P.S. I can tell you from my own first-hand experience, which I document in “Fit Over 40″, that my personal 10-year-journey through the muck of obesity was ANYTHING but happy.
I was depressed, to the point of suicide at times (thankfully I never went that far.) I was socially hidden. I wore “fat-clothes” all the time. The few times I HAD to wear jeans or dress pants I rushed home to change into sweats because they were just too damn uncomfortable to tolerate.
Bottom line: I was “fat-n-miserable”.
I think most people who are overweight or obese feel more despair, sadness, or perhaps just really frustrated than “happy”. Of course you can be happy and be any size, color, shape, etc. But I’ll tell you from my experience that I am MUCH happier now that I’m fit and trim.
Part of that is just because I feel better. The other part is how the brain functions. When you’re more active, you release more “feel-good” hormones… and these are powerful anti-blues hormones… they really make you feel like a champ. At least that’s been my experience.
But go watch the 5-min video and see what you think…
A few days ago my daughter sent me a link she had come across on a site that was featuring Molly the barn owl who was sitting on five eggs. Carlos and Donna Royal are the owners of the owl house on their property in San Marcos, California.
She is a beautiful owl. Her mate, McGee, hunts nearby fields and bring her food several times a day. Her menu ranges from rodents to rabbits. This has truly been an amazing experience watching her diligently sitting on the eggs and waiting for them to hatch.
People from all over the world (over 20 countries) have found Molly’s world. She is truly a world famous owl. Today I have seen the number of visitors go over 13,000 to the site. At one point there were so many visitors that Carlos had problems with the web cam.
Here is a description of facts about the barn owl.
They range in size from 13 to 20inches
They weigh 8 to 21 ounces
They have a wingspan of about 3-1/2 feet
They do not migrate
Their habitat is in farmlands, marshes, prairie, and desert locations
Barn owls have the sharpest sense of hearing of any bird in the world
In appearance, the barn own differs from other owls and is characterized by its heart-shaped face and small black eyes. The round shape of their faces amplifies sounds, while its silent flight helps to keep the background noise to a minimum allowing their ears to search out their prey. It has been documented that the owl’s ears are not symmetrical on the head. The left side is higher on the skull than the right. This makes the sound traveling from above or below to arrive at one ear before the other, which allows the owl to know which direction the sound is coming from. The Barn Owl has three-dimensional hearing. With its keen sense of hearing, the barn owl can catch food in total darkness.
Although its name, “barn owl” denotes that it lives in barns, this owl can also be found residing in churches, natural sites, such as caves and tree holes and other buildings.
Owls eat their food whole. They do not have teeth and cannot chew their food. They rip their prey apart and they swallow large chunks whole. This food goes from their mouth to their gizzard. The gizzard uses sand particles, gravel and digestive fluids to grind and dissolve parts of the food that can be digested. After the various parts of the food has been broken down by the owl’s gizzard and intestines, the teeth, claws, bones, fur and other indigestible parts of the owl’s prey are compacted in the owl’s gizzard into a neat mass which is better known as an owl pellet. Baby owl’s do not produce owl pellets until they begin eating their prey whole.
An owl pellet is usually formed after a few hours of eating. This pellet will remain in the body for several hours. The pellet is stored in the proventriculus part of the owl’s body for up to 20 hours. The owl will not be able to eat again until this pellet is disgorged as it blocks the entrance to the digestive system.
Molly at one point was regurgitating an owl pellet. It appeared that she was coughing or choking. The actual process is when the esophagus spasms forcing the owl pellet out. The owl pellet is soft at this point and does not cause the owl any pain. This regurgitation process can take anywhere from a few seconds to two or three minutes.
The barn owl does not build a traditional nest. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs right on the floor, usually among old owl pellets. The eggs will hatch after about 30 days. Molly has been a diligent mother sitting on her eggs. She gets up from time to time to stretch her legs and eat whatever prey McGee has brought to her. Carlos comes on throughout the day and evening giving viewers updates on Molly. He mentioned at one point that he has seen Molly leave the owl house once or twice after dark.
The owlets fledge 7 to 10 weeks after hatching but do not usually leave the area until the are 3 to 5 months old.
The breeding pair may lay a second clutch of eggs after the young leave the area. A barn owl is capable of reproduction at less than a year of age.
Recent studies have shown that males prefer to breed with females with plenty of spots on their thighs. This is a unique feature that indicates a bird’s good health!
I am looking forward to the hatching of the remaining 4 eggs and the development of the owlets. It has been a real joy being allowed to have a “bird’s eye view” of this process. Carlos and Donna are wonderful for putting in all the effort and expense that they have so we can enjoy seeing Mother Nature and God’s creatures in action. If you would like to check in on Molly and her family of owlets please check out http://eCa.sh/KQyk. I hope you will enjoy this as much as my family, friends and I have.
What does the word “sacrifice” conjure up in your mind? What Does Sacrifice Mean to You?
To our military personnel sacrifice is giving up their personal lives to fight for our country. It means leaving spouses, children, family members and friends, and sometimes it means never coming back. That is truly an enormous sacrifice.
The spouses of these individuals are faced with the burdens of maintaining a household and the needs of their children single handed. Although my husband did not go into the military, I was divorced and left to be a single mother for two beautiful daughters. I know first-hand what this entails. It is not an easy task.
It seems recently there has been a lot of mention on TV programs about World War II and those that lost their lives. Mention has been made of all of the medals they won and what heroes they are. But what a void remains in our hearts for those that never returned home.
I was barely born during World War II, but I do remember the Viet Nam War. I remember holding my breath as my husband’s draft number came within two of the cut off. Our daughters were just babies. I lived in fear of losing him.
We do not even have to relate the sacrifice to war. How many people serving our communities as police officers, firemen/women have lost their lives to save the lives of others? Sacrifice is a daily part of our lives.
Another sacrifice that was brought to my mind was those who lost their lives under the cruel rule of Adolph Hitler. Lisa Kudrow was on the TV show, “Who Do You Think You Are”, and traced her ancestors. She learned the fate of those who were stripped of their clothing, executed and pushed into the pit of destruction. Imagine if you were a child who had escaped and were watching this from a distance. The horror of seeing your parents or family members lose their lives in this fashion is incomprehensible for sure. There was a joyful discovery in locating her father’s family members who are still alive. This brought tears of joy to my heart.
We are faced with various degrees of sacrifice in our lives. With the economy the way it is many families have been faced with losing their homes, cars and other possessions just to have money enough to buy food and feed their children.
Single mothers go without food themselves so that they children will have food to eat. Homeless people go without shelter, food, clothing never losing sight of the hope of finding assistance.
As parents we sacrifice our desires to fulfill the needs and wants of our children. These are joyful sacrifices, as far as I am concerned. We are truly blessed to have these children, if only for a short time.
With Easter approaching my thoughts and heart are awakened thinking about the supreme sacrifice that God made for us. Sending his son Jesus to show us the way and then Jesus’ supreme sacrifice of dying on the cross to save us from our sins. I am sure you will agree that Jesus’ sacrifice can never be duplicated. I am forever grateful for Jesus and the cross at Calvary.
As a final thought, I recently heard it said that the greatest gift of love is not what someone is willing to give, but what they are willing to give up …. This is a true sacrifice.
I hope that your sacrifices will be few and your lives absent of want and filled with His many blessings. Ultimately, I hope you will never have to ask, “What Does Sacrifice Mean to Me.”
[I really like this post from my friend Jon Benson. I think you will too!]
Sometimes you have to nearly lose it all to realize what you truly have.
I can honestly say that I have come close to death several times in my life. I’ve had my share of accidents, medical emergencies, and a near-fatal accident while driving.
But there was something about just laying on the gym floor today with two doctors hovering over me that gave me serious pause.
Time for some major reflection.
Now, before you get too alarmed (for those who know me, or just think I’m a pretty good guy… ; )… fear not. I did not have a stroke or anything like that, thank goodness.
What I did have was a major drop in blood pressure… so much that I came dangerously close to entering the “coma” zone.
I kid you not.
And trust me… I felt like I was slipping fast.
My girlfriend was there with me. I had her kneel down and, just like Spock in an old episode of “Star Trek”, I had her slap me several times in the face. Hard!
“If my eyes roll back, hit me harder.”
The doctor probably thought I was nuts… but I know that’s one way to elevate my blood pressure.
So, what happened? Am I falling apart at the relatively young age of 46? Is my dietary and exercise advise dangerous after all?
No… and here’s why:
I actually VOLUNTEERED for this.
Before you think I’ve totally lost my marbles, hear me out. If you listen to the rest of the story, you’ll see that not only has my advice been of great value when it comes to exercise and dietary strategy… it actually ended up saving my butt!
