective

Something I've thought about a lot over the last 5+ weeks, but rarely speak out loud is the thought of "What if".  Those two words hover over me.  They hover over me even now, not so much due to fear, although there is some of that ( to be honest)but mainly thru the realization that no one is promised tomorrow.  I remember thinking on the way to the hospital, what if this is it?  I had no way of knowing.  I'd had no experience having a heart attack.  So what if that was it?  Would my family know how much I loved them?  On the practical side, I wondered how my husband would handle the worst happening; my mom, my family.  At the risk of sounding maudlin, what if that was THE day.

Thankfully it wasn't the day.  I'm still here to regale you with my opinion....you're welcome....or sorry..(smile).  So I lived to see another day.   Things have changed though.  I look at things more short term.  I starting to realize how fragile life is...and how precious.  For that I can't help but be thankful.

We all do it.  We make lofty plans (or just plans) for down the road; " I can't wait til fall", "I can't wait til Christmas", "when I get (insert subject here) taken care of, I'll make time for my family, God, myself, etc." There's always tomorrow, until there isn't.  Time with people you love takes on a whole new meaning when you appreciate the fact that any particular day you're together may be the last time you will be together.  We live our lives under the assumption that tomorrow will always come.  Nothing wrong with that.  In a practical sense, we need to plan, budget, figure things out.  We can't always live our lives like there's no tomorrow.  I still make plans for down the road. In fact I'm making plans for a Thanksgiving dinner with my kids. Planning hasn't changed, but now it's with a mental caveat. I'm just more aware, of how each day is a gift. As a result of my new found "awareness", I have sub-consciously initiated a "Never again" list:

1)  Never again will I bemoan a new wrinkle, birthday, or other reminder of old age approaching (uh it's at the door!).  There are many people, younger, sometimes much younger than I that will never have the opportunity to get to the age I am now.  I've watched my three children grow to adulthood,  celebrated my daughter's wedding, the birth of 2 grand children, 25 years of marriage.  Many don't get those chances.  It's extremely selfish on my part to dread a birthday.  Instead I'll embrace each one with thankfulness, and honor every grey hair, wrinkle, sag, etc.

2)  Never again will I shun the treadmill (or other cardio equipment).  While I'm still a huge proponent of any activity is better than none, my perspective has changed on treadmill walking.  Don't get me wrong, my 60 lbs came off with some structured exercise and a lot of unstructured physical activity.  That policy got me from 230 lbs to 170 lbs.  I still believe if you are where I was in the beginning; incorporating a "whatever activity works" policy paired with healthier eating is a good way to start. Structured exercise is no longer something I do just to lose weight.  It's what I do to ensure my survival.  45 minutes of walking is a small price to pay to add years to my life.  I no longer look at it as 45 minutes wasted when I could be doing something productive.  It's producing extra time for me to spend with my family.

3)  Never again will I put off until tomorrow something that should have been done years ago.  Namely, we need a will.  It's on my list of things to do TODAY.   We thought of it.  Sometimes I would say "we need to do that", but the need to worry about it seemed far off and other things took precedent.  That has changed.  I don't care how old you are, if you are an adult, you need a will.  This is what I'm looking into.  Check out this article on Clark Howard's site

https://clark.com/family-lifestyle/wills-funerals/cheapest-easiest-ways-to-do-will/

Wills don't have to break the bank.  It's worth it in the long run, And I've put it off far too long.  Along this same line, there are things I need to get situated in case.  Things I want to do for my kids.

I know this seems like a morbid kind of post, but it really isn't.  It's about a new appreciation for life, and life well lived.  It's about caring for myself daily; physically, mentally, spiritually.  It's about making sure to take care of my family weather here or not.  I just had a wake up call.  Time to get up!

James 4:13-15 " Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, do you not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."


J

I'm supposed to eat what???

So, I want to say first and foremost, the staff at the hospital was beyond great!.  So nice, so helpful, so considerate.  I have no complaints at all with their care.  But as the stay progressed, what was apparent were the contradictions between what we're told to eat for health, and what was available.  Not just with what I was given, but what was available.  This is a hospital!  I mean really?  There is a popular restaurant in this hospital, and though the same restaurants in public have healthy alternatives, this one did not!  You'd think they would have made a point of this one having more healthy alternatives than the public ones.  Just my opinion.

