 Alright forgive me folks. This is like my 15th 16th take. I don't know. I lost track on This and I don't know how long it's gonna be. I'm kind of give it up trying to get it perfect I guess I'll just start with What happened? around 2 30 a.m. On Friday August 2nd. I suffered a heart attack And I was stupid about it I Drove myself to the hospital for starters Never do that I've been scolded by everyone in my life for doing that even though I did make it there safe You know, I hey, you know, it was not a smart move. I should I should have called 911 Obviously I feel like the attack started earlier I'm sort of feeling chest tightness That was the very first actually through fair in the end. That was probably the second sign. The first sign was earlier in the day I Don't know if you guys ever had that sensation where it feels like your veins are pulsating Sometimes you get that, you know when they're taking your blood pressure or whatever, you know, right? We feel a little bit. But my whole body felt that way earlier, and I remember texting Eric because we're talking about the podcast about My veins just throbbing and at the time I was really angry about something. So I thought maybe it was just my anger and I was I was fine. I didn't really think much of it because the throbbing did eventually go away So, you know, I have I have high blood pressure. I've been recently diagnosed with high blood pressure I take a medication for it called linsa pril And I haven't been on it very long According to the doctors not long enough for it to have a lasting daily effect. What that means is it helps but it's not One of those things that's constantly Cycled through my body just yet to be an effect at all times so So I had high blood pressure still have high blood pressure going to have high blood pressure for quite a while And sort of a chest tightness Shortness of breath once I was unable to catch my breath very well. That's when I decided to drive to the hospital Not good because where it went from there If that happened while I was driving I don't know that I'd be here today Once they mentioned the word heart attack at the hospital because I didn't think that's what it was I don't I've never had one. I don't know I'm 33 People at 33 don't have heart attacks even with the history of heart disease and everything in my family even me being overweight It's very unusual for someone at 33 years old to have a heart attack My dad is more overweight than I am and much older than me and he's never had a problem like that That doesn't mean he has no cholesterol issues or diabetes issues or issues with You know blood pressure and all that but he's never had a heart attack and he's way older than me So they it to say it caught me off guard when they mentioned heart attack It put it put life in perspective. Let's just put it that way From there on my mind was freaking out Heart attacks are a very serious thing even so-called mild attacks or light heart attacks Every heart attack is at risk of death There is no if ands or what's about it. It doesn't matter how severe it is You can die from any heart attack because any heart attack can make your heart stop working And if your heart stops working, that's it they administered a bunch of different tests and medication and all this stuff to To fix it Because they you know the diagnosis why is it happening? ones that gonna stop a lot blood tests to confirm that was a heart attack and you know echocardiograms and I Don't know EKG's and I Don't even know that there were so many tests done it from x-rays and blood tests and everything in between I guess the bottom on to take away from it is I guess I can explain to you Now that I've had even more testing done What was going on and my weird diagnosis and why things are rosier for me then? What it felt like then I mean to give you an idea my mind was so freaking out about it that My body basically gave itself a stroke, but it wasn't a real stroke It was a mental trickery. It was my mind shutting down parts of my body Because I thought I was gonna die and so my mind was just shut down you like the entire left side of my body because it just I was panicking and as soon as they called me down. I I could Use everything again. So I wasn't like a normal stroke or anything. It was just my mind's reaction to the word heart attack Scary stuff lucky. It didn't just shut down my heart entirely in that moment A lot of thoughts go through your head then the YouTube channel was not one of them I can tell you that right now. Last thing I was worried about was anything with you guys or anything with this channel First thought were always my kids You know my fiance I Bet my parents came to my mind my sister obviously If it felt like life was flashing for my eyes all the great things all the negative things all the regrets I have the things that I left on said And obviously my fear of Leaving my my children without a father But I'm here and that's You know knock on wood. That's what matters. I'm here. I'm still here. I'm still fighting as I said I'm a community post And on Twitter. I looked at the face of death and said not today I know it's just a nice expression from Game of Thrones and all that but That's what it felt like I could have died. I Like August 2nd You know roughly eight or so years after I met my fiance, you know years after I my kids I got my my youngest son's fourth birthday coming up this month. I could have been gone now Diagnosis for it was