Switch to green tea, that's what I've done lately.

Good Luck!

the only things that scare me when thinking about death are 1)dying painfully and 2) how upsetting and painful it will be for those who love me. Death is mainly sad to me since I love life so much. You do have to make realistic changes for health reasons some times and it sounds like you are making important ones.

You go girl!

I had a heart attack on December 9th of 2000 and then underwent a double by pass on 28th of the same month. ( I wanted to wait until after Christmas.) I was 44 at the time. It was an awful experience to go through. After the surgery, I could not even lift myself up out of bed. By February the 6th though, I was back to work. Still not feeling completely up to par, I just didn't work quite as hard. It really wasn't until the Spring that I really began to feel as though nothing had ever happened to me. Except when I would look in the mirror and see that huge pink zipper running up and down the middle of my chest.
Exercise is just about the best thing that you can do for yourself. Your heart is a muscle just like any other in your body. You can build up it's stregnth by exercising daily and getting your heart rate up. They say that an over weight person that exercises regularly, is better off than a skinny pperson that don't.
Its ok to eat red meat. Just cut way down on it. Don't have it more than once per week, twice at the most. Eat more fish and chicken or turkey breast but deep fried is no good. I usually boil my chichen and bake or boil the fish. There are cheeses that are low in fat. Any dairy products are no good for you. Skim or 2% milk is the ticket. Since eggs are dairy too and I love them, I have went to egg beaters. They're not too bad.
One thing very good to do is drink lots and lots of water. It will help to purify your system of the bad stuff that you do give into. It will also help to curve your appitite and you'll find you are eating less. I like to drink a large glass of water before a meal.
Don't over do it on the exercise right away though. Work your way into it a little at a time. You might wanna start with just some nice stretching techniques to limber yourself up a bit first. If you have stairs in your home, you can make good use of them just by walking up and down them a few times at your own pace.
Since heart disease runs in your family, you may want to start taking one asperin each morning to help keep your blood thinner. Make sure you buy the coated kind though as asperin can be hard on ones stomach. Also see your doctor regularly and keep a close watch on your blood pressure and clorestol.
Oh, and buy some sweet n low for your coffee. Don't put salt on anything. Buy yourself some no-salt to use. Note: Diet soda is loaded with salt so avoid it. Diet-Rite has none. Now, stop worring cause that will raise your blood pressure too. You might wanna read my artical on stress and depression. Hope some of this helps... GCJ

With so many conflicting reports on dieting, it is indeed vexing, but at 75 I'm still drinking coffee and find it stimulating. Of course, you could always switch to de-caf.

I don't ever intend on giving up coffee but I know I need to cut back...way back. Coffee and caffiene in general is much worse for women than men. It causes us all sorts of fun fibroid type problems that give you cancer scares. I am only 33 and am about to have my 3rd mammogram. Luckily, it is a bump that the dr thinks is nothing but I have to keep an eye on it. He says I need to quit caffiene. I am addicted though. I have two small boys and become "mean mommy" when I don't get caffiene. I need to wean myself of it. Not completely though!

Heart problems are scary. The basketball coach at my high school seemed like one of the healthiest people around and he dropped dead of a heart attack while jogging. He was only in his late 40s. That just isn't right!

Peppermint tea will help you keep awake. I find that a low carb diet gives me energy and I feel better. Aspirin is good and if you do have a heart attack, take it right away. My husband had one and his was very mild and did no damage to his heart.

As a mom, you certainly don't want to die young. As to the caffiene--cut down slowly otherwise you may have severe headaches.

Good luck. For different reasons, I am also trying to change some lifestyle habits. It's pretty damned hard, actually. I am crossing my fingers for the both of us, and everyone else who is trying to do something better for themselves. Nic

The low carb diet is not good for me. I'm actually on a doctor prescribed low protein diet due to kidney issues. (Animal protein is hard on your kidneys, especially if you have *issues*).



Today is the second day with only one cup of coffee. I had to have some black tea, though, to keep the headache at bay.



This is the third day of being meat free and with little dairy.



I was on an aspirin a day, but with high blood pressure and a tendency for anemia, they took me off it. They were afraid that bleeding would not stop if it ever started.



Boy....I sound like a really huge lump of mess right now.......

Why is the spacing on that so screwed up?

Huge kudos on the second day of 1 cup of coffee. I only had 2 yesterday and a couple of cups of orange, jasmine flavored green tea. I haven't had anything but tea and water today since I have a really sore throat. I stayed in bed until noon since my 3yr old was happy sitting at the end of the bed playing on the GameCube. I should be doing some house work but my energy level is zapped. I think I'll have some soup and more tea.

What does black tea do for headaches? I don't know anything about black tea. I just know that green tea has all sorts of antioxidants that are supposed to be really good for you. Do you take any vitamin supplements? I'm not too good about that. I am trying Centrum for Women right now.

Kidney problems are scary. Be kind to your kidneys in any way the Dr says you should.

Black tea has more caffeine in it than green tea. No tea has as much caffeine in it as coffee. Well, another day down with only one cup of coffee. (YAY!) Another day without meat. (YAY!) Now all I need to do is start working out more......but that is hard considering that it's only about 10 degrees outside and all I want to do is sit by a heat source LOL

Well, I am on my 6th day of one cup of coffee and strict vegetarian diet. Almost a week. I think I read somewhere that if you can change for a month that the change will be more likely to be permanent. Hope that is true as I am almost 1/4 way there.

I seem to really have lost my sugar addiction. I used to be craving sweets all the time, and fatty food. I think that all the sugar in the coffee that I drank gave me cravings (sugar lows) then I would eat junk which would make me want to eat more junk. These last few days have not been easy. Staying away from coffee is very hard. I may need to give it up completely (except for a cup on rare occasions) because I find it really hard to stop at one cup (even though I do).

I am pretty sure that this has helped my blood pressure as I don't have the swelling in my legs like I had. I also don't feel really strung out like I did (even though I haven't been sleeping well).

I also worked out 3 times this week (out of 6 days) so I think that is pretty good. I will hopefully work out today and tomorrow, so that will be 5 out of 7.

Maybe if I keep writing it down I will stay on track with it.

Well, I have made it a whole week with one cup of coffee a day and no meat.

I noticed a couple days ago that the swelling that I get from my blood pressure had decreased. This morning, I realized that I could actually see the bones in my ankles again. So, I stepped on the scale. SEVEN pounds are gone. I'm pretty sure that it was all water weight. The veg diet that I've been eating is all home cooked, so it has very little salt in it, plus the drastic decrease in caffeine and increase in exercise has had to help.

So, hopefully, this will be the start of a permanent change.

I wish you well in your endeavours.