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.