I've never really been one to go around claiming I know everything, but let me tell you, I have done a ton of research on heart conditions and I consider myself a non medical expert at this point!! All of my research has been in an effort to learn the things I need to learn to keep myself alive as long as my friends that are healthy. This is not anything that is taught by the hospitals or docs. They teach to control illness with medication. I have learned you can control illness with nutrition. I still need the medicine and always will, but I significantly improve my chances by really paying attention to nutrition.
Just when I think I know everything about something, I prove myself wrong. I've done a lot of research on the effect of stress on your heart and really thought I had a pretty good handle on my stress level. Just before my Heart Anniversary, I was offered a new position in my company. Always up for a challenge, I accepted it.
What I thought prior to accepting this new position was that I had my stress level pretty well under control in my old job. Boy was I wrong! Now that I am in the new job, I can see just how stressful my old job was. I no longer come into contact with the same people and I find the current folks I work with to be a lot less stressful. I had been practicing the stress relief techniques I learned, but I can still see now that I really did not have a handle on my stress level. Stress is damaging in many ways and I really need to be careful. I like working and want to work so I need to make sure that if I find stress in my new job that I handle it better than I did before.
The other thing I don't know everything about is what it takes to keep my nutrition on track. I did not do well over the summer. What I have learned from gaining back hard earned lost pounds is that planning is key. As I did not have much time to really plan out my food over the summer, so went the weight loss. I am going to have to plan out my food better when I travel. I just have not been very organized since my second heart cath procedure. It is time to get back to it! I have gotten back into walking and now back to no added oil vegan. It feels good to get back to it! I don't even feel like Thanksgiving will be a challenge!
On the Thanksgiving note, I wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving. Once again this Thanksgiving I am thankful that I lived to see my birthday last week. Unlike those that fear getting older, I celebrate the second chance I've been given to celebrate each of those birthdays.
