Easy Does It

by Dean
(Mt Juliet TN)

After retiring, one hobby I took up was taking better care of myself. I'm 63, 5'8" tall and weigh 160 pounds.

After 1 1/2 years I have taken off 23 pounds and feeling better than I ever did while working. The first thing I did was start eating healthier.

I know diets don't work very well because there is a mentality than once you accomplish your goal you can celebrate by going back to what got you in trouble in the first place. So, I knew I needed to permmanently change my eating habits.

I started gradually by taking smaller portions of everything. I never skip a meal.

For breakfast I have 1 egg and 1 piece of low fat sausage and for lunch I have a can of low fat Vienna sausages. I know it sounds boring but for me it works because I don't have to decide what to eat, it's always there for me. Dinner is always a well balanced meal of a small portion of meat along with 2 or 3 vegetables. I snack on fruits and nuts between meals.

I still have goodies like baked goods and pasta but in reasonably sized portions.

My wife and I enjoy going for walks and we have a lot of nice places in our area to go walking such as parks, natural areas and historic civil war battlefields.

For my exercise routine I work out on a weght machine where I do 15 reps of 7 different upper body exercises, alternating with 15 reps of leg exercises.

After that I walk on the treadmill for 10 mintes at 3.5 miles per hour at an incline of 5. I used to do 30 minutes on the treadmill but reduced it after finding out that I have an aneurism.

The doctor told me to keep exercising but not to push it too hard. That was 6 months ago. December 10 I go for a secound cat scan to see if I'll need surgery.

I was curious to find out if my diet would cause any problems but at each doctor appointment they do a complete blood workup and my doctor says everything looks great and to keep doing what I'm doing.

Since the discovery of the aneurism, I have gone on prescription meds for the first time in my life. I am taking 2 blood pressure medicines, cholesterol medicine and a beta blocker.
I also take a low dose aspirin daily.

I am hoping the aneurism doesn't get any larger so I won't need surgery. Doctor says I may never need surgery. Saying my prayers!

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