The day I was admitted I did get a dinner; baked chicken, green beans, and brown rice; all with no salt.  UGH!  I got really sweet tea cause it is the south, and i'm not diabetic soo..., a dinner roll (made with white flour)and MARGARINE, and lemon pudding made with lord knows what.  So I can't have salt, but I can have margarine, and highly processed other foods.  The chicken, rice, and beans were fine, but I would rather have the salt and get rid of the margarine.  Full disclosure, I ate the pudding.  I mean why not?  I was starving!  Past midnight I was to eat nothing til I had my heart cath the next day.  The nurses were great in allowing me a late night snack prior to midnight; boxedcereal with skim milk, or peanut butter graham crackers.  I figured the lesser of two evils was the peanut butter and graham crackers.  My cath was supposed to be in the morning, but it got bumped to afternoon.  They gave me a snack, and again I had to choose graham crackers and peanut butter (you know the processed kind with hydrogenated oil).  I was hungry though, so I took what I could and was grateful for it.  I had my heart cath and it was clean, no blockages.  Yay!  I can have what I want to eat!

"NO!"  I'm told. I'm told I'm still on the cardiac diet.  I did still have a heart attack.  So my dinner when it came that night was....wait for it.... baked chicken, brown rice, and just to change things up, carrots!  Again, no salt, again, margarine and sweet tea.  The day I was discharged was the first day I ate breakfast.  Eggs (good), cantaloupe (also good), then it went down hill from there.  There was the ever present margarine; two of them actually.  I had white grits, white french toast, skim milk, pancake syrup (which was High fructose corn syrup mixed with various chemicals, and , oh yea, salt), and coffee with soy creamer.   I ate the eggs and the cantaloupe.  Just about everything else I had been actively avoiding for years.  Check out this article with Health line.  See if the list doesn't look familiar.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-foods-that-cause-inflammation#section6


We are told by the medical powers that be, not to eat hydrogenated foods, but given margarine.  We are told to eat whole grains, but given refined flours.  We are told to avoid High Fructose corn syrup/ highly processed foods, but there they are!  BUT NO SALT!  Can't have that.  You're heart attack has now relegated you to a life of tasteless food.

Now they were consistent putting skim milk on my plate.  This is where what they recommend and what I believe part company.  I stopped eating low fat a long time ago.  I eat full fat cheeses, yogurt, milk.  I just eat less!  Check out this article in Medical News Today.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322452.php

In fact, full disclosure, we've begun to drink and use Raw milk and/or non-homogenized milk.  It's what we choose to do.  We buy local and know our farmer. We had a friend that recommended the raw milk because of it's cholesterol lowering properties.  Ironic huh.

The very nice cardiac rehab counselor was in the room that morning when my breakfast came.  She appreciated my dilemma.  With a chuckle she said "unfortunately, dietary guidelines haven't caught up with current info".  In some ways I agree,  but looking at my tray that morning I thought "some of these dietary guidelines haven't kept up with dietary guidelines"!  I assured her that though I ate full fat, I ate less and kept my fat intake under a certain range.  She was fine with that.  So that is what I'll continue to do.

This is what we choose to do.  You have to do what works for you, but be informed about what plan you are going to follow.

And the saga continues.....

Once I was cleared I was like YIPPEE life is back to normal!

 Aaaaannd I got on the treadmill the next day at 3 mph and 2% incline (LETS NOT GO CRAZY RIGHT!).  I did that for 45 minutes.

Aaaaaand I then went and did yard work outside.

 Yea....never said common sense was a strong characteristic of mine.  Come Friday, the next day, the nice folks building my deck (the wife is a nurse Thank God) ended up taking me to the hospital for chest pain.  Yay Me!  Fortunately it wasn't a heart attack, but the ER nurse caring for me, when she heard what all I did the day before, admonished me and said I needed to get back into it gradually!  So over the weekend I went back to being a slug.  Unfortunately what that set in motion were panic attacks.  I think Friday's issues might have started out as over doing it, but ended up in a panic attack.  Monday definitely was.  3 hours this panic attack lasted.  I had a few small panic attacks over the weekend, but didn't recognize them as that.  I thought it was"you overdid it" pains.  It wasn't until the doozy one on Monday that the nice nurse on the other end of the phone assured me I was having a panic attack.  I would be fine.  It isn't cardiac.  My Dr prescribed an anti anxiety pill.  Yay...another pill.

