I went to the doctor yesterday and got some good news. He cut me loose - no surgery, no restrictions, no appointments for six months. Now I've got to make the retirement decision. Not much of a decision to make, actually. I really don't want to go back. I need to run the numbers one more time but I'm about 99% on packing it in. I was planning on going in a year anyway.
The photo shows my breakfast this morning. Blackberries fresh off the fence line, shredded wheat and soy milk. I'm not sure how or even if, this vegan thing will work out for me, but it's the only thing I've come across that holds any promise of reversing heart disease. Time magazine had a one page interview with Scott Jurek in this week's issue. As a runner, I had heard of him prior to this but I didn't realize he was a vegan. Obviously, if you can run 165miles in a 24 hour period, a vegan diet is not limiting your athletic performance. He has a book that just came out that I'd like to read called Eat & Run. Might shed a little light on some of the diet questions I have. It's hard to find honest answers out there. It seems everyone has an agenda or they're just repeating what they've heard from someone else who has an agenda.
A couple of years ago Jamie Oliver did a thing on TV about changing our diets here in America. It seems there was a lot of resistance to change and trying to comply with USDA requirements made it almost impossible to serve healthy meals in schools. As a school teacher, I quit eating most everything they had to offer several years back. However, there always seemed to be donuts or something sweet in the teachers lounge and most every get together had some type of snack offered up. I'm not blaming my heart attack on the school food. But they are certainly complicit in the heart attacks of thousands, if not millions of others by continuing to serve unhealthy food, dropping physical education classes and not educating the students in how to prepare and eat healthy meals.
I stopped by Purdue Calumet the other day and made arrangements to have my metabolism checked. I've had it checked several times over the past few years as a way to track my fitness level and the efficiency with which my body converts calories. Now that I'm free from restrictions, the test will establish a base line and I can track my progress on the road to heart disease reversal. Besides wanting to stay healthy, I'm very curious as to what can be accomplished by someone who makes some lifestyle changes. Time will tell. Hopefully, I'll have a long time to keep reporting back in.
Have a good weekend.
4 comments:
I admire your will power to change your habits. I guess a scare like you had can do that to a person. Good luck in your decision about school and also in staying healthy!
Thanks. I really thought I was doing enough before to keep from having a problem. Obviously I was wrong, but now I get a second chance at it. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do to reverse things. Should be interesting.
That's great news! Let me know if you need any helping loading and hauling the stuff out of your "room." I'd be glad to meet you up there and help.
Thanks for the offer. I went over this morning, brought a few things home and started cleaning out the desk and cabinets. I've got a little bit of organizing here at home to do before I drag the rest of it home.
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