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Really Bad Genetics Meets
The Cath Lab: A Wild Encounter
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First, the “volunteered for this” bit needs explaining… right? Right.
If you read my first book, published in 2004, called “Fit Over 40″ (read more at www.fitover40.com) then you may recall that I went into great detail about my poor genetics and horrible health in my early and mid-30s.
Since then, and knowing exactly how bad my genetics are for such things as high blood pressure (oh, the irony!), heart disease, and stroke, I adopted the dietary plan and exercise routine I use to this very day. The very ones I cover in “The Every Other Day Dietplan” and “7 Minute Body.”
(If you don’t have these books and want them, you can get both here… The Every Other Day Dietplan Revealed — oh, and I have a short video up on this page if you have not seen on a 1-minute fatloss tip… )
Now, let’s get real folks: Dietary power and exercise MAY not be enough to overcome really bad genetics when it comes to certain diseases. And being ever curious, I wanted to know exactly how my own health was doing on my plan. So a month or so ago I paid a visit to the hospital to have some tests ran. All my yearly check-ups were okay, but I wanted a closer look at my heart… and I mean “literally”.
I wanted to be “cathed”… this is where they insert a camera into your heart, going up the femoral artery in your right leg, and take a look around. If they find anything dangerous, like a clogged artery, they can fix it right then and there with a stent. A stent is a metal device that presses plaque against the artery wall and opens up a clogged artery.
Of course I hoped I would not find such a thing… and certainly nothing worse. I mean, can you imagine? “Mr. Benson, you need a quadruple bypass!”
I could not, that’s for sure… and I was fortunate because, as you probably guessed, I didn’t hear those words from my doc.
It’s hard to get a cath done as it’s a risky procedure. I can’t even tell you how I managed to pull it off … that’s how touchy the hospitals are when it comes to this kind of stuff. Afterwards, I volunteered to do 5-10 workouts at their heart care facility so I could hook myself up to some nifty gadgets. I get to watch my EKG (how my heart is functioning during cardio and weights… and it works like a charm!) and really nice doctor folks come by to check my blood pressure (which is always low) during the workout.
Yep… the doc and I wanted to put my workout plan to the test, I guess you could say. I wanted to do it just to make sure I was 100% healthy during my training. You never really “know” I suppose, so I was up for it. And my doctor wanted me to do it just in case what he found during the cath was serious. There’s a lot to this process, and there’s some details I don’t wish to cover for privacy sake… but anyway, back to my story.
It’s long, but it may save your life too. : )
—————————————–
The Good News… The Bad News…
And The Stupid Jon News!
—————————————–
Turns to find out I made a few mistakes… some pretty costly mistakes… but (get this) none of them had to do with my dietary or exercise plan.
During the cath, here’s what the doc said:
“Jon, your heart’s two primary arteries look good… hardly any obstruction at all. And they are nice and thick from exercise.” For a guy who has had a cholesterol level of over 400 before, and a history of heart disease in the family, this was really good news.
“However, your genetics are catching up to you in one of your arteries…. and you need to be more aggressive with your drug treatment to make sure we don’t have to go back in here one day!”
Er… what??
Yep… turns out that the only thing that saved me from a BYPASS (that’s right) was what the doctor called “an enormous amount of peripheral arteries formed from years and years of weight training and exercise.”
Wow.
“Look right here Jon…” (He showed me my beating heart on camera… freaky…) “See all these arteries? Well the average person doesn’t have them. You do. Congratulations… you earned them.”
Wow again. And remember, I only workout with weights 3-4 times per week and my workouts are rarely over 21 minutes (time under the weight.)
—————————————–
What I Did Right… And What
I Did Wrong… And Why This
Could Save Your Life
—————————————–
So, listen up folks as I’m about to tell you everything I did wrong for the past several years… how it ALMOST cost me dearly (a bypass?… no thanks!)… how I managed to prevent it… and how I ended up on the gym floor today with doctors all around me.
It’s all related. And again, sorry for the novel-like email, but (again) this may save your life.
First, here’s what my excellent cardiologist said I did RIGHT:
1. Exercise: “Jon, your exercise plan, to put it bluntly, saved you from a great deal of pain… in fact it probably saved your life as these blockages would have been far worse without it.” With it, I had only one artery with enough blockage to warrant the drug therapy that I should have been on for years… more on that in a second…
2. Dietary plan: “Jon, your diet is perfect for this condition… low in carbs, high in protein and healthy fats is all anyone can do in order to help fight this genetic killer.” Yep… again… prevention in the form of dietplan saved my butt. Or rather my heart. : ) But it wasn’t enough… at least for one artery. However, it WAS enough to prevent them from having to do surgery on me.
