heath

Last week:

Weight: 133
Waist: 27
Hips: 30

This week:

Weight: 135
Waist: 27
Hips: 30

Today is a very important day for my whole family. Today, right now as I type this, my Grandaddy is having a bypass done in order to let his heart pump and work the way it is supposed to. He has Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and he also has a problem with one of his valves. It’ s been leaking for some time now, and it’s slowly gotten worse, and today is the day we’ve been waiting for since last October when his health really gave us a scare. Since my husband was deployed, I had gone home to stay with my family, and the last few months of my time in Virginia were terrifying when it came to Grandaddy’s health. I lived up the street from my grandparents, and every day I was terrified that Gramma was going to come barging in the door to tell me something had happened. I was so scared to leave Virginia when my husband came home, one because of the usual “I don’t want to give up my family again” reasons and two because I was scared I’d never see my Grandaddy again. He promised me he’d be okay and that he’d be there for me when we got done with the Army and came home, and so far he’s been right. Today’s what is supposed to give us some serious peace of mind about his health for at least the next ten years if all goes well.

I’m telling you all this because of all of the reasons I have to want to be healthier, between my own vanity and my child, both of my grandfathers are at the very top of my list. My dad’s father died when I was four from cancer. He had lung cancer from smoking and for years I was heading down that same path. I still may be, since I smoked as long as I did, but at least now I’m not adding to any more of the risk. In about a week or so I’ll be coming up on 90 days smoke free, and although it’s been hard some days, I’ve done it. I’ve stayed away from them. I’m also smoke free because I promised my Grandaddy before we left Virginia that I would quit. He made me promise after he got out of the hospital one day because the fluid had backed up into his lungs so bad he could barely catch his breath, and he sat there on the couch and begged me to quit. He’s nearly blind from Macular Degeneration (which can be caused by cigarette smoke and is genetic), and I don’t know how much he could actually see of me that night, but I’m 100% sure he knew where my eyes were to look right into them and beg me to quit. He never did smoke, but he was around people all of his life that smoked, and the doctors are pretty sure he got into the condition he’s into today from the second hand smoke.

My Paw Paw (Dad’s dad) smoked his whole life. It’s just what he did, and the cancer ate him alive. He didn’t eat well, because he was a truck driver, and we all know what kinds of crap you tend to eat when you spend most of your life on the highway. I’m almost sure that if the cancer wouldn’t have gotten him, his eating habits and blood pressure would have. Grandaddy’s taken good care of himself most of his life. He’s smoked one cigarette in his 80+ years and he’s always been very aware of what he was eating and as long as his body allowed him, he exercised pretty regular too. I know genetics play a large role in some health issues, but not all of them, and as much as I’d like to ignore it all, I don’t have the best genetic lineup in the world.

These two men are one of the main reasons I exercise and try to eat right. Yesterday being Memorial Day, I took the day off and slacked on just about everything, but today I’m back on track and will be for the long haul. Sunday I only had to run three miles and officially clocked in at 21:29, and that’s okay. When I run that 5K on June 15th, I’ll be thinking about my grandfathers and how much they mean to me, and I think they would both be proud of their granddaughter to come in with a time like that after all of the changes I’ve made so far this year.