Rob's Guestbook

Rob Sparling  Frank, thanks so much for the compliments and I am truly glad to be helpful for you and any others out there! Any updates will (hopefully!?!) become more sparse since I seem to be doing really well, but sign up as a “follower” and you’ll automatically get an email when I do post.

Right now the only issue is that sodium management makes eating out a complete downer, takes away one of my favorite summer activities — smoking/grilling/eating food — and the exercise regimen is taking a “spacer” because of tendinitis in my hip. Travel adversely affects my diet and my sleep, so the heart rate and BP, while good, are not as good as they were a month ago. But all is good and you too can get here! Keep up the reading, there are others here who have inspired me, go find their journals and keep ripping through! ❤️💪

Rob Sparling  Frank, to follow, click a name from any of the posts any of us make. On the next screen that pops up you can see a link to “follow” the person. To do so, you enter your email address. The person being “followed” can see the address you provide (but nothing more) but nobody else sees those details. Then every time a journal entry is posted you get notified in your email inbox. (I don’t do Facebook, so not sure if that arrangement is any different.)

Herb Greenberg  On my cardiologist's recommendation, I sharply reduced sodium a few years ago. I never "salted" anything but went out of my way to avoid anything too salty. I went extreme for a year or so, but have since moderated. I ALWAYS make sure at a restaurant I specifically say "no added salt" and choose items that likely will be lower in sodium. There are always exceptions, especially if we're on vacation. But I still avoid it, even in the hidden things - bread, sadly, is a biggie. This is highly controversial, btw, even among cardiologists. But as they say, it can't hurt. I read labels and always go for the lowest sodium.When our kids come over for dinner they always know we're low to no sodium and add salt. However, certain dishes (especially lemon and/or other spices) can fool even me into thinking I added salt. It's crazy.

Rob Sparling  Yes! This is an area that takes a lot of work and I am open to ideas from others who have done the homework! If we share ideas, it can make it easier (hopefully). Because without help and premeditation, the first trip to a restaurant is like an interrogation and then you may cave in and never try! The servers are just not prepared. And my company cafeteria has no viable options other than salad! That means cooking at home, bringing your meal with you or finding certain options at favorite places your best options.

I’ll post a screen shot of my FitBit heart rate graph showing two instances where heart rate popped up and the only thing that changed was my diet!

We try very hard to eliminate the sodium and have found bread, butter (obviously), snack food and restaurant food to be high (or — in some cases — egregiously high) in sodium. The question isn’t “is there sodium?” but rather “how much?” And the truth is we just don’t know!

I looked for an app to help and there are options for gluten free, kosher, etc. and there are manual tables from the American Heart Association but nothing that can help in real-time while shopping. This is a missed opportunity, for sure! App developers???? You out there? Hello?

In some cases, like at Ford Field during football games, I opt for beef if I know it can be ordered without any seasoning. We found a lot of restaurants marinate chicken and have no idea what is in their marinade. We also find that restaurants cannot do blackened shrimp, mahi mahi, salmon, etc. without also loading you up with sodium. Bread and rolls at a restaurant come to the table and you suddenly have a sodium-rich roll being used as a delivery vehicle for salted butter! (And then you have another one!)

We search for bread that is organic and low in sodium. We also have snacks that feel like “cheating” but are low in sodium, are sodium free or eat fruit.

Salad dressing is another demon. For us, it is impossible not to have something, but we try to get smart options.

Here are specific ideas (in no particular order):

Garden of Eatin’ makes chip options, especially blue corn chips, that can satisfy a craving for snack food and chips and salsa. They also have taco shells that aren’t horribly loaded up. We get organic salsa that is low in sodium.

Nature’s Bakery makes fig cookies that feel like a treat. They have 45 mg of sodium per cookie — and you are gonna eat both cookies, so it is 90 mgs, let’s be real — but they feel like you are being pretty decadent (relative to eating cardboard, not relative to cheesecake!)

“Bare” makes these awesome banana and cinnamon chips. They are baked, have no sodium and taste great.

