Big Changes at the Best Mom House

If you follow my blog you know I love food. I love chocolate, butter, cheese, peanut butter... you get the picture. My family eats well. I offer a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, meats and pastas. I try to keep it as healthy as I can but when a recipe calls for a cup of butter I don't shy away.

My wonderful husband had a physical for the first time in years (since I met him I think!) and his blood work came back with bad news. He has really high cholesterol. High enough that our doctor wanted him on Crestor® immediately. I felt terrible. Did I do this to my husband? Did I force him onto a medication that he has to take for the rest of his life so that his arteries don't block, so that he doesn't develop heart disease, so that he doesn't die of a massive heart attack or stroke? Turns out high cholesterol is hereditary and his mom had it, but what I was doing in the kitchen certainly didn't help.

This is why I've been MIA from posting for the past few weeks. As soon as we got the call I was online researching what he couldn't have anymore and what foods would help his medication reverse the damage we'd done to his arteries. All his favourites had to go: chips, peanuts, bologna, butter, hot dogs; others we had to cut way back on: red meat, cheese; and some we were able to find substitutions for that he found to be just as good: switching from 2% milk to 1%, almonds instead of peanuts. I've become a pro at reading labels, scouring the contents for the amounts of cholesterol, calories, fat and the biggie, sodium. I've incorporated cranberry, flax seed and pomegranate into his everyday diet. His daily veggie/fruit intake has quadrupled. And the best part: our whole family is eating better.

I know what you're thinking... "oh no! This blog is going all health nut!". Not quite. My dear husband is not a dessert guy, opting to have seconds instead of cake since he was a kid. So desserts were never an issue (except for cookie dough, the guy can eat a whole bowl of it!) so desserts are staying! Also, I plan to work a monthly "treat" food into our dinner rotation once we get the okay that his numbers have come down. Something that might be a bit decadent, like something made with real butter perhaps. But for the most part I'll be making meals that are good for you AND extremely tasty!

I hope you take this opportunity to follow along and make some changes in your family as well so that one day you don't get a call like we got, or worse. Happy healthy eating!