I welcome readers who are struggling to overcome the same health conditions, readers who want to shift themselves and their families to heart-healthy eating and need some inspiration as well as some practical advice, and enthusiastic cooks and eaters everywhere who like delicious food made from mostly fresh, seasonal ingredients (including seasons in far away countries).

I am writing this blog to share what I have learned, the delicious, healthy recipes I have devised or adapted, mental changes I made that might be useful to other readers, and encouragement to everyone and to myself.  I figure if I “go public” with my journey, it makes it easier to continue it. It also disipates the shame I have felt from a lifetime of being overweight.

In the meantime, I had to change my eating habits — from day one in the hospital while recuperating. Fortunately, over the years I had weaned myself off sugar, white flour, and chocolate (actually, I went “cold turkey” in 1977 and haven’t had a donut or a breakfast pastry since then), so I didn’t have to start from square-1.  Before my surgery, we didn’t buy much processed food and what we did buy was pretty simple — fruit canned in juice, not syrup, organic broths for cooking, frozen vegetables and fruits without sauces or sugar, peanut butter made with just salt, no hydrogenetated fats or sugars. However, I had to learn to cook with very little salt, occasional tiny amounts of sugar, tiny amounts of butter, and restrict myself to 1 oz. of cheese per week.  I also had to increase my intake of vegetables and fruits. Fortunately, I like veggies and fruits and I have been able to overcome my resistance to preparing fresh vegetables — washing, cutting and chopping.

I am writing this blog to share the successful recipes and strategies I learned to make food taste good without adding the ugly 4 food groups that cause our arteries to clog, Type-2 diabetes to kick in (fortunately, I have avoided that), blood pressure to soar, and bodies to get fat: salt, sugar, “bad” fat and starch. Success is that my husband, Tom, likes these dishes since he is a meat, potatoes, gravy and chocolate chip cookies man with a very low bad cholesterol count and very low blood pressure. Since my surgery, Tom has been a great supporter of our DASH-compliant menus which I appreciate immensely. He has really expanded his willingness to eat foods he would avoid previously and is willing to add salt to his own servings — for the health of both of us.

I want to thank the incredible professionals at Scottsdale Healthcare’s Cardiac Rehab Program.  In addition to a do-able regimen of supervised exercise, the staff and its classes provides an incredible amount of information about what will heal and keep us heart-healthy.  It is a 36-session program that Medicare pays for (and some insurance policies with a doctor’s prescription) and Scottsdale Healthcare has made it affordable for “graduates” to continue the supervised exercise and to drop into any of the classes for a refresher.  One of the best things is that none of the staff are judgmental and all are encouraging you to achieve better heart-healthy status.

If your community has such a program, even if you are not recovering from a “heart event” like surgery or a heart attack, ask your doctor to prescribe it for you.  It will do you more good than any medication (and help your medication to help you) and is a great investment.  This is for you if are overweight, have high blood pressure, high bad cholesterol and/or low good cholesterol, are asthmatic, have swollen feet and ankles,  low energy, diabetes, or any or all of a number of signs of poor health.

I even learned that many patients have heart-related health problems who are not overweight.  So, while excess body weight might be the most visible sign of potential heart problems, it really requires a physician’s examination and some basic tests to determine your own heart’s health status.

Disclosure: In these recipes I will name brands and stores or web sites where some of the ingredients can be purchased. I receive no financial support from any of these sources but I do think manufacturers and retailers deserve to be acknowledged when they create or distribute a good product. At the same time, I will also not hesitate to criticize any product or retailer I have found to be irresponsible, over-priced, or deceptive.