New food, better health?

Wow, it's been almost two years since my last post.  Going to try to do better.

I'm going to pursue a different subject.  Something I never thought I would be writing about.
Eating healthily.

Starting about four or five months ago, I would wake up at night with my heart racing.  I knew I should go see a doctor, but procrastination kept winning out.  Then one morning, it started happening.  I laid back and tried breathing slowly, trying to get the heart to slow down.  I started feeling light headed and dizzy.  I figured I had better go get checked out.

I didn't feel comfortable driving, and my wife doesn't drive any more, so she called an ambulance.
I very seldom see a doc, let alone have never been in an ambulance, other than medical training.  That was an experience.

When they got me to the ER, my pulse was 250.  The staff did all their stuff to get it down and ran a bunch of tests.  I had to stay the night and more tests the next morning.

To jump ahead, it was not a heart attack, or anything really life threatening, it was something called Tachycardia.  Basically the hearts electrical pulses shorting out.

Upon being released, I was given a bunch of 'scripts for meds they wanted me to start taking, and a stern warning to lose weight.

At the follow up visit with the Cardiologist, he referred to me as obese.  I knew I was overweight, but that word had never been used before.  The "F" word, yeah, but not obese.

Again, the list of meds he wanted me to take.  I don't like meds.  My wife has to take several, and watching my parents, at the end of their lives taking lots of meds, and what they did to them, I resisted.

In my next doctor visit, with a new primary physician, we talked about the meds and losing weight.  She told me that changing my diet was something I could do to stay off some of them.  I needed to eat healthier.

I have always been a person that enjoyed food.  I love to cook.  I love trying new dishes.  I love food. Guess that's why I am "obese".

And I was one of those people that just shook my head and chuckled when someone said they were a vegetarian.  Not for me!

She gave me the names of a couple books to read and some documentaries about food to watch.

I was pushed on to a more vegan path.  A new world for me.  I am not going totally vegetarian, but more healthily stuff and less meat.  And practically cutting out sugar totally.  That is really hard, but I'm trying.

The book that really hit home was "The Omnivore's Dilemma".  And the film was "Forks Over Knives".  These really opened my eyes into the food we eat today.  What the food industry does to what we eat.  I'm not blaming them totally, they are in business to provide a product and make a profit.  But a lot of what they produce is just not good for us.

So, my writing for a bit will be about what I am discovering in eating healthily.  It's exciting to go down this path.  New foods to learn.  New cooking techniques to try.  New adventures.

And loose weight!!