One bad meal can make a difference.

I am putting this post under motivation, just in case you are losing yours. I know that after a week or two the diet starts to become, "not fun" anymore and it is tempting to quit. Don't give up!!

This past week I was out of town with my husband who ended up in the hospital.

He has been struggling with weight gain over the past three years when he took a new job which takes him out of town for 6 days per week. He brings food from home but he also eats out a lot. In addition, his old job was consistently active and he had a lot of muscle, but this job entails sporadic activity. He sits for long lengths of time and then needs to work really hard.

At first he didn't think it was a problem because the scales said he basically weighed the same but over time I started seeing that the muscle tone in his chest was vanishing at the same time his abdominal girth was increasing. In fact, he really has only gained about 15 pounds...they are just very different pounds! As his body continued to lose muscle and gain fat his levels of other things changed as well and he found himself on blood pressure meds, then cholesterol meds, then the doctor telling him he is very close to developing diabetes as well.

So, this past Tuesday a group of the guys decided to hit a higher end restaurant and he orders their cheeseburger supreme(which was huge), all the way, with steak fries and eats the entire thing.:sick:

By about 1 in the morning, he was having crushing chest pain. Upon arrival at the ER they gave him aspirin and nitroglycerin and it relieved the pain.

Thank God it was not a full blown heart attack. After 3 days and loads of tests his discharge diagnosis was "Angina" or chest pain. (no duh) One doctor basically concluded that that meal was just too much for him.

If you do a google search you can find all kinds of references and video clips that show what blood looks like before a fatty meal and after a fatty meal. (If you are interested copy, paste, and watch... http://www.articlesbase.com/videos/5min/326711986 )

One bad meal can make a difference.:devil:

We are doing the right thing here!! Not just reducing calories but choosing wisely the foods we put in our bodies and the exercise that we do. :flowerforyou:

The small seemingly insignificant changes make a difference and can either build up our health or tear it down.

We can do this!

Hopefully my husband will make a few changes. To be honest, I am not overly optimistic. I have been trying to get him healthy for 25 years and I often find snickers wrappers and the evidence of fast foods in his car and cooler. The healthy foods that I send with him come back sour and wilted.:huh:

You really can't change another person. They have to find it themselves.

Here's to a great day for all of us!! :drinker: (today it is water in that cup instead of tequila!)

D