Are You Rushing for Heart Attack?

Have you ever noticed, heart attacks happen to other people, never you? Lets face it you are far too busy to have time to have a heart attack.  What is that saying, “as long as you have got your health you have got everything”. Well I did not have to worry, I have always been healthy, at college I used to play a lot of sport and made a couple of the teams. Of course once I started in my career I never had the time for sport.

I used to watch the joggers in the park and think what losers. Why waste you time running to get nowhere. Of course that is easy to say when you have always been healthy and rarely had to visit a doctor. In fact I was so fit that I could keep pushing myself harder and harder to achieve the financial success that I deserved. Sure there was a price to pay, I spent quite a bit a time away from home, often had to fly to all parts of the world at short notice to meet deadlines. But by the time I was forty I had reached a level of financial success, had a nice home and car, even if I was not around to appreciate them too much.  On the personal side my kids hardly knew me and my wife was close to divorcing me. Apart from that everything was great!!

I have a wonderful wife and I explained to her that in five years I would have reached the level that I wanted to and we would be able to relax and reap the rewards for my twenty years of hard toil. I told her of all the things we could do, travel and maybe move out to the country and start enjoying the benefits that money can bring. Having set myself a five-year target I began to push my self even harder to ensure that I made it. But then my wife noticed that my face was flushed most of the time and I was starting to get headaches regularly. I did not think it was anything very serious but to please my wife, who was worried about it I agreed to go and see the doctor.

It was then that I discovered that I had high blood pressure and could have had a stroke at anytime. The doctor prescribed medication to treat the high blood pressure
but the side effects of the treatment made me feel awful. The doctor then told me that there were two alternatives, I could try another medication or change my lifestyle and try to reduce the stress in my life.

As somebody who has always lead a high-powered life it was a real shock. I was used to eating on the run, taking 3 or 4 hours sleep and eating whatever was handy when I was hungry. Now I was trying to eat healthy, take complete nights sleep and get more exercise.  I started to feel better but I was still worried about my five-year target and I asked the doctor when I could get back to normal. To be honest what he said shocked me, in simple terms he said that if I did go back to my old life style it would not be long before my wife and children would be living comfortably off of my life insurance.

After that interview with the Doc I went for a long walk and tried to work out in my own mind what was really important to me. The answer was pretty simple really, my family and my health.

Now I lead a much quieter life, my wife has reduced the salt in my diet, I eat mainly at home, and we go for long walks together. I am even getting to know my children better and am now able to share in their important events such as school concerts and sports days. OK so we are not going to hit the 5-year goal, but what does it matter? There is no point in being the richest guy in the cemetery. No if there is one thing I have learnt it is “as long as you have got your health you have got everything”.

My wife, being the great woman that she is, started reducing the salt in my food and began having healthier choices for me around the house. I ate more meals at home so I could watch the sodium level I was getting. I started cutting back on my work hours. With my extra time I started taking in the sporting events that my children were involved with. My wife and I started taking walks together as well as biking. With her help I managed to lower my blood pressure and I started feeling better. It was such a relief to be rid of the headaches, which in hindsight I realize had been getting worse. Now that I feel better and have better relationships with my family I realize that having your health is the most important thing