This is an on-line Magazine on Healthy Living. We welcome contributors. Our Vision: Build a community of people who will take the journey with us to a healthy lifestyle. Our Mission: Support each other in this walk because we all know how difficult it is to take the first step and stay on course. How are we going to do it? Initially here in facebook (and other social channels). We will be sharing
Recipe Picks (Nutrition), Medical Reads (Health), Uplifting Features (Wellness) which have helped us personally. We encourage participation. So, if you have great please share, if you have please post, if you have - why is the sky blue – don’t be embarrassed, do ask. This page is not just for Moms (or Dads) who would like some help in whipping up tasteful healthy dinners, or for patients with . This page hopefully will also get some young people interested in making good choices early in life – by and . So will Big Momma’s Li’l Kitchen become a real and not just a virtual hangout … that’s a dream we are praying can come to life very soon. THE BIG MOMMA STORY
February 11, 2013 – 3 days before Valentines and the eve of the Chinese New Year… it was an excuse to START OVER again … and so my hubby decided to give me a “unique gift”, he decided to stop smoking “cold turkey…”
He didn’t tell me … and well I didn’t notice … until he started waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats. We were in the midst of transferring houses so I initially thought he was just anxious with the renovations but on the third night of these midnight bouts I blurted out that the last time I saw him in that state was when he tried to stop smoking 2 years ago … he “fessed up” and said he did stop smoking three days earlier …
The last time he tried, he had “vape” to "help in the weaning process" but this time around he just did it cold turkey so we really expected withdrawal issues. UNBELIEVABLE! 22% ?!? His cold sweats progressed to shortness of breath, then fatigue and on his third week, his tummy was bloated. So we started seeing our family physician who advised us to get a full medical check up. Stretch, my husband, went for a check up on March 8 and was not allowed to leave anymore. He was confined for 8 days … he suffered acute heart failure. His heart was functioning at 22%. I don’t want to get into the details of how we made the rounds of several specialists and test after test after test doing the rounds of at least 7 hospitals and clinics and labs … that’s another story. This is about the realizations and the lessons gleaned from the experience. This is about a new chapter in life. HOPE IN DISTRESS
You see I am in danger of heart ailments myself. I am sadly overweight – to say the least. My daughter maybe the only one in good physical condition. I am sooo tempted to give excuses (don’t we tend to do that when faced with one’s faults) but the fact remains we need to make a lot of changes … we need to start making …
So, if I want to spend more time with this precious man - my sweetheart of 30 years, if I want to see my daughter walk down the aisle or watch my son’s directorial debut, “things gotta change around here!”
AND THE JOURNEY BEGINS
And the questions came
• “aside from grilling our food, what oil can we use if we need to fry?”
• “how much ‘less salt’ is ‘less salt’ a pinch or even less?”
• “what about eggs, don’t they pack a wallop of cholesterol?”
• “and milk and cheese and butter – oh my God! Do you mean I can never eat butter?!”
And on and on and on … some questions made sense and led me to discover stuff and some questions were just well stupid – “what, will I just eat grilled tasteless fish forever?!?!” Or in the words of my son, “hasa hasa again?!”
A PALETTE FOR MY PALATE
The questions led to a myriad of life changing, hope building, palate pleasing answers – we can use canola oil for our fried stuff (hehehe). Seriously, again in the words of my son, “Ma, I never thought ‘healthy food’ can taste this good! We should have started this long ago!”
Well, this is the story behind this page Big Momma’s Lil Kitchen… I want to share what I have learned. And because I am new at this, I hope you will reach out and share your own nuggets of truth…
COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS
So, if you have some great please share, if you have please post, if you have don’t be embarrassed, do ask. We hope to build a strong community of people who will start a journey with us towards a life well lived. UPDATES
My husband at the time he was hospitalized was at 240 lbs with 49” waistline. Today, he is a muscled 208pound huggie bear with 38” waistline. He is still recuperating. Long way to go…
I on the other hand have lost 10 lbs in the last 3 months … not much, barely 3 lbs a month… loooong way to go … well, I figured it’s just like savings, compounded, it may turn into 50lbs in the next year? PLEASE?! You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11