How long do you want to live? 70? 75? 80?
It was Saturday, December 2, 2017. Almost one year ago. I was sitting in a bar with a few friends watching the Big 12 football championship game. There was alcohol and food involved because it was football and a bar...what do you expect. I picked up this cold french fry. As I ate this crappy fry, I said to the person next me, "I need to stop eating this shit. I'm going to eat healthier next year."
She laughed! In my head I said to myself, "We'll see who is laughing next year?" Sadly, I have to admit, it would be her.
Looking back over the last year, not only have I not improved my eating habits, I think they've become worse. I've doubled down on my diet of pizza, cheese, ice cream and everything else that takes away from your life expectancy.
What brings this up today? Well....I haven't been feeling great lately. Back and leg pains. Head and stomach aches . Tired in the afternoon. After a bunch of visits to my urologist, gastroenterologist and my primary docs office, we decided it was time for a physical.
We did all the tests and a couple of weeks ago I get a call. "Come on in. We want to talk about the results."
Ominous!
The talk was one of those "come to God" chats.
"Your blood pressure is a little bit high but not horrible. Your cholesterol number are a bit high but not horrible. BUT...we have this formula where we combine all these numbers. If we don't do anything, you're at a higher than normal risk for having a heart attack in the next ten years."
What I heard is that I was going to have a heart attack in ten years. My first thought was not bad. The men in my family have a history of heart disease. They had heart attacks in their forties. When I made it past that age without a heart episode, I figured I was on bonus time. In ten years I'd be 76 years old and I could deal with that. Living to seventy-six sounded good to me. We can re-evaluate the number as we get closer.
Of course, what he said and what I heard are not the same things. The heart attack could happen any time in those ten years. Sigh. That's a lot different. While I may be ready to call it a day in ten years, I'm not ready to do it now. I guess I'm going to need to make a few changes.....damn....more than a few changes.
I HATE CHANGE!
Some have already taken place. We changed my blood pressure meds and the numbers are almost back to normal. I started seeing a physical therapist for my back. It's feeling better but we have a ways to go. I added another pill for the cholesterol as well as a baby aspirin. We'll see how this goes. I'm even joining the gym at the local senior center. Exercise is supposed to be good for you, right? It can't hurt!
But that brings us to the food.
The real question is am I willing to die for pizza? Tough call!
I really don't eat that much pizza. It's all the other shit that could do me in. I have a sweet tooth. Plenty of ice cream, candy, donuts, cakes....etc. You get it. Then lets add in lots of bread, pasta and cheese. Man, with all this bad food, you'd think I'd weigh four hundred pounds...not even close. My weight has never been a problem.
As you can tell, the food is going to be the tough thing to change. I'm ready to try...almost...sorta. I'm giving myself until December 2nd to get ready. It's the one year anniversary of that promise to eat better, so there seems to be something magical in that date....at least to me. Besides, it's a little unrealistic to start this new program the week of Thanksgiving, isn't it?
We'll see how it goes. This new lifestyle change isn't going to be easy, but if it was easy, everyone would do it (thanks Tom Hanks). Maybe if it works out, I'll be around to play with my future grandchildren? Hmmm...maybe this will make that grandkids things move at a faster pace? Girls?
Related Post: For my 66th birthday, here's 66 tips on how to live this long.
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