“Jon, the take-away here is simple: Exercise and dietary plans, even the very best, may not be enough for super high-risk people… but in your case your lifestyle saved your life. And it certainly prevented you from having to have any serious surgery to correct a truly broken heart.”
Talk about EXCITING news… yep… you CAN beat this killer, even when you have MY horrible family genetics. However, like me, you may need some help… more on that in a second.
3. Blood pressure: “Jon, your blood pressure is excellent. Your lifestyle and very low-dose diuretic has kept your formerly sky-high blood pressure (it was 200/110 when I was 32!) to an excellent 118/78.” But you know doctors… even “excellent” isn’t enough and they recommended a stronger BP med for “my intense weight training.”
So, I listened… and ended up on the floor today. You see, many doctors do not realize the POWER of weight training compared to cardio. My blood pressure never budges during cardio, but less than 3 minutes into a resistance (weight-training) session it goes down like the stock market after a bad news day.
I mean SHOOTS down. I tried to explain this by letting the doctor see the veins in my legs… “Doc, my veins are MUCH larger than the average person’s… trust me, my pressure is fine.” “Jon, just try it for a few weeks.”
Bad mistake…. like I said, I ended up on the gym floor today with a blood pressure of 72/45. If I hit 40, I’m literally in a coma. 5 points away… very scary. Needless to say the doc took me OFF these meds and let me do it my way: With my Every Other Day Dietplan (low-carb most of the days) and good-old exercise.
If you have high blood pressure, I URGE you to take up weight training or resistance (body-weight or band) training. Of course, ask your doc about it first… but I’ve seen first hand for three weeks now how powerful my weight training sessions are compared to intense cardio sessions.
They are night and day folks… weights RULE. Cardio is good, but weights are best. Both of course would be the best course for ultimate health, but most people do far too much cardio and far too little resistance training.
—————————————–
Oops…
—————————————–
Now, here’s what I did WRONG:
1. Cigars: “Jon, you cannot afford to smoke cigars… ever. They have lowered your protective HDL to a dangerous level. Stop NOW!” That’s all it took folks. Yes, I smoked cigars for many years, but fortunately I was never an addict. I quit that very day.
Guess what? 10 days later my HDL DOUBLED (no kidding)… and without drugs. Of course that’s not all I did…
2. Fat too LOW: “Jon, you’ve lowered your dietary fat too low… this affects your HDL.” Yep, I normally eat about 35% dietary fat… and I cut it down to 20% to help me get ready for a photoshoot. Now that I put it back to where it belongs, I still have my abs (yep!) and my HDL is raising as I type.
3. Stress: “Jon, you are simply working too hard not to do some form of meditation or de-stressing.” So I dove back into my meditation CDs. (I’ll tell you more about Holosync and my hypnosis CDs in my next email… very cool stuff.)
4. Advil: “Jon, you take 4 Advil before you train? You’re nuts! That stuff can cause sticky plaque formations!!” You know, I may never even had an issue if I had known this (and not smoked cigars) a few years ago. Live and learn!
5. And finally… oh, this hurt to hear… no drugs! “Jon, if you want to make sure you beat this thing, you simply must take some meds to help.” Okay, I resisted any form of statin drug for the past 15 years (drugs to lower cholesterol.) I opted to try natural stuff… but unfortunately for me I was never too consistent. And I paid the price.
So the doc and I came to a compromise: I would take the LOWEST dose of statin along with 400 mg of CoQ10 (scary, but this was my idea, not his, and statins deplete this heart-friendly enzyme!) But I wanted a natural solution to the real issue: small particle LDL. You see, I’ve known for years that I carry the gene that makes LDL “small”. LDL is not dangerous unless it is small… that’s why “total cholesterol” means nothing to me. I’ve seen folks have heart attacks with a cholesterol level of 130. No joke. But their LDL was super-small… like mine.
And guess what? Dietplans cannot really help this. Well, they can HURT it (too many carbs, too many toxic fats, etc.) but they cannot shift the LDL from small to large.
For that, you need plain old niacin. Just a simple B vitamin… but in not-so-simple doses. In fact it’s considered a drug at the dose you have to take, and you should NEVER take niacin over 50 mg without a doctor’s supervision as it can be very toxic to the liver.
