At one point or another, we all experience life changers. It could be getting married, having children, graduating college, getting a promotion, or a life threatening event.
I have been through most of those events, but what brought me here was the last one. My husband and son had been jumping on the trampoline and 15 minutes after they finished, my husband sent our 6 yr old to get me. When I went to my husband, he said he felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. It was hard to breath , felt as if he was going to vomit and he was sweating profusely. We high tailed it to the ER.
The EKG showed he was in the middle of a heart attack. They had to transport him to another hospital to be taken care of. He had a complete blockage and had to have a stint put it to open the artery.
My husband wasn't an unhealthy man. He did, however, have a family history of heart issues. We heard a few comments from hospital staff that they were surprised it happen to him. His cholesterol was only slightly high, maybe only had a few extra pounds, but was looking to be pre-diabetic.
Because of the family history, he was high risk anyways. So we were given a lot of information about what needed to be considered to try to lessen the chance of another heart attack. The two controlables are diet and exercise.
It was stressed upon us that not only do we have to watch fat intake, but more importantly, sodium intake. It is much more difficult to watch your sodium intake. For the sake of time and money, we had a good amount of processed foods in our diet- frozen entrees, boxed potatoes, canned soups, and salt was added to every plate. My first grocery trip after his attack was beyond frustrating. I wanted to cry.
Even searching for recipes, I found salt or high sodium ingredients added to everything. Even things listed as low sodium had more sodium per serving then we wanted to have. With the recommended daily intake being 1500 mg, it seemed impossible to stay in that range.
I decided that there had to be a way, so I took recipes and changed a few ingredients (sometimes with no salt added ingredients, sometimes by just omitting the salt and salt seasonings) to make them within an acceptable sodium level.
I told my husband that I have a new mission in life:
To prove that low fat, and low sodium, doesn't have to mean no flavor!
