Every day since my five-week recovery from a minor heart attack in September is one of adjusting — finding what I call gentle paths and adopting new tools to prevent another occurrence.
Every day I fall back into old habits is one of regret, like Monday when I divulged in too much sweet chocolate gifted from two families and became sick to my stomach by the end of the day. I craved cooked tomatoes to cure it — something acidic to cut the sweet. I chose pizza, so my food choices that day did not serve my health.
The adjustments to a Mediterranean diet prove challenging. I don’t possess a sweet tooth and so Monday’s chocolate binge was unusual (which probably is why I became so nauseous.)
Surprisingly, what I find challenging about the diet are the carbs. It does help to be gluten-intolerant but many grains do not contain gluten and because of them — such as rice and corn — my weight increased. The solution is more exercise.
I keep track of consumption and physical activity in a daily log app on my phone, and am returning to my faithful Take Shape for Life program that got me to a great weight starting in 2011.
Without beating myself up, today (Tuesday) I reflect on yesterday’s choices regarding instant gratification vs. long-term health and recommit to certain mantras that steered me well in the past: “Have I had it before? Will I have it again? Is it worth it?”
Maybe not in your case but in mine, the process of health involves balancing the mental, the physical and the spiritual.
I tend to over tip the scales in the mental department and am a lightweight when it comes to the physical. Anyway, I know what I need to work toward.
Becky Clark, Editor