I am participating in a Cardiac Rehab program. So far I am very pleased to have the opportunity, and have garnered a few helpful tips to improve my health. One is the exercise warm-up, which I do before every walk. In the evenings, Attila does the warm-up exercises with me, we have fun with that. The dietitian pointed out a weakness in my daily diet, not enough protein. I also learned that the heart and vascular system need to be used to remain healthy. Since we walk several miles a day, that was already being addressed. The bonus is that the knowledge alleviates my concerns about pushing myself due to the aneurysms. If I warm up, pushing myself during walks will not harm my heart, or my vascular system, and that is a load off my mind. Unlike other health issues, there is no consistent advice about how to live with an aneurysm, most of us are told, “just go and live your life”. Because I am finally under excellent care with a GP, a Vascular Surgeon, and an Endocrinologist, for the first time in my life my blood pressure is under control, and so is my cholesterol. It helps that there are new medications to help with all of this, because the older medications and lifestyle changes that were made over the last 30 years had not yielded acceptable results. Hopefully it is not too little too late, some damage has already been done.
Trying to add protein to my daily diet has not been easy. We won’t be increasing the amount of meat we eat, or fish, or poultry. I continue to limit egg consumption as advised by my endocrinologist. Not eating much of these foods contributes to the low protein dilemma. It is taking many, many weeks of trial and error to increase the protein in my diet. Attila gets lots of protein, he eats more meals, and a lot more food than I do, with which to meet his nutritional needs. He has no restrictions on what he eats.
I tackled the protein issue in several ways.
The first was to drink a protein shake/smoothie (using a serving of whey powder, and 1% milk), when consuming meals with no high protein components. So, for instance, if I make a vegetable stir fry from garden greens for my lunch, I follow that with a protein smoothie.
The second was to have Greek yogurt with my breakfast. This one was tough, I hate yogurt, and I shouldn’t eat sugar. I found adding sugared fruit to yogurt makes it bearable, just, but I can’t afford to add that sugar to my diet. Eventually I came up with making a fine crumble of 1/4 cup unsalted cashews, and two cut up dates. This, when mixed into the serving of Greek yogurt is really not bad tasting. I love cashews, I love dates. One medical journal publication I read found that the blood sugar spike expected with sugars, is less dramatic with dried dates. Fibre and protein mediate blood sugar spikes. The added bonus of the dried dates, is that just two of them do not add a lot of sugar to my diet.
The third was to add whey powder, roasted pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds, all complete proteins, to my morning muffin recipe. This proved disastrous. The muffins were very dry, not something to dread, but certainly not something to look forward to. My original recipe produced muffins that I loved, and because I felt so indulged with my morning muffin, I did not feel cravings of any kind. I make a dozen muffins at a time, and since I began eating the Greek yogurt with cashews and dates for breakfast, I cut my muffin consumption to one muffin for breakfast. A dozen muffins last twelve days, that was twelve days of dissatisfaction with the high protein recipe, although they were very healthy.
I suspected the chia seeds contributed to the dryness, so in the next batch I soaked the chia seeds first in the liquid ingredients before adding them to the muffins. The muffins were marginally improved, and I still have three more breakfasts to go with those dry muffins. So today, during my baking marathon (heat the oven once), I added the soaked chia seeds, and the ground roasted pumpkin seeds to the muffins, but skipped the whey powder. I was also able to use a small grated zucchini from the garden, which replaced one of the two shredded apples that I have been adding over the winter. Thank GOODNESS, the muffins are back to being chewy, chocolatey, delicious, and truly something to look forward to every morning. That means that on Sunday, after three more breakfasts of dry muffins, breakfast will become a special event once more.
It was the addition of whey powder that resulted in dry muffins. You learn something new every day they say.
Today was busy for me. I baked hamburger buns, peach squares for Attila (home canned peach filling), and finally for me, successful chocolate zucchini muffins. I also I did banking, washed and hung to dry a load of laundry, and today was my self injection day which is a much larger event in my mind than it is in real life.
Attila prepped the new strawberry bed in the raised bed, put hoops over the plants, then netting. The netting will keep out the squirrels, and the birds, and allow the bees and small insects access to the blooms. The plants are ever-bearing, and are blooming profusely, it seems we might have some of our own strawberries this summer!
Last week Attila planted some blue Hubbard squash seeds, they came up today. Most of the plants love the heat, as long as they get enough water, which is where Attila is as I write, out there watering the garden.
It is cooler today, making the daily walks more pleasant. Still no rain though, it has been over a month since we have had any significant rain. There was one day, a few weeks ago, when enough rain fell to wet the pavement, but it was still dry under the trees. Hopefully we will see some rain soon.
Worldly
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26°C
Date: 6:00 PM EDT Wednesday 9 July 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 22.6°C
Dew point: 20.6°C
Humidity: 89%
Wind: SSW 15 km/h
Humidex: 33
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”
Michael J. Fox
1961 –
Interesting that you’re not getting enough protein, Maggie. My DH has been diagnosed with low B12, which comes from meat, even though he’s quite the carnivore. He now takes B12 supplements.
Glad to hear your blood pressure and cholesterol are now under control! Maybe you’ll be able to loosen some of the dietary strictures you’ve had to keep.
I hear you on the dry muffins with the whey protein powder! When I was trying to lose weight on low carb, I tried those kinds of recipes and found the same thing – the powder made the muffins dry and, well, powdery. That’s when I started using recipes that had nut flours in them. Now a days, almond flour is pretty easy to find in places like Bulk Barn.
Teri, I was a bit surprised that my protein was low, but then when I thought about it, not eating meat meant I had to spend a lot of effort eating large quantities of other protein sources. I assumed the variety of vegetables, combined with some meat/fish/poultry/dairy would be enough. Apparently not. I prefer not to eat meat, I don’t care much for it. It has been really challenging to find high protein foods to make up the shortfall, particularly because you have a eat a lot more of them, than you do meat, to get that protein.
I am finally there though, getting at least the minimum recommended for my height and age. It is a struggle.
Now that my blood pressure and cholesterol are under control, I will continue to follow my dietary restrictions. It is a miracle to me that medications have been found that actually help, and the dietary restrictions are part of the magic combination that give me normal readings. The medications and diet and exercise are working, so I won’t risk losing that success.
What will change for me is the constant nagging worry, that everything I put in my mouth is killing me. That was a terrible load to carry, since no lifestyle change made a significant difference, because of the inherited conditions that I have. I kept trying though, constantly attempting to combat genetic fate. What I am doing now is working on these last few tweaks re protein. Once I have that figured out, I will let my restrictions create habit and preference, follow the plan, and relax about food. Now I eat with much greater pleasure, knowing that what I eat is keeping me healthy, not putting me at risk.
Of course I have special event days when I don’t follow my restrictions, such as having a slice of my sister’s fantastic carrot cake, full of deliciously bad things. But that is a rare event, to be enjoyed to the full.
Nut flours are great idea, they are very expensive though, in our grocery store. Something to keep in mind though, perhaps for the occasional special event treat!