Introduction

Robert had his heart attack on May 17, 2011.  We found out that his diabetes was not as under control as we thought it was and neither was his cholesterol.  We made drastic diet changes, monitored how his body reacted to different foods, and have changed our lifestyle.  We have cut out most processed sugar and eat sugar-free at home. We eat low-carb bread, have eliminated pasta and rice, and manage to keep the carb count of our meals fairly constant. We have found low-fat, low-carb snacks, and started to exercise regularly.

We were both worried that this new diet and lifestyle was going to mean not eating food that we enjoyed, or having limited diet options. We have learned that is just not true.  Thanks so many great cookbooks, some trial-and-error, and a lot of experimenting, we eat *very* well. So well, in fact, that people ask us where we find the recipes and time to cook.  I will mention several cookbooks as I post recipes - we have 5 that we use regularly right now - but the time just comes from the necessity of changing our lifestyles.  Grabbing pizza on the way home or a frozen entree is just not an option. And so we cook. And we have been lucky to find a bunch of cookbooks which have recipes that take reasonable amounts of time, even on a weeknight. We also take some shortcuts (salad in a bag is a big one). But we still read labels all the time, and manage to keep our diet on track.  We hope that some of you might find these recipes and menus helpful, but are also always looking for new suggestions and recipes to try!

I should mention that these lifestyle changes got all of Robert's numbers down to normal levels (with appropriate medications) in three months. It's amazing how well these changes have worked!