A Happy Heart

A Vintage Chubby Cherub (it runs in the family)

This post has the perfect landing, Valentine's Day. Now in a few days (February 17th) I celebrate the 20th anniversary of my heart attack. I can't think of a better way to celebrate heart day with the worst day of my life.

As Elton John is still singing, I'm Still Standing or better yet, Willie Nelson's Still Not Dead, I guess I'm part of the philosophy, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Andy Rooney once said, “I’ve learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.” The last twenty years sure seem that way, although now supplied with my 2-ply metaphor – Lipitor® and a Lower-Carb Lifestyle – I'm still ready to roll.

Research shows that taking a statin like Lipitor greatly reduces the chances of me having a second heart attack, but it's always important to remember my personal health factors. I'm not a smoker, but almost all of my immediate family going back a couple of generations have had heart attacks. My dad had two heart attacks and a stroke, but also smoked since he was 15. My mom had a heart attack about 5 years ago, not a smoker but she did inhale all that second hand smoke, not to mention the complete stock of See's Candies® over the years. A sincere Happy Valentine's to my mom.💓

I also want to make the distinction between 'low-carb' and 'lower-carb' eating, a big difference. Low-carb diets have almost turned into a religion where one has to basically live in a state or cycles of ketosis. "Ketosis is a process that happens when your body doesn't have enough carbohydrates to burn for energy. Instead, it burns fat and makes things called ketones, which it can use for fuel." In my opinion, living full-blown ketosis is flat out torture and is an unnecessary 'cold turkey' strategy. Even if you think carbs are a drug, a slower withdrawal strategy of eating lower portions of carbs is the more sane and sustainable approach. You just have to consistently gut check your weekly carb intake, but it's hard, for me the hardest thing.

I've been running and walking for exercise since I was 18. Next month I celebrate my 67th birthday. Aerobic exercise is very important as I've stated many times here in the blog, but I had my heart attack at 46 while mountain biking. You could say my biggest risk factor is genetic, but I have to just keep my focus on what I do have control of, the McIntosh/McWilliams food gene... we all live to eat. 

Yeah, some short and stocky guy put an arrow in my heart around Valentine's Day in 2002, but his identity was more likely to have been the ghost of Edwin McWilliams, my grandfather. Edwin had a massive heart attack at 43 and without any medical technology, passed away a couple years later when my mom was only 12 years old. 

Reflection is part of life. We need to consistently look back so that we can move forward. I've got a wonderful family, life-long friends, not much in the stress department these days, and I've got the exercise thing wired. The thing that always circles back is my food choices and intake, my achilles heel. It's like writing the word, "heel." It literally made me think of a heel slice of hot toasted sourdough bread as I spread it with butter instantly melting it into the bread, pure heaven!

Losing weight is the hardest thing. So last year, on the 19th anniversary of my chest grab, I came up with the idea of losing 20 pounds in the spirit of my ancestors (my Grandma Mary made the best homemade cinnamon rolls on earth). Actually, starting in the spring of 2020 and the great pandemic, I put on the Covid 15 (pounds) and by Feb. 2021, I was at the second highest weight of my life. Blending homemade frozen strawberry banana margarita's during the lockdown in the afternoon had started to take its toll, around my belly. 

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you've also heard my friend Mark Hunter's mantra, "health is a lifestyle." After the heart attack, my wife and I started eating more 'heart smart' that lead to several good attempts at Weight Watchers® over the years, but it was still a diet. In counting my successes and failures at dieting, the main thing I learned was to lose all the diet schemes and just, live a lower-carb lifestyle. See Mark had the answer way back in our college days when we had only enough money at the end of the month for heating tortillas on top of the stove and making peanut butter burritos. Oh remember the good ol' days when ya didn't have think about carbohydrates!

So last year, I needed to get my morals straight and lose some weight. In my reflection cycles I've learned - The slower I lose weight, the longer I keep it off. This is exactly the opposite of any diet scheme on the market today. With that thought, I was going to hatch the perfect plan = No plan at all. Well okay, there is that one thing, I had to consistently live the lower-carb lifestyle throughout a month.

So, if you take 20 pounds and divide that by 12 months, that equals to losing 1.5 pounds a month (actually 1.6). Sounds doable right? In theory that sounds great. I forgot to mention one other rule– I had to be at least 20 pounds down on my year-end weigh-in.

Here's my cut to the chase 12 month journey in only five bullet points.

• I started great! I basically eliminated bread and cereal on a daily basis and rewarded myself with those carbs now and then. I lost a pound a week for about 8 weeks, then I hit the first wall. The wall is your body saying, "okay wait a dog gone minute (or several weeks) here."
• But eventually, the body realizes I'm not a caveman starving in the wilderness, and I break through the wall and start to lose weight again, sometimes a pound a month sometimes two.
• By late October I've lost 18 pounds and I'm going to coast in to the finish line, right? Well, the holiday season starts and that goes through December... I eat, drink, be merry, and gain six pounds.
• In early January, I get my morals back, realize the prize is at hand, if not my personal goal hanging over my head saying, "You will do this motherf***er!"
• I get my lower-carb lifestyle working on all cylinders, again, and drumroll... I lose a year total of 20.2 pounds at my weekly weigh-in this past week!

Perfect NO, but yes "a messy win" as they say on sports shows. It was like kicking the winning field goal against the Dallas Cowboys as the clock runs down to 0:00. I'll take it! (Actually I did take it with a couple of Mango Cart beers to celebrate.)

Every day is a winding road –Sheryl Crow

Actually, every month is a winding road. Give yourself time to take the curves and up hills along with the straights and downhills. Stick to the general plan of not having a narrow plan, and you'll have wonderfully messy successes. 

Here's my Valentine's heart health proclamation that's a good month and a half removed from the 'kiss of death' New Year's resolutions that people make, especially about weight. I'm publishing the following statement in writing for my own accountability with myself... whatever it takes dude.

Next year at this Valentine's time, I'm going to lose 7 more pounds to get to my goal weight that I've wanted to weigh since my mid 30's. I'm sure it will be a very messy journey.

This blog post and the playlist are for me this week. The songs below all have a special meaning to me and I hope you enjoy my mix too.

In the end, what the f*** do I know? All I know is that I'm still here... filled with a happy heart.

Now And The Evermore

by Colin Hay

Woke up Sunday morning

Salvation army at my door

Playing Onward Christian Soldiers

'Til I couldn't take it any more

I ran across the graves at night

With those three witches at my tail

I heard the wail of the now and the evermore

All things are never equal

And I don't know who's keeping score

Nobody gets a sequel, no

Everyone gets shown the door

I'll be counting on the rising sun

To give me all my waking days

Until it sets up on the now and the evermore

Goodbye to the life we knew

Don't save it 'til the end

It could be me it could be you or some old long lost friend

And if I'm calling out your name

I know if you can hear me you will come

You can leave a note or light a flame

Sing a song or even bang a drum

I saw The Lady Catrina

She was all a jingling at the bar

Playing an Italian concertina

You know she's really quite the star

She told me everything's a circle dance

And we had been here many times before

And we're all a part of the now and the evermore

Goodbye to the waterside and down that shady lane

In case you're lost and wandering

It does not look the same

Goodbye to the life we knew

Some roads you just can't bend

It's made me one with everything before I reach the end