interesting one of my valves I had to I had to look at the paperwork to remember exactly which one of my valves Was kind of pinching itself off and they did a really unusual thing to to try to fix it it wasn't Like a blood clot situation because that's obviously one of the worst thing that happened if your body's creating blood clots You don't want that No blood clot can go up to your brain. It can cause any reason all that stuff Thankfully, it wasn't blood clot rated for some reason my valve was restricting like kind of like pinching I like it was pinched And they're not sure why that was the case they give me You know nitroglycerin or whatever Which is supposed to wide open your veins and that didn't seem to be helping and then Some blood thinners and other stuff ended up finally putting enough pressure along with my high blood pressure So my heart was already, you know going a million miles an hour just even faster due to the attack I Finally forced it kind of open and as soon as it forced it open the attack basically immediately stopped And it hasn't you know as I sit here today, I know it's only been you know a few days It hasn't gone back. I've had testing done. I've had monitoring done I'm it hasn't it doesn't look like it's going to collapse. They aren't sure why it collapsed But obviously they did say one of the likely big causes was my high blood pressure That's probably the number one cause of all of it is my high BP if I did not have high blood pressure chances are that would have never happened because my heart was already overworking itself and It could have just been a result of my heart trying to suck in blood from that valve faster than that valve could give it And so it kind of created a suction effect So high BP is The number one issue and they obviously assume that the rest is stress There are such things as stress heart attacks where it's not due to your diet. It's not due to anything. It's just due to stress high stress on on your body high stress mentally can actually cause heart attacks and other major health concerns and I'm not gonna lie at the time that you know the night that it was happening I was pretty stressed. It was night after we recorded the podcast with with 5j and Eric That's right. I have a sort of the podcast literally recorded not edited I this is the first video first anything I've done even in this room sense them and I You know, I didn't say anything Eric when he left and what was scary was My phone wasn't really working when I was in the hospital. So I couldn't get a hold of my parents couldn't get a hold of Yulia My fiance couldn't get a hold of Eric couldn't get really a hold of anyone to let him know what's going on So I was I was going through all this mostly alone until you know hours later so the moral of the story I guess right now is I don't know if there's really a moral, but obviously things have to change I Am actually down wait year over year for those who think that My weight loss and everything's a failure and all that It's not I have successfully. I know it's not a lot, but I am I am successfully 15 pounds lighter Today then I was a year ago and my goal was always every time I go in for my yearly checkup for my blood pressure Is to weigh less than I did the year prior? Big thing right now is I was in for an additional five hours of testing yesterday and my heart as it stands right now is I Mean it's close to 100% as anything if you didn't know I had a heart attack If there wasn't a report on my heart attack if there wasn't blood tests that showed a heart attack You would think my heart is 100% healthy So that's honestly like really good news That means I am not worse for wear yet But once you have a heart attack the risk of getting more and more heart attacks is Obviously much greater than before you ever had one. So Right now They think what needs to happen is I need to lose weight Need to lose weight significantly now There are certain things they want me to change in my diet to help accomplish that Obviously one thing is less red meat not no red meat. They didn't say I couldn't have a zero As long as my heart is stays as healthy as these tests are showing They're not saying I need to cut red meat out entirely. I can still have a burger here in there I can still have a steak or whatever But not to the degree I've been having them because At least not until I am to a point where I've lost enough weight that I don't have high blood pressure anymore The idea is that essentially even though I take medicine for high blood pressure and the medicine will eventually keep my blood pressure Stabilized at a normal level That does not replace your body's ability to regulate itself Which means losing weight in response will cause my my blood pressure to naturally go down and go away And they project that if I lose about 70 pounds My body should be able to regulate it's the blood pressure at a normal level now should is different than will I could lose the 70 pounds and still have high blood pressure That might be damaged under my body already that cannot be undone But typically when you have a significant amount of weight loss Your body does lower blood pressure if it's a problem. So it is typical for this to work as a recovery method What needs to be done to get to that level, you know, you might think well, you had a heart attack So you can't exert yourself, right? You can't you can't work out You can't you know, yeah Do things you normally would you know