—————————————–
The Conclusion: The Power
Is In Your Hands
—————————————–
In conclusion, I’m A-Okay… my heart pumps and functions “like that of a strong 20-year-old” (my doctor’s quote) thanks to the extra arteries I developed from my exercise program (how cool!) … but in order to keep that one artery in check, I’m taking his advice and taking much better care of myself than I have been.
Today I learned that this does NOT mean taking blood pressure meds…thankfully… : ) But I had to make some changes. Some of them were “stupid” changes… sure, I know cigars are not good for you. I know you need good fats in your dietplan. I could have used common sense and figured out that 4-8 Advil on workout days was… well, stupid.
But the good news, which is what I choose to focus on, is this: In the areas that 95% of people NEVER change, I didn’t have to change much at all.
Dietary plan and exercise.
Turns to find out that what I was doing works great… and it did, in fact, save my heart and quite possibly my life.
For more on my dietplan and exercise routine, go here:
Thanks for reading, and I wish all of you good health!
P.S. I got lucky in many ways, but especially so when it came to my doctors. Both of my doctors are young and savvy enough to be up on the latest research on nutrition. They know NOT to buy into this “low-fat” nonsense for heart health. (I’d use a harsher word, but kiddos may be reading… : ) That only works for about 10-15% of the population. The rest of us need to lower our CARBS, not our fats… but the way I do it I get to keep my favorite carbs in my dietplan every week.
The little that I do eat keeps me happy as a clam, and keeps my heart nice and healthy too. A little bit of bad food will not hurt most people… but eating it every day can flat-out kill you.
Please… take this seriously. I promise, my dietplan and exercise routine is a PLEASURE to follow… but if you don’t follow it then find one that IS enjoyable for you to follow… and do it.
Identity theft is an on-going crime that is costing American consumers billions of dollars and unlimited heartache every year. Although you can not entirely control whether you will become a victim, you can take steps to minimize your risk. Learn how to protect your identity online.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), our nation’s consumer protection agency, recommends consumers Deter, Detect and Defend to help decrease identity theft.
To deter these criminals you can safeguard your information. You can do this by shredding financial documents and paperwork with your information before you throw them away. Do not be so ready to give out your Social Security number. Inquire if there is another identifier method you can use. Do not give out personal information over the phone, unless you know who you are talking to. As them to send you the necessary paperwork and tell them you will complete it and return it to them.
If you are like me, I get a lot of phone calls asking for donations. I always tell the person who is calling that if they want to send me information on their organization I will look it over and decide if it is something I want to contribute to. Nine times out of ten I never receive anything in the mail.
Be on your guard and take the necessary steps to detect unusual activity on your accounts. Set up a schedule to routinely monitor your billing statements. If you do not receive a statement when you feel you should have, contact your credit card company.
If after being diligent to protect your identity you feel your identity has been compromised take the following steps:
Notify the fraud department of any one of the three consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). Ask them to put a fraud alert on your credit report. This will alert creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts in your name or making any changes to your existing accounts. It is only necessary to contact one of these agencies to request an alert.
If you suspect any newly fraudulently opened accounts or tampered accounts take action to close these.
Report these fraudulent actions to the police department where the identity fraud took place. Submit a copy of the report, or at least the case number on the report , to your creditors and others who require proof of this crime.
The FTC keeps a database of identity theft cases received from law enforcement agencies for investigation. File your claim with the FTC.
Surfing the Internet is a daily occurrence for an increasing number of people these days, as technology expands and online services continue to grow. Many people go online to carry out banking transactions, shop, check e-mail, and catch up on news. That’s why it’s more important than ever to protect your identity while surfing the web. As identity theft becomes more prevalent, it’s necessary for everyone to be extra vigilant in protecting personal information before it gets into the wrong hands.
Every time you go online and conduct some type of transaction, whether it is monetary or an exchange of information, you put your identity at risk. Unfortunately, criminals use the Internet too, making use of the technology to perpetrate identity theft. This type of cyber-criminal gathers personal information online and either sells it to others for profit, or uses it to their own purpose.
It is fortunate that there are many things you can do to stay one step ahead of these “thieves” and keep your identity as safe as possible. The Internet platform is always changing, so you need to keep on top of things to remain as safe as possible.
