I watched a little of the “Oprah” show today and it was all about cardiovascular disease. According to the show (for which I’m pretty sure they did their homework), one out of every two women will die of cardiovascular disease.
I’ve heard these statistics like these all my life but there is giant difference between knowledge and wisdom or, as Oprah’s Dr. Oz said, between knowledge and understanding.
Hypertension runs in my family. Kidney disease runs in my family. Although my dad warned all of us kids about the danger of being overweight, eating too much salt and not moving around enough, I didn’t take much of it to heart (no pun intended). Well, as in my twenties when I had the epiphany that my parents actually did know a few things, now in my thirties, I’ve come to an understanding that they were right to warn me about my poor health habits; what I eat and do (or not, as the case may be) actually has consequences. Does this mean I’m losing that last vestige of youth that makes me think I will live forever? Possibly.
Randy and I have made some changes over the last several weeks and we’re both feeling a lot better. We’re doing cardio. exercise 5-6 times a week, lifting weights, eating lots of vegetables, some fruit, some whole grains, fish, and chicken. We cut salt out completely for a week but have put a little low-sodium salt back into our diet although we’re trying to rely on other things to give our food more flavor like citrus marinades and Mrs. Dash®. We’re trying to drink 100 oz. of water per day. Although we love cheese, all we’ve had is a little feta just this last week.
Why am I writing about this? It’s not because I think we’re so fabulous because we’ve made these changes. Really, it has been a lot of effort as I actually have to plan what we eat now. I just know that if I can incorporate these healthier choices into our lives, it must be possible for everyone else as I am far from a super-disciplined person. I love fried food. I love desserts. I’m not completely going to give up these things but it won’t be every week, let alone every day. I think for us, we just had to make a choice that we needed to live differently, to be healthier, to lower my blood pressure before my head popped off. It’s probably the most intentional thing I’ve done in a long time. So far, we’ve both lost some weight, but more importantly, we feel better.
Wow. I’m starting to sound like my parents. Good for me. Thanks, Dad & Mom.