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.

Mama's got her groove back.

I know it's been more than a week since last I posted.  I weighed in initially last week March 18th and was down .4 pounds.  Not too shabby after 3 great days only after 4 really bad days.  Those bad days were literally out of control days.  Crazy.  But once I went back to basics; things settled... a lot.  I would get to the end of the day; have had plenty to eat, and have calories left over!

I could've posted this then, but I wanted to get another weigh in under my belt before I declared victory.  So that's where I am now.  Funny thing is, I started this post last week.  This point in my post is being (or I should say was?) written on 3/18.  I did have my confidence back at that weigh in on 3/18, and knew I was on the right track.  But like I said, I wanted to be sure.

So today's (3/24)weigh in was a loss as well of another pound!

So what caused my dilemma of the past, oh, 3.5 months?  Breads, rice, and pasta..yes, but not in and of themselves.  Like I've said before, I have no problem with those things, and will still eat them on occasion.  The problem came because those things,which have more calories, and stayed with me for a shorter time, had increased in my diet over the last 3.5 months.  Then I was hungry and had no calories left to manage the hunger.  So I would throw the day away.

 Once I took those breads, etc. out of my diet again (for now), I regained control.

 I still get plenty of carbs from fruits, sugar sweetened coffee or tea, sugar sweetened whole milk dairy, or just dairy, etc.  In addition, because I'm now getting on average 7 fruits and veggies a day, my fiber intake is going way up.  I'm now meeting my fiber requirements for each day.  Sometimes I even surpass the fiber requirements.  Plus, my protein levels are way up.  Which is good because I have hypothyroidism, and so need a higher protein intake relative to my carb intake.  But I always, always, always meet strongly my carb requirements for the day.  They just don't come from breads, rice, or pasta most of the time.  Carbs are your friend.  Your brain actually needs them to function so..keep the carbs please.

Toward the end of this past week I did start adding a treat in the evening.  Not always, but some nights; if I have the calories, and have met my fiber requirements (25 gms a day), then I have allowed myself cookies (2 for 120 calories), or a smore ( Not for any reason except that's what I have on hand.  In summer, it'll probably be milkshakes or ice cream).  It's the end of the day, so no chance of foraging.  Plus since I haven't eaten a crazy amount of breads etc, I have plenty of calories and am very satisfied over all.  Know what else?  Even after the cookies, I still have calories left over.  It's crazy.

This upcoming week marks our 25th wedding anniversary.  Can't believe it, but here it is!  Happy Anniversary Babe!  Love you!

We've been planning and saving to take a trip to celebrate.  I was a little concerned, now that I'm back on track, that I would blow it all on vacation.  I think I'm going to be fine though.  The hotel we're staying at has a free hot breakfast so I can get eggs and fruit easy for a good start to the day.  And coffee.  We can't forget coffee.  Any other restaurants, I'll just make sure the bread etc isn't included on what I order.  We'll be near some national and state parks and so there will be plenty of trails to try.  We also plan on walking to our destinations most of the time.  I'm thinking I'll be active enough.  Next week will see how I did.

So while I've got you.  Here's a little something really good to try especially if you like chocolate covered cherries.

Partially defrost 5 oz of frozen cherries (I buy mine at Costco).  Top them with 1/2 TBS of chocolate syrup.  I've used as little as 6 gm of syrup and as much as a full TBS.  It depends on how bad I'm needing chocolate.  This is beyond good!

Back to Basics

Frustration had set in this week as I began to try and jump back on the wagon.  I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  I would start out great and by afternoon would be foraging for something to eat.

Nothing I was eating had artificial sweeteners; so that wasn't it

I was eating foods I've eaten many times before and never had a problem.

It was rainy and cold a few days and that's always frustrating, but I had problems on sunny days too.

What was it?

Then yesterday happened.  Once again I started out my morning recording my breakfast.  Never give up right!?  I'm always doing fine until afternoon, so likewise my day went fine up to the point of lunch as well.  I was recording what I had for lunch when I realized I hadn't had any kind of bread up to that point.  My plan was to have hamburgers last night for dinner, but up until then, no bread, rice, or pasta.  This gave me pause.  Hmmmm...

When I first started out on this journey, breads, rice, pasta were last on my list to eat.  I have nothing against them, and don't totally exclude them.  This isn't a low carb diet, but they're too many calories for the benefit I receive from them.  They were supposed to be a treat not a mainstay.  Over the past month, and even since the Holiday season, these items (including cookies, crackers, and anything else made with flour), had crept further and further into my diet.  This past month even more so because of the lack of grocery money.  Needless to say, I've been eating lots of bread products.  They had become a mainstay.

