aortic heart valve's second birthday

worsthorse · November 2015

two years ago today i was in the cleveland clinic having open heart surgery to replace my aortic heart valve and repair an aneurysm. i was thirty pounds overweight. i was sick and weak and having trouble breathing. two months ago i was in the himalaya mountains. our four week trip included 140 miles of hiking with gear, most of it over 14,000 feet. along the way we climbed three 17,000 foot passes. the days we weren't hiking we were setting up and running a medical clinic.

today i am about twenty-five pounds lighter than i was two years ago. my resting heart rate is below fifty. all of my numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc) are in the 'way better than average' category. today, i am lighter, stronger, and healthier than most of my peers (i am fifty-seven).

i am also lazy. i don't like lifting weights or doing cardio any more than i like flossing my teeth. i do it because not doing it means being sick and fat, just like not flossing my teeth means cavities and dentures. but i am not a gym rat. i work out for an hour or so every day. i work out hard and i track what i am doing so i can see if i am making progress or not. i am living proof that you do not need to (a) live in the gym, (b) work out two or three hours a day, (c) give in to laziness, procrastination, and so on.

if pigs had wings my diet would consist of cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza and apple pie. alas, they don't. that doesn't mean i don't eat stuff i love, because i do. it does mean that i can't eat it very often because when i do i get fat and sick. i know this, i've run the experiment lots and lots of times. i've also learned that i have to track what i eat, the same way i track my exercise. if i don't, i start gaining weight. why? because i forget. because i underestimate. because when i am logging my meals, i am less likely to fall prey to eating out of boredom or anxiety.

The short version: if i can lose weight, exercise regularly, and eat right, you can, too. i am nothing special. i have bad days and bad weeks. i have binge days and weeks. i gain five pounds and lose it again and again. i get sore and heal. but i don't like being fat and sick so i keep at it and, over the long run, it works. i am proof that, even with a bum heart, a lazy mind and a love of cheeseburgers, slow and steady works. keep at it. exercise for an hour a day, doing whatever you are able to do. track it. eat good, wholesome food in reasonable quantities because nutrition and calories matter. track that, too.

good luck. you can do it.

jgnatca · November 2015

Very happy you survived the aneurysm. That Himalayan trip sounds intriguing. Your health plan makes a lot of sense. Maybe too much sense for some people to understand it.

Congrats on figuring this health thing out.

Here's an argument for the lazy middle ground:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/the-right-dose-of-exercise-for-a-longer-life/?_r=0

elisa123gal · November 2015

wow..what a great post. you made a decision to live and did what it would take for you to achieve that. Cheers to many more years of hiking adventures peppered with a fine cheeseburger here and there.