I'm scared

I've been having little chest pains. They aren't isolated to one spot but seems to happen in various spots around my chest and ribcage. I strongly feel these pains have to do with clogged arteries and my generally unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. In my search for healthier eating habits, I came across Dr. Dean Ornish and his Life Choice Diet. I'm going to paste this from a website I found:

Dean Ornish

The Life Choice Diet

The Life Choice Diet is a low-fat vegetarian way of eating with less than 10% calories from fat (for most people, this would be a diet with 15 to 25 grams of fat per day). The focus is on beans, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, with processed foods and nonfat dairy products consumed in moderation. Simple sugars and alcohols, like fat, are to be avoided.

Guidelines -- "all you really need to know"

You can eat the following foods whenever you feel hungry until you are full (but not until you are stuffed):

• Beans and legumes (lentils, kidney beans, peas, black beans, red Mexican beans, split peas, soybeans, black-eyed peas, garbanzos, navy beans, and so on)
• Fruits (apples, apricots, bananas, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, oranges, peaches, raspberries, cantaloupes, watermelons, pears, honeydew melons, pineapples, tomatoes, and so on)
• Grains (corn, rice, oats, wheat, millet, barley, buckwheat, and so on)
• Vegetables (potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, mushrooms, eggplant, celery, asparagus, onions, sweet potatoes, spinach, and so on)

You can eat the following foods in moderation:

• Nonfat dairy products, including skim milk, nonfat yogurt, nonfat cheeses, nonfat sour cream, and egg whites
• Nonfat or very low-fat commercially available products, including whole grain breakfast cereals, Health Valley chili (and many other Health Valley products), Kraft Free nonfat mayonnaise and salad dressings, Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips, Quaker Oats oatmeal, Nabisco fat-free crackers, Fleishmann's Egg Beaters, Pritikin soups.

Read labels. Some of the nonfat or very low-fat commercially available products are high in sugar, so avoid these when possible. Ingredients are listed on food labels in order of the amount contained in that food. In other words, if the first ingredient is sugar, then there's more sugar than anything else in that food. Also, on most packages you'll find the number of grams of fat, the number of calories, and the amount of cholesterol.

Here are the foods to avoid as much as possible:

• Meats (all kinds, including chicken and fish)
• Oils (all kinds) and oil-containing products, including margarines and most salad dressings
• Avocados
• Olives
• Nuts and seeds
• High-fat or "low-fat" dairy, including whole milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, egg yolks, cream, and so on
• Sugar and simple sugar derivatives (honey, molasses, corn syrup, high fructose syrup, and the like)
• Alcohol
• Any commercially available product with more than two grams of fat per serving

I think I can integrate this with the My Fitness Pal. I had already concluded that the fruit smoothies worked wonders for me. This is further proof that I was on the right track. And it's not really a diet, so much as a way of eating. I'm going to try to eliminate the harmful food from my diet little by little. The first things to go will be soda, chips and fried foods. Hubby has bought groceries since my last post so there are munchies in the house. Whenever he buys groceries, he buys junk food. Last night I told him I wanted to eliminate junk food from me and the kid's diet and he was like well that's fine for you guys, but not for me. He was adamant. i don't care, he can kill himself if he wants but I am seriously going to try with this. I haven't had any soda in the past 2 days but I've had a lot of fried foods. I'm glad rice is on the list, but I think I'll keep honey, avocado and olive oil in my diet.

Looks like no meat. Well, I will try with that as well but gradually. For now, I'll stop eating red meat. So no soda, chips, fried foods or red meat. I didn't see pasta anywhere on the diet. Hmmm...

Also big news, I'm starting the Tao He, bentonite and psyllium cleanse today. I had oatmeal for breakfast with apple and peach slices. Wish me Luck!