The mission for this blog since I started it in late 2012 has been to help people with health issues eat tasty, satisfying food rather than just the bland stuff nutritionists propose after a major health incident such as my angioplasty in 2012.
Those in my family who have died from heart attacks. I miss them all.
But helping people is only possible if they’re listening, otherwise I’m just another tree falling in the forest, unknown and unseen and not helping anyone.
Healthy Heart Market is a good place to shop online for low-salt offerings you can’t find in local stores. I turned to it extensively after my 2012 angioplasty as I dropped salt, fat and sugar from my daily eating routine.
Healthy Heart Market is a good online shopping alternative if you can’t find low- and no-salt offerings in your local supermarkets or food stores here you shop. I’ve written about it’s offerings in the past.
But shipping products, especially liquids, can get expensive. So it’s nice when the Market offers discount, such as one that is ending today for 10% off. The promotion is tied in with the American Heart Association’s Go Red Day, which was Feb. 3 and is designed to help promote heart health among women. Continue reading “A heart-related discount from Healthy Heart Market”→
Regular readers of my blog know I began this after having angioplasty to open an 80% blocked artery very close to my heart. Doctors told me I did not have a heart attack but had come very, very close on the day when I felt the pressure on my chest and it seemed like air had stopped reaching my lungs.
A graphic view of angioplasty
So while this blog is about eating no salt, no sugar, no fat recipes and no salt, no sugar, no fat restaurant meals, if you can find them, I continue to watch news about heart disease. Recently two different e-mails came to me listing heart attack triggers, one from AARP and the other from WebMD. Continue reading “Let’s talk heart attacks for a minute…just a minute”→
I’ve been writing this week about a special issue of the WebMD newsletter dealing with eating out. One article got very specific about items to avoid as various fast-food outlets and what to buy instead.
Deep dish pizza–those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.
I pointed out those substitutes all were too high in salt, as far as my diet is concerned. This post looks at another article entitled Worst Restaurant Meals.
My 2012 angioplasty set me on a path to change my eating habits to lessen the chance of future heart problems. I went on to drop nearly 30 pounds over the first two years after the surgery.
But 2015 proved a setback year for me, so much so that last week I went out to buy some 40-inch-waist pants again, after having thrown out the ones I had back in 2012.
Nathan’s hot dogs and waffle fries, wondrous stuff that led to my gaining six pounds in four days of New York City eating
Studies have pointed to increased risk fo heart problems for men with waists larger than 38 or 39 inches.
I’ve hovered between 38 and 40 most of my adult life, getting as high as a 44 at one point. I find my equilibrium waist, the size I feel most comfortable with, is normally around 39, which puts me in dubious territory heart-wise.
So what happened last year? I got tired of always being hungry, for one thing. Also, a variety of external stress factors as the year wore on simply wore down my resolve to eat well.
I gained 14 pounds over the course of the year, but six pounds of that came in December thanks to a trip to the place of my birth, New York City, where I ate all the foods I grew up loving — all high in fat, sugar, salt and calories.
My eating binge continued into the Christmas-New Year’s holidays as I once again ate chocolate and candies I have largely given up.
With a new year here now, it’s time for me to jump back on the low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar bandwagon, which will mean a return to hunger pangs but, also hopefully, a return to a smaller waist size as I drop enough pounds to go back to my 38-inch-waist pants.
The Celtic Knot is along-time fixture in my Chicago suburb of Evanston but I have not gone there in the three years since my angioplasty because the place advertises that it specializes in pub grub — exactly the kinds of foods I can no longer eat because they tend to be high in salt and fat.
My Celtic Knot salmon salad.
So I wasn’t sure what I would eat there when I went to a recent event held in a private room at the downtown Evanston restaurant. I brought along my own oil and vinegar packets just in case those simple salad condiments weren’t available.
Me with the heart mascot, sporting my survivor’s cap and beads for each year since my 2012 surgery.
Survivors of heart attacks and strokes receive special heart association baseball caps for the event, red for heart attack survivors, white for stroke survivors. They, I, also get strings of mardi gras-like beads, one for each year they have survived. I received three strands of beads this year, the third since my 2012 angioplasty.
Putting that hat on brought me to tears in 2014, the first year I participated, and it did so again this year. It is the only affirmation I get, really, that I have survived a massively traumatic event and am still alive. Continue reading “My second heart walk – a very moving experience”→
Three years ago today, I was having heart surgery and didn’t know if I’d survive the day.
And now, as I write this, I’m on a plane flying away for a long weekend get-away with my wife. The juxtaposition of those events is difficult for me to fathom many days.
I turn 62 today and I’m back in the city of my birth. A few years ago, just before having an angioplasty performed in August 2012, I didn’t think I’d see my 62nd birthday, or even my 61st. Even in the year after the surgery, I expected a heart attack every day. It’s amazing to me I’m still here.
My New York, Luna Park apartments at Coney Island.
What’s even more amazing is to be in New York City for this birthday. New York is the land of bad food, all the foods I grew up loving — New York pizza, pastrami, cheesecake, Italian pastry, sausage and onions, giant plates of spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, Nathan’s hot dogs, Drake’s cakes, Carvel…the list goes on and on. Continue reading “Happy Birthday to me!”→
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 