Here's the thing: 130 calories for a 2 oz hamburger bun that's mostly air; compared to 130 calories of nutrient dense foods like fruits, veggies, lean meat, etc.  Which do you think provides more food?  That same amount of calories would be in 4 oz of pork loin or chicken, 7.5 oz of cherries, 6 oz of whole milk vanilla yogurt.  Get my drift?   Well, I remembered too.  Immediately I removed the hamburger bun from my menu for the day, keeping everything else( the pork loin hamburger patties, the toppings, etc).  Because of that removal, instead of just a hamburger alone for dinner; I had my Bun-less burger on a bed of raw spinach (with all the toppings), and had baked carrot fries (very good) on the side.  Instead of cookies for dessert, I had my "Banana split" which is a sliced banana topped with 2 oz of vanilla whole milk yogurt and a drizzle of real (homemade) chocolate syrup).  So I went thru an entire day without breads, rice, or pasta.

 Know what?  I got to the end of my day feeling very full and satisfied.  Better yet, I was in range for calories, carbs, protein, fats, and fiber!  No munching!  No foraging!  No cheating!  No feeling deprived.  I mean, I look back over my day and I had 2 cups of coffee with milk and sugar!  I had buttered popcorn!  And I had my chocolate fix.  Still no diet foods, no artificial anything.  So guess what I'm doing today?  You betcha!  Same thing.  I already have my menu planned for the day!  Wanna see?

Breakfast

2 cups of coffee with 1 tsp sugar and 2 tbs whole milk each
2 eggs cooked in 4 gms butter
140 grams (that's 5 oz) cherries topped with
2 oz of vanilla whole milk yogurt

Morning snack

140 grams strawberries topped with
2 oz vanilla whole milk yogurt
1 tsp choc syrup

Lunch

Chicken stir fry with
5 oz of broccoli
5 oz of cauliflower
4 oz cooked chicken breast
1/2 cup chopped onion
Plus all the spice, soy sauce etc
212 gms (7.5 oz) fresh cantaloupe

Afternoon snack

3 TBS popcorn
4 gms butter

Dinner

4 oz ground pork "Taco meat"
1 cup fresh spinach
.5 oz cheddar cheese
1 tbs sour cream
1/4 cup salsa

Dessert

Banana
2 oz Vanilla whole milk yogurt
1 tsp choc syrup

Total calories :  1365 out of the 1550 I'm allowed
Total carbs :  164 in range of 135- 235
Total fat:  42 in range of 27-56
Total protein:  92 in range of 60- 127
Total fiber: 25 in range of 25-35.

Tell me I don't have enough to eat!

Okay, all kidding aside

UGH!  up .4 lbs for the month.  That doesn't sound too bad except since before the holidays I've put on about 4 pounds over all.  When you combine the holidays with cookies, power outages, and lack of grocery money, it all adds up to a long time jump off the band wagon.  I think the only thing that saved me over the past few months has been the fact that I've continued to be active.  So full disclosure; here I go.

I now have received my grocery money for the month!  Yay!  I have been able to restock some stuff and got a great deal on the Chicken breast and pork loin.  During my Costco trip I bought 4- 6 lb bags of frozen Normandy Blend veggies.  The cashier asked if I had enough (tongue in cheek).  I made no apologies.  I told her these vegetables roasted are my favorite vegetable.  So I'm buying plenty for the month.  Seriously, I could eat these as a snack!  In addition, I also discovered that 4% (which is the full fat version) cottage cheese has more protein in it than eggs.  That's good news since my chickens aren't laying so much right now.  I actually had to buy eggs!  Another good thing about the cottage cheese is I get a lot of it to equal the same calories as the 2 eggs I would have had.  So this mornings breakfast was

Coffee with 1 tsp of sugar and 1 oz whole milk (of course)
130 grams green grapes
140 grams strawberries
3/4 cup of 4% cottage cheese.

300 calories total for this breakfast.  That's about what I shoot for; 300-350 calories.  Plus I get a whopping 20 gms of protein in this breakfast.  Best yet, I love cottage cheese.  May need to buy more (smile)..

So anyhoo, taking it one day at a time.  Today was a good day.  I stayed in range, got plenty of good for you stuff, did a workout (step tape+ housework), had cookies for dessert.  I was pretty impressed with myself since it was a cloudy dreary day.  Those days tend to be days where I want to munch.  But I stayed the course.  It's always a good thing to let the upward mobility of the scale be a good motivator.  It did, and I have.  Can't complain.  Now we see what tomorrow holds.