Live Longer?

I went to the doctor today. Well, maybe doctor is the correct term. I never actually saw the doctor. I was examined by the physician assistant. I had been having some discomfort in the upper left quadrant of my abdomen and in the center of my chest along my sternum. When you are old and fat, I'm clearly both, they want to check out your heart. So out came the 10 lead EKG. Got all hooked up and it showed no heart problem. One possibility out of the way. Blood pressure was up a bit but it always is when I go to the doctor. I have anxiety about going and it raises my blood pressure.  The physician assistant came in and looked at my last visit there and told me it was the same problem I had complained about a year ago. Had I done anything different or just spent the year doing the same thing and putting up with the pains. So I got the usual list of things I shouldn't do. The things I should stop. No fried food. No chocolate, No beer or other alcohol. No soda or carbonated beverages. Lose some weight. Exercise more. Take some medication to reduce my acid re-flux.

Well, now what to do? I had a very dear friend who got the same kind of advice many years ago. He listened to what the doctor said and then told him: "I may not live any longer if I do this but it will sure seem like it." He lived his life on his terms and continued what he had been doing. Less than 2 years later in his mid 40's he was dead. Time to make some lifestyle changes.

Will I live longer? I don't know. Will I do what they told me to do today? Yes. I may not live longer. It may seem longer. I just haven't done everything I want to do yet. I can live without fried food and beer and chocolate and soda pop. There is more to life than those things.