Hello From Rich Sojka

I have had heart problems in the past and I now have 11 stents. It turns out that 1 of my 3 arteries keeps clogging up. I am due now to have my eleventh angioplasty on April 3, 2015.

I have lost about 15 pounds; down from 275 pounds to 257 pounds. I found out that I gained a lot of weight by being on vegan diet. I believe that this is due to eating too many carbs like bread, pasta, rice, low fiber cereals, etc. Also, the tendency on the vegan diets is to not eat a lot of protein: I was eating only 15 - 25 grams of protein per day! Guess what? If one does not eat a lot of protein then one has to eat lots of carbs and fat. So a vegan diet which is mostly carbs and fat is not too good health wise!

I have ended up using My Fitness Pal and Garmin Connect to track my weight loss progress and now I am steadily losing about 1.5 pounds to 2 pounds per week. Since I have had heart problems in the past I am using the following guidelines to monitor what I eat:

Net Calories = 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day (Net = Consumed - Active)
Saturated Fat = less than 10 grams
Fiber = 30 - 50 grams
Cholesterol = less than 100 mg

I also drink at least 80 ounces of water per day.

I am finding that eating the higher fiber foods satisfies my appetite. I was wondering what other people experiences are in eating a higher fiber diet?

Thanks,

Rich Sojka