FORCED to change diet...Hubby had a heart attack 3 1/2 weeks

HI, I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I lost my Dad when he was only 34 to a heart attack, so I know what this change is all about. At the time, My Mom was changing our families diet as well, unfortunately, if technology back then was like it is today, he may have made it. Anyway, I actually had a scare this week myself. I'm 48 and I thought I was having a heart attactk last week. For me it turned out to be very low potassium. Here are a few things that I did to change our diets because of my fear of heart attacks.
I added as much fish and chicken to our diets that we could stand. We still eat steak once a week, and burgers or dogs on another day.
My cholorestral is really high (at least it was before I started losing weight) so I quit buying eggs altogether. I buy egg beaters and believe me, they taste just like eggs!! I make omlettes with them all the time. Throow in a bunch of veggies and you have a meal! I have also used them to make cookies with my grandkids!

Start experimenting with spices. My son is a chef so he helped me with this. Try rosemary and thyme in your brocolli, and on your chicken. As well as chilli powder and lots of garlic. As time goes on, you'll be surprised at how easy this becomes.!

Stop frying everything!! I do fry some things, but I use the spray butter. I just take the spout off and pour some into a fry pan. NO calories or fat this way. I also use olive oit.

Eat almonds!! All good fats, and helps lower cholorestral!

Try a steamer to avoid fats for your veggies. I put spices right in with the water when I do this.

As for recipes, I don't really have a redipe I can pass on. I love to cook, and am pretty good if I do say so myself!lol I just wing it. Believe me, you'll get it after a while. Pretty soon will just become habit!

Oh, one more thing, my husband is daibetic (recently) so we had to switch to all wheat product.s Try the wheat pastas, kids won't even notice. Just put the sauce on the noodles before you serve them. They are your good carbs!

Good luck, and hang in there. It takes time, but like everything else, its an adjustment you're gonna make not only for your husbands health, but for your families as well!!!!!

Make homemade chicken nuggets...cut up your chicken to nugget pieces, dip them in some egg or liquid egg then coat em with some special K or corn flakes that you have crushed to breadcrumb like consistency and bake them! I do that and my kids love em!! Check out the Hungry Girl website

Christine, I'm so sorry your husband had a heart attach; it must have been very frightening. Check with your local hospital to see if they have a nutritionist you can consult. My Mom has had two strokes and has other health issues. We met with a nutritionist who helped her work out a healthy eating plan. Her insurance covered two appointments. It was very helpful.

You can search "Healthy Chicken Nuggets" and you'll find links to several recipes. These are baked, not deep fried. I'm sure one of them will please your kids.

There is a website called lowfatlifestyle that has several very good recipes and they include the nutritional data. I also like Allrecipes site. But search for catagories might find others better suited to your needs; such as "low cholesterole recipes" or "low salt recipes".

Good Luck!! :flowerforyou:

Forgot to mention...veggies are wonderful grilled on the BBQ too.

Stop frying everything!! I do fry some things, but I use the spray butter. I just take the spout off and pour some into a fry pan. NO calories or fat this way. I also use olive oit.

Spray butter is not a calorie free food! If the calories and fat for a specific serving size (like 1 spray or whatever it is) are below a certain percentage, they can technically say it is "fat free" or "calorie free". But if you use 2 sprays, that could be what it takes to push it up to NOT being fat free or calorie free. The more sprays you use, the more calories and fat add up.

I came across this on another blog:

12.5 sprays (2.5 grams) = 10 calories; 1 fat gram
25 sprays (5.0 grams) = 20 calories; 2 fat grams
27.5 sprays (7.5 grams) = 30 calories; 3 fat grams

24 sprays or 1 teaspoon = 17 calories; 1.9 fat grams
72 sprays or 1 tablespoon = 52 calories; 5.8 fat grams

My dad had a heart attack at 48 and that changed a lot of my family's eating habits too. (Unfortunately, I was away at college at the time and didn't learn of the healthy changes as I should have!)

I've learned to cook (and then cook healthier) along the way as well.

Since it is summer, one of my favorite ways to cook healthy is on the grill! We do kebabs (chicken and whatever veggies you like -- we do peppers/onions/mushrooms usually and even though I'm not a huge pepper fan I'll eat them that way). Squash and zucchini are also great grilled or put in foil packets with a bit of olive oil and then thrown on the grill. Pineapple and pears are good fruits to grill. We have a charcoal grill but I also use the George Foreman quite a bit. We also use the crockpot quite a bit.

We also use olive oil almost exclusively (canola for baking)... and I've learned it doesn't take as much to saute something as I used to use! This is one of the biggest changes from my growing-up years and that my mom mentioned after my dad's heart attack. We were a true Southern family and had a container of bacon grease ready at all times to fry eggs or other items in the skillet. I can't imagine using bacon grease now!

Egg whites are another good source of protein (without the cholesterol). I usually do one whole egg and 1 or 2 egg whites if I scramble eggs, or just use the whites in tuna salad (unless I am needing to eat some calories).

The easiest way to reduce sodium is to cook from fresh or frozen foods and avoid canned. Canned goods have a lot of sodium. I do still buy canned tomatoes, tomato paste, tuna, and green peas (I can't get past the weird green color of frozen green peas!) but other than that I try to buy frozen or fresh if it is in season.

A few easy recipes/sides/ideas:
Take raw chicken, sprinkle with garlic salt, throw in the grill -- cook until done!
Take a pound of frozen green beans, sprinkle with some minced onion (in the spices, it doesn't taste as strong as regular onion), cook in chicken broth in the microwave for 30 minutes or so (look for low sodium chicken broth... and, yes, I'm sure that cooking this long destroys some nutrients but it still isn't bad for you!)
Take fresh corn, wrap in a wet paper towel, microwave for a few minutes until done. That's it!

As someone else said, get to know your spices:
Italian = garlic, oregano, basil
Chicken = thyme, rosemary, paprika (not all together!)
Mexican = cumin

Cauliflower/potato mix is healthier and tastes just as good as mashed potatoes.

You are welcome to check out my food diary if you want, I have recipes if I used a recipe and you can send a message if you have any other questions! I am trying to take steps towards eating less processed food, and so there are plenty of fresh fruits/veggies in there.

I second the idea to talk with a nutritionist.

Also, I don't know if your husband is on a doctor-prescribed exercise program, but I know my dad was and he was able to use workout facilities at the hospital. My mom was allowed to use those right along with him, and I think that helped greatly with him adapting to a new way of life.

Also check out the American Heart association's web site, they have links to healthy cooking recipes and tips. There are so many healthy ways to prepare the foods you love with a little practice you will have it down pat. This place is a great place to see what foods fall into the ranges you need to be heart healthy. Welcome.