My favorite option for snacks are Kind bars. Especially the almond and coconut, dark chocolate peanut butter and the chocolate granola bar. These are all between 150-200 calories, so they are not lo-cal, but they are great options.

We get several kinds of trail mix. Unsalted, of course. Wholesome Medley is one brand we see in the stores.

Breakfast cereal loads up on sodium. Even Special K. We use oatmeal, All Bran @ 80 mg per serving, Cracklin’ Oat bran @ 65 mg per serving, and several different Kashi flavors (like Toasted Berry Crisp @ 125 mg per serving or Cinnamon Harvest @ 0 mg per serving) or organic granola. For refernce, Special K Red Berries is 225 mg per serving.

We eat a lot of fish and chicken and don’t add salt, we add pepper or other options. We cleaned out our spice rack and got rid of nearly everything!

Salad dressing takes some effort. We like Bragg’s organic apple cider vinaigrette. We just bought a new one today (haven’t tried it yet) called “Annie’s” lite raspberry vinaigrette. It has 55 mg of sodium per serving. (Hidden Valley Ranch has 245 mg per serving. Serving sizes are the same at 2 tbsp.)

We eat a lot of fruit. Bananas, apples, raspberries, blackberries and grapes for me. Bananas, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, blueberries for Michelle.

For bread, try Dave’s Killer bread or Simply Nature “Seedtastic”. The latter has 115 mg of sodium per slice, less than half that of other more common bread choices. We use EVOO instead of butter.

I eat salad for every lunch meal when I dine in our cafeteria, I eat sushi (white rice, not sushi rice) when I go out for lunch. I have not had a sandwich since September last year (nor a softdrink).

We eat very little beef but when we do, it is lean. We eat lamb more frequently, but it is really infrequent. We eat chicken breast a lot and I eat salmon and tuna steaks quite frequently. Oh, and we eat ground turkey (93/7 Jennie-O) and to satisfy the craving for a burger!

But red wine is sodium free. Fact. 🍷

Herb Greenberg  Of course, red wine fan increase triglycerides for some of us. I used to drink it nightly; cut down to only 2 glasses on the weekend. No fun BUT... I lost a ton of weight. It just peeled right off. Thought I was sick! And it has mostly stayed off and it is nearly two years.

As for salt: My friends know what to expect when we're eating out: I'm just no fun. Rob, I even specifically say "no extra salt" on the salad because some restaurants salt salads. We go to a Mexican fast-food place here and while the burrito is loaded (and likely my sodium for the day) I ask for and get no salt on the chips. Salad dressing? I splurge on good olive oil and really good balsamic. (I work from home so I do salads daily, thus eliminating it even more.)

We go on a cruise ship - I put it in the pre-cruise requests and no problem. (Crystal is great with this.)

Through it all, tho, I still battle w/my bp, even with the cocktail of bp drugs I take. But I'm with you on sodium. It is VERY hard to be hard core for a lenghthy period of time but it is very easy to realistically reduce a ton.

Dianne A  I grew up on a low salt diet back when virtually all meals where cooked from scratch and Dad had his first heart attack before I started school. I never learned to like salty foods, but .... salt is used in a lot of food preservation, and now with the low-fat prepared foods manufacturers are adding sugar and salt to improve the taste.

When I was diagnosed on Jan 14, I told my husband we were immediately implementing a Mediterranean style diet that was also low fat and low sodium. A few days later he brought home frozen gordons fish filets! Try as I might I can't teach him to read nutrition labels. But it is really hard when you are shopping and you don't have a lot of time to pour over labels. I've started preparing a few core cooking ingredients from scratch and freezing them in portion sizes. It is really hard to find low sodium chicken broth, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes are all fairly easy to cook up in the crock pot and then I store them in quart bell jars and freeze.

