For years (more than a decade) I have preached about heart healthy options to my wonderful, charming, charismatic, obstinate, funny, ornery, delightful husband! I cook heart healthy meals. I keep healthy snacks in the house. I do what I can to make sure that Mark and I are both healthy. This is not to say that we’re perfect because I love my junk food as much as the next person, but I do try to be moderate in when and how much junk food I eat. So…at home, Mark is pretty heart healthy.
When he’s away from me? Completely different story!
Night before last I was heading downstairs to do my yoga and heard voices on Mark’s computer. All I gathered before I was out of earshot was that he was listening to a podcast by some cardiologist. I didn’t give it another thought.
When I got back upstairs from doing my workout Mark goes, “I need to lose 30 pounds.” I chuckled and said, “No shit, Sherlock!” Because I’m a nice, loving wife that way. He goes, “No. Really. Heart disease runs rampant in my family and all my grandma’s brothers died from it.” I continued staring at him like he was speaking Greek. He continued, “Did you know that red meat is a heart killer?” I nod. “Did you know that we should be eating more fish and chicken?” I nod. “Did you know that we should be getting at least 1/2 of exercise five days out of the week?”
And that, my friends, is where the beatings began!
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I finally asked. “I have been telling you these exact things for more than ten years!!!!!” He gives me that smirky-smirk smile of his that is sometimes cute, sometimes irritating.
“Well, you know I don’t listen to you, honey!”
OMG !!! I feel your pain …. I nag D all the time about the awful things he drinks and his 3 or 4 cans of Mountain Dew per day. It doesn’t do any good.
Somehow, their own mortality has to occur to them on their own time/terms. Until they decide they need to make a change there is nothing you can do except make healthy meals at home.