I didn't want another panic attack so I took the pill the next day.  I was told the medicine would take a week or so to get into my system so I needed a way to cope with these attacks until then.  To the internet I went!  I found that walking can help.  So I walked (no incline; 2 mph)on our treadmill to help get thru them. Walking and praying!  It worked! Whenever I felt an attack coming on, I would drop what I was doing and get on the treadmill.  Sometimes I walked 5 minutes, and sometimes it could be 20 minutes.   I could literally feel the attack hit, and fall off.  The best way to describe is a wave hitting me.  All was fine that day.

Then came the nausea.  Next day, nausea like you wouldn't believe, curled up in a fetal position afraid to move, nausea.  The Dr cut my dose by half and that helped, but by the next day, I guess the half dose had accumulated back up to a full dose (you know 2 days x half dose) and the nausea came back.  I talked to my Dr and told her I would rather walk thru the attack and deal with them without meds.  She encouraged me to try.  So I did.  It worked. Since the time I came off the meds,(a week ago yesterday), I've only had one more decent sized attack and that was last Saturday night.

I think another thing that helped alleviate the attacks is the stress test I had this past Monday and, once I got thru that, I felt my confidence returning.  I'm happy to say I passed the stress test and am cleared to start rehab on Monday.  I'm looking forward to rehab.  I've found I'm too nervous to confidently workout on my own right now.  I never thought of myself as a skittish type, but this has proven me otherwise.  I'm anxious to get back to where I was physically, and even better.


Things I learned from this event:

1) HEART DISEASE IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AMONG WOMEN!  Let that sink in.  In fact more women die from heart disease than all other causes of death among women combined.

2)  It doesn't matter how well you take care of yourself.  If you have a family history of heart disease, you are at a higher risk of a heart attack than someone who doesn't.  Now that doesn't mean don't take care of yourself.  Because of the way I was eating, the weight loss, etc, my heart attack was mild.  There were no blockages to remove, no stents to place, no open heart surgery.  My dad's on the other hand, ended up in a quadruple bypass. 

3) The dietary guidelines for cardiac patients is woefully inadequate.  I'll go into that more later.

4)  Even a mild heart attack is a traumatic event as far as my mind is concerned.  I never, ever want to feel that kind of pain again.  And the not knowing why I had a heart attack kinda messed with me.  It's like "But you didn't fix anything....".

5) And finally and not least by any stretch of the imagination; God was there with me through it all.  I never felt him leave my side.  For that reason I thank Him.  Not just for being there, but I thank him for this situation so that I would have the opportunity to feel His presence with me, and to have to lean on Him.  Powerful stuff.

Talk about a motivator!

I know, you thought I abandoned this blog, and you would be partially right.  It has been a busy, busy spring and summer.I figured my little Etsy shop would fade back during the summer months and give me time to leisurely sew up some things for when the Christmas shopping season started.  That wasn't the case.  Add to that my normal gardening season (and we went a little nuts with the planting), helping my mom with cleaning out the basement of her house (Big basement),preparing our previous back deck area to become a porch, only to find out we couldn't get a concrete truck in there so it's back to a deck, and so forth and so on....It was a little crazy.

I have managed to keep my weight at 168, which is good cause it's been hard to eat exactly on plan.  Activity is what saved me.  I would like to say things have slowed down, but that is not the case.  As we speak I have about 5 outfits and 4 sets of diapers, all custom ordered, in the works.  The deck is being built, though not by us.  Some wonderful friends are helping us out.  But I still have a long list of things that need addressing before the weather turns off cold.

 And I had a heart attack.  Not a big one.  It was mild.  Didn't feel mild when it was happening.  I can say I would rather have a baby than feel that pain again.  But, there were no blockages, and my cholesterol is good.  They actually have no idea why I had a heart attack.  I have a family history, so I'm sure that's part of it, but with no blockages they don't know what it was.  I could have passed a small clot thru my heart.  That's what my endocrinologist thinks (and my nurse Hubby).  Nobody knows!  Well except God!