Mike Roskowinski  Yeah it is really hard. I have been paying attention a lot and even fresh frozen shrimp has sodium in it. One thing I don’t ever add salt to anything except when I season meat before I cook it I find different seasonings. Try to stay away from any salt ones and go straight to garlic or onion powder. I don’t eat dressings on my salads but sometimes add bacon bits which is probably bad. I figure if I can eat fruit and oatmeal for breakfast and salad and some low sodium meat for lunch then maybe can splurge for dinner. I drink lots of water and not much soda or coffee. Maybe one coffee in the morning and half a can of diet soda for lunch that I save the other have for dinner. My vice is having beer and some whiskey. Usually straight whiskey with a little ice. I guess that would be my vice. But even with alcohol I don’t usually use soda to mix. But I read something that Bud Light was now blaming Coors/Miller for using corn syrup in their beer process making. So now it is being used in making beers.

Rob Sparling  Mike, I went alcohol free for about 10 weeks. Stopped drinking two weeks prior to surgery — then there was surgery week — and didn’t start again until after my “six week” follow-up which was six weeks from the “discharge visit” that was 8 days after surgery. But do some research on red wine. There is some controversy, but it might actually be helpful. (Don’t tell me if it isn’t. Don’t.)

Rob Sparling  Herb, thank you very much! I appreciate your kind words!

I was devastated for about 72 hours after being diagnosed and then really down for the next 10 days. It took setting up my first consult in CC to get above neutral and then things started getting to positive space even though nothing had been “fixed” yet. The plan itself began the recovery. The surgery just kind of formalized it all. Weird when I say it that way, but it is true. The mental chronology is different than the physical chronology.

I bow down to those who have gone through multiple procedures. In particular those do this at a young age knowing more surgical love is on the horizon. You are my true heroes and I will need an epic amount of support when I one day go for surgery #2. And it is something I fully expect.

So Herb, come save my pitiful butt at that time and we will call it even! ❤️💪

Now about that positivity..... 🤩

Rob Sparling  Jeff, Glad to hear you had a great outcome! Dr. P. is awesome and I did follow his lead. He suggested the Ozaki Procedure and I went with it after studying it and discussing with him several times. So far, so good! Very, very pleased. The procedure is getting more attention. I am in a CC study and am aware of a new study in Switzerland that commenced in August 2018.

Jeff V.  Wow, very cool! Thanks for the info. Was your repair minimally invasive? I have not heard of this procedure and just watched an informative you tube on the surgery: https://youtu.be/0_Al5p_aoKA

Rob Sparling  I had full sternotomy. I gave Dr. P and the team full access. I try maximize the team’s ability help my situation, see what they need to see and focus on quality and craftsmanship. I also will “invest” in longer recovery (and incremental amount of pain) if that makes for a better long-term outcome. I will definitely trade one or two days of pain for the upside (?) of a longer period trouble-free? I hope so. Cosmetics? Yes, that is a difference as well. But I like my zipper. I earned it, after all.

Rob Sparling  Rosie, I don’t have any secret sauce. I wish I did. My determination to start walking as early as possible was hampered somewhat in the step down unit but since then I have been walking a lot and do something 5 or 6 days out of 7. I started out and just counted steps. Every day in the hotel after discharge I counted steps. By the time I got home, I counted minutes. I started at 3 mins, increased to 5 mins a day or two later and increased again to 8 mins a dew days after that. Then I got to 20 min sessions and the neighborhood became the constraint. Two blocks was 26 mins and three blocks was 40 mins. I varied the number of walking sessions per day, decreasing the number of them when increasing the duration of each one. After one month of walking I had logged 1000 minutes and I stoped tracking it manually and now leave the job to the Fitbit. I am now 1/3rd of the way through cardiac rehab still find walking to be the easiest exercise of them all. So doing steps/stairs and bicycle is probably where I should put my efforts. It isn’t any special technique, it is just finding a way to make the time and going at your own pace, Find your way, count your progress and get rid of any reasons NOT to go walking and it should come together. Good luck! Let us know how you’re doin’!

Rob Sparling  Cheryl and David, thank you for your kind words and prayers! I am glad to have the network of friends and “advisors” cultivated here, including yourselves obviously! Best wishes to you both in 2019 and the years ahead as we progress through our individual heart journeys! This heart stuff is not boring, I can sure say! Everyday is a new learning! ❤️💪