As I told you when I started blogging, my health was the motivation for me to change my lifestyle. I had this moment of clarity at a regular check-up when my blood pressure was high enough that I was not allowed to leave until it came down. At that moment, it really hit me that either I changed my lifestyle or I might not be around to meet my grandchildren. It crystallized for me that this was my do-over and that it might be my last one. That sounds like a little hyperbole, but it’s not as outlandish as it first appears.  I’m in my mid-40s – five years younger than the (as of yesterday) late James Gandolfini.

The actor carried a great deal of fat around his middle, the most dangerous fat distribution.    As we discussed before, abdominal fat is linked to higher rates of cardiovascular disease.  Reports are that Gandolfini died of either a heart attack or a stroke.  Now, I realize that I’m making some assumptions here when I don’t have all of the facts.  I do not have any kind of insider information.  I’m going with the cause of death reported in the media (dangerous to trust anything in the media, I know). And I’m making a connection between that and his appearance.  My conclusion is reasonable.

The man was only 51 years old. How old am I? How old are you? How long before my beloved ice cream gives me a stroke? How long before that heart-attack-in-a-sack goes off in your chest?  Will we survive the wake up call or will it serve to wake someone else?

Why risk it? We have to make the changes we need to make today.  Eat more vegetables. Eat less refined sugar. Eat less flour. Eat cleaner, more natural foods. Increase your activity.  Walk more. Sit less.  Move.

I never had HBO and never watched The Sopranos; but, I’d seen Gandolfini in other projects.  I appreciated his talent and am saddened that he’s dead.  The real weight on my mind right now, though, is the wife he leaves behind and his children – a teen-aged son and an infant daughter who will never know her father.  It is for them that my heart breaks.