What are you carrying around with you? Do you have an extra 20lbs around your belly? Maybe more like 30, 40, or even more (like me)?

If so, how would you like a vacation? You and no guests can enjoy a 6 day 7 night stay at the Heart Attack Hotel. (Not to be confused with Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel)

It starts with a luxurious ride in a specially designed $150,000 vehicle. Men will come to your location, lay you down, and carry you to the vehicle. You get to stretch out the entire trip. (Sure you may die a little on the way, but if they can shock you back to life, then you will probably get several days of bed rest with a 24-hour a day staff just a call button away.)

Once you arrive, young ladies will be waiting there and they will be interested in everything you have to say. They will want to find out all about you. Some of them may even cut your clothes right off your body.

Everyone will clamor around you, and they will call everyone they know and tell them about you. Soon they’ll whisk you away to a VERY special room where only a very few of the people in the entire resort will ever get to see.

One of the most important employees will bring in an entire team of people just to give you balloon. It’s a different kind of balloon than you may be used to however. This one will go into a vein in your leg and will be pushed all the way up into your heart.

If you survive this procedure, you’ll be transferred to another VERY exclusive room they call ICU. The people there are very intense about the care they provide for the VIPs in that unit.

Friends and family will visit you and say lots of nice things to and about you. Best of all, unlike most vacations that just end abruptly and then you have to go back to work, when THIS one ends, you go home for a month or more to recoup from your stay. You’ll be able to catch up on all the latest daytime TV and take lots of naps.

During this time, you’ll experience the ultimate reset. It’s almost like being born again, literally. You’ll have the strength and stamina you did the day you were born.

Best of all, even though the price of this little get away is about $150,000, your insurance should cover most of that.

Enjoy your stay at the Heart Attack Hotel, you may check out any time you like, or you may never leave.

OK, so I’m trying to be a little lighthearted about it, but it’s a serious issue. For those of you who may not know me, I had a massive heart attack on 12/22/14. I’m lucky to be alive to write this.

My main artery was 100% blocked. It’s the one they call the widow maker. My heart stopped completely during the ambulance ride to the hospital and I had to be shocked back to life just like you see on TV.

There’s a protein called Troponin that is released when the heart muscle is damaged (like during a heart attack). If that protein is even detectable in the blood to a level 0.05, it’s cause for alarm. Mine was over 100. Do the math. That’s over 2,000 times the alarm level.

I know some of you are in great physical condition. This is for the rest of you. Lots of us are carrying too much weight around. It’s easy to do.

It’s also easy to ignore. You hear people talk about getting healthy, and you know logically that you should take better care of yourself, but you just don’t do it. You just don’t make the time.

Please believe me, it is SOOOO worth it to make the time now. You do NOT want to go through having a heart attack or some other catastrophic issue, and you probably don’t want to die.

Please take what I’m about to say to heart (pun intended). And yes, I’m asking you to do something that I didn’t do, but I’m asking you to do this from the perspective of having survived it only by the grace of God.

If you have belly fat, even if you aren’t “overweight”, your chances of serious health problems increase. The more belly fat you have the higher your risk.

If you have plaque building up in your arteries, even though you may feel fine, all it takes is for a little piece of that plaque to rupture, and your body’s natural defense will send in platelets which rush to form a barrier around it.

That’s a clot, and that clot can close off the entire blood flow. When that happens, you ARE having a heart attack or stroke.

Some symptoms that you may be having a heart attack include:
Chest tightening or slight discomfort, nausea, shoulder pain, upper back pain, arm pain or tingling, tightness in your jaw, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, excessive sweating.

For me I had slight tightness in my chest, jaw tightness, shortness of breath, nausea, and cold sweats. None of them individually were “painful”, they were just all uncomfortable. It wasn’t like Fred Sanford clutching his chest and stumbling around the living room.

In fact, I actually had one thought to just lay down and take a nap. Had I done that I would have died a few minutes later.

Fortunately, I had thought about heart attacks many times before because I knew I really was not healthy and that someday if I didn’t get my act together I would probably have a heart attack. Because of this, I knew enough to call 911.

So here’s my plea for you. 1. Go see your doctor. Ask them to check you out and tell them you want to get your heart checked out with a stress test and EKG.

2. Have your doctor check your cholesterol and blood pressure and if they are slightly above normal or even normal but just high, do whatever it takes to get them in check. (Meds, exercise, meditation, etc.)

3. Lose the belly. Start making better choices when it comes to eating. Food is one of the main things you can control to help your heart and your body. Bad choices can lead to disaster.

4. Stop smoking.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I want to thank everyone who reached out to me during this time. Your prayers, support, texts, phone calls and visits really helped me pull through this. Thank you. Thank you!!!!

P.S. if you have any questions or want to chat, I’ll be happy to answer.