Even though my cholesterol was good and there were no blockages, they put me on a cholesterol lowering med, and I reluctantly agreed.  From the time I was discharged two weeks ago to the night before my follow up, I took this pill at night as prescribed.  Every morning I would get up and have twinges of chest pain.  It's a little nerve racking to have that after a heart attack, but by lunch there was no problem and I felt normal.  Finally the night before my follow up with the cardiologist, I decided not to take it and see what happened.  Yep, woke up the next day and felt like my old self.  No pain.  I brought this up to the nurse practitioner and asked her why they wanted me on it when I had good cholesterol and no blockages.  She said that while my cholesterol was good, in heart patients they want the LDL (bad) cholesterol to be in the less than 70 and mine was in the 89.  I asked her, since I'm so close anyway, couldn't I use diet and exercise to get it where they want it?  She said I could.  So no cholesterol pill!

She seemed surprised, and it made me wonder if maybe she hears more patients just want a pill instead of making any changes.  In all honestly, I'm not making many new changes except using more Extra Virgin olive oil, eating more cholesterol lowering foods, and just getting refocused on what I was doing before.  But having a heart attack gives you real motivation to stay on track.  First of all, I never want to go thru that again, and second, I never want to have to take a pill to fix something with my body.

I'd love to say all was right with my world after that...It wasn't.


This is going to be long, so I will end the heart saga here and save the rest for another day!

Vacation update!

We had a great time on vacation.  It took us a couple of days to really get our feet underneath us.  What I can tell you is that we didn't really care for the main drag of Pigeon Forge or Gaitlinberg.  We made the mistake of going to the Hollywood Wax museum.  Huge disappointment; especially for the money we paid (about $62 for both) for a VIP pass.  The VIP pass was a joke.  The only benefit from it was the fact that admission to Hannah's Mirror maze was included in the price.  Really, though, we should have just paid for the maze and done that.  The maze was great fun!  It's geared for kids mainly, but we grown ups were having just as good a time.  Had we just done the maze, we would have paid about half what we paid to do the museum.  So Maze, yes, Museum, no.  The museum was okay, but not for what we paid.  In addition, while you're walking thru the museum, you get stopped by Time share folks.  I won't say it's sponsored by the museum, but they do have their own spot in the museum.  They stop folks who have the VIP pass (cause we must have more money ((eyeroll)).

The side streets are where you want to go for things like the antique stores, unique crafts, etc; You know, those things you wouldn't find in your back yard.  I even found an antique doll to work on! I'm teaching myself how to recondition/restore old composition dolls.  It's a work in progress.  She needs a lot of help.

 What we really enjoyed was the Great Smokey Mountain National park.  BEAUTIFUL!, and that was with the trees not in bloom yet!  The snow caps were gorgeous.

There's a part of the park called "Cade's Cove".  It's an 11 mile loop that includes some of the homes and other buildings of some of the original settlers to that area.  If you ever try this out, set aside 2.5-3 hours for the tour.  I am a huge fan of all things pioneering.  This was right up my alley.  The only drawback is it takes 45 minutes to get there from the visitor center because it's 24 miles away, and you can only drive about 25-30 miles per hour.  Weeeee should have packed a lunch.  Lol  We were starving when we left to find lunch.  Here's a shot from the cove to the mountains.

 Here's one of the homes built by the first settlers to the area, James Oliver

Speaking of starving...we really didn't.  That's the one thing we had no problem with....food.  I had all these plans of finding a Subway, Chic Fila, and Zaxby's when we got there.  We finally found a Subway on day 2, but by then the damage was done.  Lol.  We had no trouble finding good restaurants.  Mel's Diner I think was the best.  Big Daddy's pizza was a really close second.  In fact, not sure if they aren't tied.  Anyway, Our plans changed in that we decided to just have fun, and get back on track Thursday morning when we were on our way home.  So that's what we did.  Monday thru Weds were vacation days and we were back on track Thursday before we left Pigeon Forge.

So Sunday was our weigh in day and we were really surprised at how little was gained.  My Dh only gained .2 pounds.  I gained .8 pounds which is really good because my weight fluctuates, and should have been up a little anyway.  I was glad to see I hadn't gained all of the weight I'd lost over the 2 weeks before.

So all in all a good week.  The best part of our trip?  Just taking the time to be together.  That's what has kept us going for 25 years.  He's my best friend, and I'm his.