Another Chance

The Universe has given us another chance. David had a really close call because one of the arteries that feeds his heart was 99% blocked, and we didn't know. He had a stent put in, and so now we have another chance. We want to use this chance to be healthier, to move being healthy up in the priority list, really.

David needs to lose a little weight, though nobody who saw him would say that. But it's not about how people should look. It's about what his heart needs.

So we're going to try to be very careful for the next month, so that he can make as much progress as possible, knowing that we probably won't be able to sustain this all our lives. But we can make some fast progress and then see how much more we need to do, and do that in a sustainable way.

We're focusing on HDL, on moving more, and on reducing as far as possible, for this month, the things we've been eating that are dangerous for his heart. We're trying to move away from the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. This will be good for both of us, especially as we do it in a healthy and sustainable way. The real goal is to break the connection between HDL and metabolic syndrome. This means raising our HDL numbers first. I will not be able to go on any kind of diet that means restriction, as it is not good for me, but I will join David in every other way.

And, honestly, I never ate the desserts he did, and that's the part we'll need to modify the most.

We have been living pretty healthy lives already, and so there are no radical changes we can make that will cause huge differences in the numbers the next time he is tested. We're already really close to a heart-healthy diet. Also, he exercises in one way or another almost every day, especially during the school year. What we have been doing is not perfect from the perspective of a cardiologist, and we will be able to make some modifications without suffering or feeling a sense of deprivation.

David is willing to reduce for a while, the next month, some of the calories he has been taking in, mostly with desserts and sweets, but not enough that it causes his metabolism to slow down. We can be more strict about cholesterol in our diet, although we were already pretty healthy in our habits and our choices. And I think David is thinking about increasing the duration of his running or jogging; my change will be that I will try to do some kind of movement nearly every day. Of course we will be eating together and mostly eat the same things. Moving, just by itself, for me, will make being healthy more of a priority. I am also planning on attending a meditation session every Monday.

So our strategy looks like this.

We will use what we've been learning recently to inform our choices, so we will reduce the amount of cholesterol we eat and increase the foods that help reduce LDL. But we are not going to go into deprivation or systematic long-term restriction. These things never last, and in fact, at least for me, they set up a rebellion that is not healthy.

We will do our best to eat more consciously more often, so that what we do eat is more satisfying. We will be focusing on satisfaction in our food. That means it has to bring pleasure, and it has to be what we want. It has to be good as well as good for us. And then we have to pay attention to it while we are eating it so that it can bring us satisfaction.

I have a couple of postings I have been wanting to make about conscious eating. I'll note them here so I don't forget:

1. There is a moment when I'm eating when I notice that I feel good. That is the moment of satisfaction. It's a general feeling, just feeling good. It's easy to keep eating because that feeling of satisfaction isn't only about the food -- it's in general. In fact, you can sort of think that eating made you feel good, so if you keep eating you'll feel better. But you can tell if you're conscious once you pass the point where more food does not make you feel better, and then each bite after that makes you feel worse.
2. Sometimes I want to eat past the point of just having enough -- of satisfaction. Sometimes I need to reassure myself that I will give myself enough food, so I need to feel a little full. Sometimes I need to feel a warm weight in my stomach, especially when I am anxious. Sometimes when I have let myself get too hungry, I need to feed an emptiness that is more than just physical hunger. Maybe this is the same as the first one, of reassurance, or maybe the hunger is deeper.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to post every day as David and I work on taking advantage of this chance the universe has given us.