Exercising with anger—a success story (sort of)

So with no prior symptoms I had a heart attack late in July 2012 at age 56. I felt the first chest pains just after a cardio workout. I got treatment quickly and thankfully there was no lasting heart muscle damage. I was told how lucky I was to survive a widow maker blockage, and with nothing really wrong with my heart itself, the advice I got was essentially to turn the tables on the heart disease—attack *it*--by working out hard (within my heart rate limits) and losing weight.

That was easy advice to take. Even though heart problems run in my family, I was very angry it hit me. I was angry that the regular checkups, stress tests, cholesterol meds and aspirin, semi-regular workouts, etc., the past 12+ years didn’t prevent the attack. I was angry that I hadn’t been strong enough to lose (or not gain in the first place) the weight I’d added through the years. And I was especially angry that because of my negligence I almost checked out on my family.

I used all that anger to power my post-attack workouts. A couple of months of cardiac rehab allowed me to adjust to new meds and feel safe with working out again. After that I increased to six days of workouts, upgrading to HIIT cardio on the elliptical and rowing machines. I also restarted my Kettlebell workouts for strength, but with more intensity and heavier ‘bells over time. For weight loss I started to use MFP to manage calories, fat, and sodium. My wife, a clinical dietitian, has been a huge help with diet strategy. She keeps me focused on what’s important and talks me down whenever I obsess (“…but I need to manage my ratio of omega 3’s to omega 6’s better!!”).

Today, 11 months after the attack, I’ve hit my goal of losing 50 pounds, from 220 down to 170. My new goal is 160, but I’m currently in plateauville, so I don’t know if I’ve got enough gas left in the tank to get there. I’ve lost 8 inches off my waist so far.


The non-visual changes below are the most important to me, though.

My body fat has gone from 40.5% to 20.8%--from Obese/Above Average to Healthy/Ideal for my age. I gained 6.1 lbs of lean body mass while losing the weight. (I’ve often read on these boards that this is just not possible while on a calorie deficit. I’m glad I didn’t share that fact with my body. )

My cholesterol meds had been doing their job nicely, but my numbers really shaped up after adding the strenuous exercise (Total =123 with HDL=73, LDL=48).

I don’t have reflux/heartburn any more and stopped the prescription meds I’d been taking for years for that. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea 8 years ago; after losing 40+ pounds I retired my CPAP back in April when testing showed the apnea was gone. Booyah!

I’m happy but stunned I was able to make these changes. I’m ashamed that it took a heart attack to motivate me.

But this isn’t really a success story since, like many chronic conditions, there are no guarantees with coronary artery disease. So I’m not claiming victory--I could be on my back on a gurney again next week. I’m just doing what I can to reduce that possibility. And exercising “angry” and converting that emotion into productive workouts is a big part of that.

Through the last year I’ve picked up lots of tips on diet and exercise/fitness out here which have been a great help along the way. Many thanks, MFP Community! :drinker: