Healthy Foods Pineapple #156

One of the major decisions I made when changing my diet a few years ago to one more suitable to a healthy lifestyle was to eat much more fruits.  Prior to that, without repeating some of my early postings, my diet was one completely opposite of being healthy and  was of foods which eventually lead me to having serious heart disease.   Until changing my diet I would only eat  small amounts of fruit occasionally.  Now 3-1/2 years later I have evolved my diet to where bananas, oranges, clementines, strawberries, apples, are part of my daily diet. Normally I will have various other fruits during the week. Not only are most fruits very healthy for you, they also are a great snack and satisfy your appetite.   Fruits are known to provide high amounts of nutrients containing many various antioxidants that attack free radicals which can cause heart disease or damage certain cells that are known to lead to different types of cancerous tumors.  Fruits are one of the natural foods that were meant to be consumed in order to provide our bodies the needed amounts of important nutrients.  Only much later did we evolve our diets to the introduction of incredible amounts of dangerous chemicals and high levels of salt and man-made sweeteners. Unfortunately most people now consume snack and fast foods, soft drinks and various other unhealthy processed foods as being a primary source of their diets.  Red meats contain dangerous amounts of chemicals that are much the same as lawn fertilizer. Snack foods with chemically produced preservatives and flavor enhancers, high in sugar and salt content.   Fried and fatty fast foods the can lead to high levels of cholesterol, heart disease, diabestes and obestity.  Sugars and salts can be at such high levels from snack and fast foods that our bodies can not process and absorb them naturally leading to damaging our health. Again if you will begin reading much earlier postings you will find many on this subject.

Pineapple contains vitamin C, manganese, vitamin B6, copper, vitamin B1, folate, and is low in calories.  We buy  fresh pineapple from a market that has trimmed and removed the scaly skin, and leafy crown.  Refrigerated and freshly cut it is absolutely delicious.  Make no mistake this is not canned pineapple that has had sugars and other enhancers added.   This time of year, June, fresh pineapple is available in our area.  I suggest you try pineapple, it is pleasant and a healthy addition to your diet.

Heart Patient Physical Activities #155

When thinking about remaining healthy as you get older, not becoming overweight, and being physically fit, the approach would be almost the same as the process of recovering successfully from heart problems.   I will repeat what I have recently told you several times.  I consider myself to have been completely recovered months ago and in  good health.   There are so many who come to this site to learn from our experiences how they can return to normal health after heart attacks or heart surgery.   I am not suggesting you don't need to be under the strict care of a cardiologist, but going forward day to day you need to know what others like you went through and what worked for them.
Exercise was and still is a tremendous part of my continuing health goals. Exercise goes hand in hand with a healthy diet.  One without the other will not work as well as you need.   Compound that with the reality of  when you enter your senior years and having the same eating habits and diet as in your younger years will quickly have unwanted effects. Some of those are easily adding weight, increases in unhealthy cholesterol and unhealthy blood pressure levels.  Add that to the fact that your heart must work harder to handle the increased weight and plaque build up in your arteries from the years of high cholesterol  foods and you quickly begin to experience health issues.  Which is exactly what you do not want to occur as you get older.  We want to be active and enjoy the same physical activities we have enjoyed for many years.   As baby boomers we no longer consider 70 years of age as being the time to sit back in the rocking chair and whistle our lives away.  

In our next posting I am going to give you the complete exercises I currently do.....For you new reader go back in the achieves and read up on some of the earlier posting about healthy foods and exercise.

Living a Healthy Lifestyle #154

This blog began over 3 years ago at the urging of my wife and daughter to share my experiences of recovery from a heart attack and heart surgery.   The basics of my success in returning to an active and healthy life were exercise, eating healthy foods, and achieving a healthy weight. 

In the beginning I was the absolute less likely person to exercise, become physically fit, or to join a fitness center.   So do not think it is something that you can not do.  I was in pretty poor physical condition with no stamina in the 6 months following heart surgery.  After getting approval from my cardiologist to the level of exercise I could begin with I started walking a treadmill and using an elliptical exercise machine on a daily basis.  From there I used a trainer at my fitness club who worked with heart patients as myself in developing a suitable to my limitations basic exercise program.  Let me say this was a one hour session.  That was it.  You will not need to spend a lot of money to be under the tutelage of an expensive hourly paid professionally trainer.   You will just need the basics and once you are familiar with that, simply watching and observing the techniques others use on exercise equipment will pretty well guide you to where you can safely and confidently do the same.

 I have been on an exercise and eating healthy foods self made program for the last 3 1/2 years.  I did not used any quick weight loss diet plans, mail order meals, or group oriented weight loss programs. Think about it, what do any weight loss programs, or fad diets know about what you need to do to lose weight that you don't already know?  In my opinion you mostly need to have the mindset and determination of regaining your heart health and living a healthy lifestyle.   I will make you one guarantee.   You will not achieve those results if you are seeking a short term easy solution to being in better health than most people your age.  You will need to put  your old unhealthy habits behind you if you want a complete recovery and not to be one of those repeat heart attack statistics.  You are in an elite survivors club now.  So why would you not not change your lifestyle and risk not being so lucky the next time?   You can have successful results  if you  dedicate yourself to changing your lifestyle and practice daily eating healthy foods, having regular exercise, and achieving a healthy weight.

Next time specifics on exercise.