To begin with you should learn about how to avoid phishing scams. Phishers pretend to be trustworthy, actual companies, such as banks and insurance companies, by using false e-mail addresses and websites. To access their websites people are tricked into giving them personal identifying information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
The important thing to remember is that real institutions will never ask you to verify your personal information online. When you receive these types of e-mails, contact the sender immediately over the phone to validate the request. This way you can provide any necessary information directly to your bank or other company.
Phishers use spam e-mail as a way to obtain your personal passwords and information. For this reason be sure to have a good spam filter installed on your computer to keep out as much spam as possible. As the old saying goes, “better safe than sorry.”
While on the issue of software, Windows already contains a basic firewall program, but setting up another program will ensure your safety from hackers, allow you to control internet traffic and stop intruders from reaching your personal information.
Purchase a high-quality virus protection package. This can help prevent and eliminate viruses, Trojan horses, and other dangerous items designed to steal your personal information. It will also scan e-mail and IM attachments for viruses. It is not enough to stop with just antivirus software. Go one step further and equip your computer with the most up-to-date anti-spyware protection. One word of advice, before installing your necessary protection check to be sure that all of your systems are compatible. This can cause you a great deal of frustration and expense if they are not. If you are not sure, it is worth a call to your local computer repair shop.
Scam artists are known to intercept e-mails and IMs. For this reason do not sent any personal information through these methods of communication.
In opening your email, avoid opening suspicious emails or emails from unknown people. Especially be wary of opening attachments. I recently watched a “Medium” show on TV where a hacker had hacked into the City Hall’s computer system and sent out emails asking for update voter’s information. This was the means that was used to accumulate personal identity information. Might not have actually happened but does make one think.
To prevent ID theft it is advisable to password protect your computers, laptops and PDAs. Use a different unique user name and password for each item. Another word of warning, do not use the same user name or password for your accounts or activities online. If a criminal discovers your user name and password on one account you want it to stop right there. Use letters, numbers and special characters when creating your passwords. Be sure your passwords are not “obvious”.
It is a good idea to keep the personal information that you store on your computer to a minimum. What would happen if your computer was stolen? I invested in an external hard drive and my personal information is stored there.
A final tip – when you buy a new computer, before disposing of your old computer invest in software know as wipe programs or shredders to overwrite the data with zeroes or random patterns which will make the information on your hard drive virtually unreadable.
I hope that this information will be helpful in helping you to protect your identity online. Use your common sense and purchase a few good tech tools to assure your safety again these cyber criminals.
I have my weekly live 1-minute video, tons of new features… even a “diet quiz” if you care to test your fatloss knowledge.
Plus my main presentation: “1 Tip To A Flat Belly!”
Just don’t laugh at my ballcap/unshaven look in the video… I wanted this to be super-casual, but I may have taken it a bit too far… ; )
Oh… speaking of a flat belly… I’d like to give you yet another reason to eat and workout the way I suggest in “Every Other Day Diet” and “7 Minute Body”…
I had to go to the hospital last week. No worries… I’m fine… just a bit of a scare. Definitely enough to wake you up from walking through life like it will never end! But fortunately for me, only a scare.
Anyway, the doctors in the hospital were amazed when they looked at my heart and lungs (they had to make sure I did not have any infection… and I didn’t.)
“Most 46-year-olds do not have these around their heart,” the doctor said as he showed me the pictures they took. You could see all these vessels around the heart and branching off the main arteries.
“Peripheral vessels… they were formed by your exercise program. Well-done! These help keep your heart strong and healthy.”
Every doc that listened to my heart said, “Wow… strong heart!”
Indeed… resistance training makes it so.
Before I left, after the scare went away, I asked the doctor his opinion on my dietary plan. “Well, obviously you are very lean and in fantastic shape for a man of any age.”
Thanks doc, but I wasn’t fishing for a compliment! Since this was a heart doctor I was curious as to his thoughts.
“If you had heart disease, or if you want to prevent it, this is the exact dietary plan I would recommend.”
While I expected to hear this, it was still music to my ears.
So, my higher-than-normal dietary fat and protein, lower-carb, and relatively frequent “fun food” dietplan is “ideal” to combat heart disease according to the good doc. And according to my family doctor.
Remember: A good dietplan and exercise is not always sufficient to keep you disease-freee… but I love what the doctor told me. “People who exercise and eat like you LIVE through it and recover much faster.”
Fortunately I didn’t have a nasty virus to recover from… but if I did, I know my condition would have helped me do just that.
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