Funny, I don’t feel any different. Aren’t you supposed to develop all these insights after you have a heart attack? I mean, after they moved that Spanish guy into my hospital room, I saw all those hospital commercials on the TV. The default channel had these pictures of what was supposed to happen once you took Plavix and Lipitor. Riding bikes in mugger-free parks, bumping into long-lost friends, making testimonials, these things are all supposed to happen as you get new meaning in life, see?
I have no idea if this will last but I will record anything that increases my heart rate, within reason. (I finally gave up measuring my pulse and pressure years later. There seemed to be no correlation and my pressure, while higher than it needed to be, was still within the normal range for my age group. In the end it took nearly a year to get my core energy back.)
Here's another story of survival. Have you forgotten that tube of brown sugar that Jaymie gave me? I did and the ants did not. Ever seen 4,500 ants in your cupboard? I have, and for those who know me, it was almost exactly that number. Teeny little ants, so nobody panic. In fact, the sugar had crystallized from moisture in the air since the package was last opened at least 13 months ago. These fellows carved out a paradise, a house of solid food. Dark, quiet and a short crawl to the kitchen water tap. The trail was behind the coffee maker, so they could disappear long before I'd see them. A quick wipe of vinegar destroyed the scent trails, and into the garbage they went, sugar castle in all.
Then I went to “Lord of the Rings, Return of the King”. Still a kid’s fantasy, but great battle scenes with special effects. (Check notes for details.) It is nice to see the star is a real blonde. Using bleached blondes as stars sends the wrong message to women who will never become actresses, if you get my point.
Doctor’s orders, I’ve revamped my diet, mainly to see if I can stick with it. Nothing is out of the ordinary, all my RDAs except calories are at least 20% in the safe zone every day. Mainly I switched from my favorite, fruit juices, to eating the fruit itself. I can only manage half an apple at a time because I've long since lost my taste for them. That, people, is about the only improvement I can make. Oh, and my calories average 157 over limit each day with very little variance. Even that depends on how much coffee I drink since I use Half & Half.
[Authors note: in the end, the whole diet thing was a classic exercise in futility. The doctor advised me that I couldn't eat certain things like eggs or products made from animal organs. Lower salt, lower cholesterol, and all the usual precautions. They gave me a set of guidelines but I was already naturally doing better than most of their recommendations. I lost my taste for sweets in my early 20s, I eat fewer than six eggs per year, and I easily switched to using Carnation in my coffee.
The reality is that despite years of a very regimented 1200 calorie per day diet of all the proper foods and far more exercise (in the form of bike riding) than anybody I know, I was unsuccessful at losing any weight and my body shape permanently changed from skinny to adipose (pear-shaped). With that, I have remained 55 pounds overweight. Again, it is not ordinary fat so I can't even take consolation that it would be even worse if I didn't diet and exercise. The last remaining speculation is that all of this was somehow hereditary.]
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