Healthy Heart Diet
As I write this first article I am sixty years old and reasonably fit as I walk the three mile round trip to work and back most of my working days. My job is dubbed Cover Supervisor and I supervise the pupils if a teacher is off sick, on a course, in a meeting or whatever. As a retired policeman I find the job totally stress free as the students really are a wonderful bunch. My doctor used to say that I was obscenely healthy as I saw him on very rare occasions when I was younger. My Dad died when I was thirty four and it really frightened me because I thought that what had happened to him could happen to me too as his early demise may be hereditary.
I went to see my doctor for a check up and that's when it was discovered that my cholesterol level was a bit raised. Over the course of time it got worse and I ended up on medication to keep it in check. Several years ago I went to a regular check up appointment and he said "let's take your blood pressure while you're here." It was above what is considered the normal range and we decided to monitor it more closely. The result of the monitoring put me on further medication. As I have got older I have had to take a second and different type of drug to keep my blood pressure under control. You can therefore hopefully see why I have started taking an interest in my heart's health.
One of the things I have control over is what I shove down my gullet. To keep me on the straight and narrow I have decided to record what I eat and do some research into how I can improve my chances of living a long time. I am a retired policeman and my long term goal is to be the longest serving police pensioner the world has ever seen. I know that I have some way to go as I have heard of one bloke near the Scottish border area who has been retired for fifty years. As it is possible for a British police officer to retire at the age of forty eight after thirty years service, he must be at least ninety eight. That means I must look after myself for over thirty eight years as a minimum.HRM USA
What I already know about a healthy heart diet is that I need to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Five days a week, I have bran flakes and milk with grapes for breakfast. There are about a dozen grapes there, so I am fairly sure that is one portion. I work in the local grammar school and take a packed lunch with me. I have a starter of tomatoes because they contain antioxidants and I read somewhere that they are good for the skin (I want to look good as I get older!).
Two slices of bread with butter as I prefer the taste to margarine, and some filling which is usually meat. For pudding I have an apple and a banana. I normally wash this down with a cup of tea, white but no sugar as my wife Eileen weaned me off sugar in my tea when we were first married thirty eight years ago. When I get home from school I will often have a "soup in a cup" which I know I must dispense with. I'll have to go on to green tea I think, as I actually like the stuff. Eileen always cooks an evening meal for us that we take at about 5pm. I say about, it is almost always on the dot.
We will have potatoes, and one or two vegetables and meat in some form. Pudding is yoghurt every day apart from Sunday when we have ice cream as a treat. We do the washing up straight after the evening meal and then I make us a cup of tea. We have chocolate with this drink. It is 70% cocoa solids and I consider this medicinal. OK, I admit that I eat a bit too much and I do like some alcohol. I will go round a friend's on Friday evening and have a glass of wine or three. I will also have two glasses of wine with dinner on both Saturday and Sunday. It is almost exclusively red wine which is supposed to have more antioxidants than white wine.
I will keep this article as the healthy heart diet front page so that new visitors can see what I am about and choose whether to come back for more information as I update the site. I intend to add something new every month or so. I hope that the knowledge I gain will help other people to live long and healthy lives too. I understand that the way I go about things will not suit a lot of people. But, I hope that my simple and honest approach to the subject will help many more. I will finish now with the wish that as I learn to gain benefits from the foods I eat, my sharing of what I learn will encourage more people to look at what they are eating and start to live more healthily. If we do this, I suspect that not only will we feel better but we will end up saving money on medical bills and prescription charges......read more.......
I went to see my doctor for a check up and that's when it was discovered that my cholesterol level was a bit raised. Over the course of time it got worse and I ended up on medication to keep it in check. Several years ago I went to a regular check up appointment and he said "let's take your blood pressure while you're here." It was above what is considered the normal range and we decided to monitor it more closely. The result of the monitoring put me on further medication. As I have got older I have had to take a second and different type of drug to keep my blood pressure under control. You can therefore hopefully see why I have started taking an interest in my heart's health.
One of the things I have control over is what I shove down my gullet. To keep me on the straight and narrow I have decided to record what I eat and do some research into how I can improve my chances of living a long time. I am a retired policeman and my long term goal is to be the longest serving police pensioner the world has ever seen. I know that I have some way to go as I have heard of one bloke near the Scottish border area who has been retired for fifty years. As it is possible for a British police officer to retire at the age of forty eight after thirty years service, he must be at least ninety eight. That means I must look after myself for over thirty eight years as a minimum.HRM USA
What I already know about a healthy heart diet is that I need to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Five days a week, I have bran flakes and milk with grapes for breakfast. There are about a dozen grapes there, so I am fairly sure that is one portion. I work in the local grammar school and take a packed lunch with me. I have a starter of tomatoes because they contain antioxidants and I read somewhere that they are good for the skin (I want to look good as I get older!).
Two slices of bread with butter as I prefer the taste to margarine, and some filling which is usually meat. For pudding I have an apple and a banana. I normally wash this down with a cup of tea, white but no sugar as my wife Eileen weaned me off sugar in my tea when we were first married thirty eight years ago. When I get home from school I will often have a "soup in a cup" which I know I must dispense with. I'll have to go on to green tea I think, as I actually like the stuff. Eileen always cooks an evening meal for us that we take at about 5pm. I say about, it is almost always on the dot.
We will have potatoes, and one or two vegetables and meat in some form. Pudding is yoghurt every day apart from Sunday when we have ice cream as a treat. We do the washing up straight after the evening meal and then I make us a cup of tea. We have chocolate with this drink. It is 70% cocoa solids and I consider this medicinal. OK, I admit that I eat a bit too much and I do like some alcohol. I will go round a friend's on Friday evening and have a glass of wine or three. I will also have two glasses of wine with dinner on both Saturday and Sunday. It is almost exclusively red wine which is supposed to have more antioxidants than white wine.
I will keep this article as the healthy heart diet front page so that new visitors can see what I am about and choose whether to come back for more information as I update the site. I intend to add something new every month or so. I hope that the knowledge I gain will help other people to live long and healthy lives too. I understand that the way I go about things will not suit a lot of people. But, I hope that my simple and honest approach to the subject will help many more. I will finish now with the wish that as I learn to gain benefits from the foods I eat, my sharing of what I learn will encourage more people to look at what they are eating and start to live more healthily. If we do this, I suspect that not only will we feel better but we will end up saving money on medical bills and prescription charges......read more.......
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