The Tribune-Democrat table at Cambria-Somerset Heart Ball
Todd Berkey, Cris Witprachtiger, Arlene Johns, Becky and Randy Griffith
With all four stories completed Thursday for the first installment Heart Health, The Tribune-Democrat's American Heart Month Project, I was ready for some time off. I just had to remember it was only time off from work. Not time off from healthy living.
Here are the four stories:
Heart Health: 'The social outlook has been changing'
Women face cardiac risks
Ongoing efforts to foster health
Tips on a heart-healthy diet
The busy three-day weekend provided both a challenges and opportunities for my own heart-healthy lifestyle.
Friday began with a church luncheon. Lots of covered dishes with inviting homemade food – and desserts! From there, I stopped by the Steelers Rally and then into The Tribune-Democrat office for the office Steelers fete with more homemade treats.
I tried practicing portion control, with a little of this and a little of that. But pretty soon I had sampled a little of just about everything, which I think defeated the purpose. In my defense, I only took one small piece of cake at the church and another small dessert at the office. It was the other stuff that probably did me in.
It may have been guilt, but I finished by day downtown with about a three-mile walk around the business district and Old Conemaugh Borough area.
Friday night, my lovely bride and I made our usual happy hour stop at Tulune’s South Side Saloon in Johnstown to meet up with some friends. I did limit myself to one imported beer there, but Joe said it was probably worth an American beer and a half.
Later, we were in another Johnstown restaurant where I got a grilled chicken salad, after first reading the menu description to make sure it wasn’t the usual couple pieces of chicken on some iceberg lettuce, with a couple of tomato slices and maybe an onion slice. The menu listed those, plus peppers but said it was on “gourmet salad blend.” I asked the waitress if that meant several types of lettuce (hoping also for some other greens). She thought it did.
It didn’t. Apparently in Johnstown, “gourmet salad blend” is chopped up iceberg lettuce.
One online article I found calls iceberg “the least-nutritious member of a family of nutritional champions. Any other lettuce or leafy green vegetable would be a better choice.”
While another source defends iceberg, saying the least-nutritious label only applies in comparisons by weight. A nutrition-by-calorie comparison brings iceberg closer to the others. But both sources urge “a variety” of greens.
And I just don’t like iceberg very much. I used to think I didn’t like salad, but then I learned about other lettuce.
Saturday I got plenty of exercise helping friends with three girls move into a two-story home with steps up to the back door. Enough said, I think.
We did stop for lunch, which for me was a personal-sized pizza with lots of veggies and no meat. That was a suggestion from Tonya Spada-Dixon, Memorial Medical Center’s clinical nutrition manager.
Saturday night was the Cambria-Somerset Heart Ball fundraiser for the American Heart Association. Since it was a heart event, I knew all the food would be healthy. Just kidding. But it was just one night, right?
I limited myself to half my sauce-covered fish, but then shared half of my wife Becky’s filet mignon. My boss, Arlene Johns, asked me about the blog during dinner (noticing my appetite, I think). I told her I was not blogging on my days off.
“So it doesn’t matter what you eat?” she quipped.
Thanks boss. It’s OK. We made up for it later on the dance floor.
But the healthiest part of the night for me was the guest speaker, William Clower, who wrote several books about the Mediterranean diet.
Clower urges we avoid foods with processed chemicals, but anything else is fair game if we eat in control. Food has a PR problem he said, “Personal responsibility.”
In cultures where obesity is less common, he said, people eat natural foods, and truly take time to enjoy their food in control (read: portion control). He demonstrated by passing out small squares of rich dark chocolate and encouraged us to break them up into small pieces and savor them for something like a half hour. Truly taste it, and not make eating just another item on the to-do list.
In our family we had a saying: He who eats the fastest gets the mostest. But I did get my chocolate to last at least 10 minutes. Groundbreaking for me. Besides, it was melting.
I have been trying to work on that advice. It seemed to come in handy at the Super Bowl party Sunday night. Setting down my fork or my sandwich between bites; taking small portions. Only taking things I know I’ll enjoy. The volume was definitely down.
I think he’s onto something. But it may be too early to tell.
I got on the scale today at exactly the same weight as a week ago. I think I was down a pound or so last Thursday, but the weekend did me in, as usual.
I’m not discouraged. The second week begins tomorrow.
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