to lose weight like other people besides the diet change And that's not true either um starting about uh I think they said about a week and a half uh from last friday I'll be able to Resume normal workouts. Um, they'll have me come in Just for one more test and that test will just make sure my heart is still as healthy as it showed today today well really yesterday And uh assuming that's all good. I'll be able to work out. Um, like normal do do everything like normal um diet wise Yeah, it it it's serious here. There is a lot of suggested diet changes um in wake of a heart attack to Get your body back to where you want it to be Then the nice thing about all of this is that I don't have high cholesterol Somehow one thing I thought I would have is high cholesterol. I don't have that and I don't have diabetes So the only thing health wise wrong is the blood pressure um So that's great for diet because it means there's not necessarily a particular food item I need to completely eliminate from my diet because of other issues that are causing my heart to to act up. So um The diet plan is pretty simple Uh, no fast food I mean That's a given in any diet to be honest is no fast food. I try to home make everything Uh, it doesn't mean I can't have fast food ever, but uh, I need to start showing science a significant weight loss before I even worry about Um partaking in a takeout pizza or mcdonald's or whatever, right? I need to I need to show signs of progress and The encouraging thing is I was already on a diet that will help. I just strayed too far from it Um, which basically but it was a lot of chicken lots of fruit lots of veggies Um, you know some fish it was a really health uh, health field diet Uh, that I was actually enjoying for the most part. Uh, that doesn't mean you know I got a little bit away from it at times because of some emotional stress, but um, it is something now that I I don't want to die Um, there's a real risk of if I do nothing I can be dead by 40. I can be dead next week Um, you don't know even doing all of this. I'm always going to be at risk So I'm not going to live my life though. Like I'm like I'm nine um Because I've been really emotional um Really before and ever since And I don't want to live my life Thinking that today is going to be the day, you know, they always say, uh, you know live every day like it's your last Well, you can't really do that because if it's the last day you're going to live There's things you would do that you wouldn't do on a normal day-to-day basis. Um And if you're doing that every single day, you're going to weigh yourself out anyways, uh, so What's going to happen is a massive change in my diet Um, a workout plan that I I have to do this isn't like a Oh, you know, you can fall off it and it's okay. It's not okay I have to lose about 70 pounds Period I have to drop below 200. I have to get back down to 170 180 and then from there It's up to me if I want to lose more and how much harder I want to work to it to try to get back to my um sporting body that I used to have back in high school when I had a six pack so Uh, there's a lot to consider Um, a lot of things I'm going through But I just wanted to tell you guys because this is why videos have been coming Um, I've already made some public statements on it and it it only felt right that my first video back Quote on quote back was me talking about it. Uh, also talking about just a little bit of how serious you should take your own health You know, uh It doesn't hurt to Monitor yourself better to watch your weight weight better than I do um I'm a big boy A lot bigger than I ever wanted to be Don't let yourself get as big as me. So you have blood pressure issues Um, or potentially worse. I'm I am fortunate. I am lucky Uh, that when they tested my heart that it it's seemingly normal right now I don't know how but it is So Thanks for sticking by me Um, obviously health and family comes before everything Uh, the the next video to go up is probably going to be that podcast episode since it's been sitting now for way too long Uh, and then we'll see how frequent I do content after that. Obviously I've I've been taking a step back and doing less uh, and I'll probably continue to to do less as I focus right now on Family and and health But not too much. I can't I can't do too much because even you know, obviously right now I'm I'm I can't work Uh, the other job that I have I I just can't like every every little thing that happens in my body every little tinge of pain. I start worrying. Oh my gosh Is this is this the next one? Um, and it's been really hard to do that work Uh, but I I could still do youtube stuff and I still rely on the money I make from from youtube um You know So that's why this video is monetized if people who have an issue with it I really don't care. I got a family to support. I got miles to feed. I'm not I'm not gonna just not make money I'm not this isn't me Making money off somebody else's tragedy or whatever. This is my life and uh Hopefully I'm I'm here to live it for another 50 plus years or so Uh, thank you guys for tuning in. I'm sure to like and subscribe I promise most videos aren't going to be kind of this somber I don't even know. I mean I don't think there's a right or wrong way um To talk about this I have to accept responsibility And make the changes necessary to not let it happen in the future I'm alive for now. I am doing okay help wise for now and uh I'll catch you in the next video