Over the holidays, one of my cousins died in his sleep of a heart attack. He was 41 years old. It's not uncommon for young people to have heart attacks on that side of my family. My Grandmother had a heart attack in her mid 30's (she is still alive) and has had at least two more since then. Three of the Five children that she had have had heart attacks, and a few of the grandkids have also had heart problems. In general, it's a whole glob of bad genetics.

Of course, my genetics seem to go with that side of the family. I am shorter than my sister (whose genetics seem to follow the other side) and look more like the "bad" genetic side. I have also had numerous health issues, such as thyroid disease (I no longer have one) which is common on that side. So, the whole "heart attack" issue is one that bothers me.

It's hard to grasp your own mortality. Unfortunately, since I have had so many health issues, I actually have a good grasp on it. I pretty much know that I will not live to be extremely old. I know that my joints will prevent me from being extremely active in my later years (unless they get better joint technology). After being put under for many operations, I have determined what death is like. None of that really scares me. What *does* scare me is that I could possibly only live until my 40's, which is simply not long enough.

So, it's time to finally get my act together and be more proactive about my health. My doctors have continuously told me to cut meat out of my diet (well, all animal protein....but I try to ignore that "cheese" fits in that) so I am finally going to completely do that (except for cheese.....) I am also going to start exercising more and try to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night (that may sound funny, but there are many nights that I only sleep 4-5 hours). And, then, the big one- I am going to limit my coffee intake to one cup per day. To me, coffee is my crack habit. I may need rehab to get me through this. I am trying to replace it with herbal tea. Now, going from one pot (or more) of coffee a day to one cup is not an easy task. As you can imagine, my blood is actually half coffee, so it will take some getting used to. It is also making me really cranky. Giving up coffee will help me in two ways: 1) caffeine, in high doses, is bad for you in many ways, so giving it up will help my health, and 2) I drink coffee with cream and sugar. I should lose weight just by ditching those calories.

Wish me luck......