Thank God I had a heart attack

Hello all, tell others we're here!

I am truly grateful that I had a heart attack. I did it to myself without a doubt. See How to Have a Heart Attack in 9 easy steps http://rickemmerich.com. I did everything wrong, and did it over and over again.

Some of you may relate. We thought we were in good shape. We USED to be in good shape. Back in the day I bounced, did aerobics, free weights, golfed, played other sports and took saunas, even rode 26 miles round-trip on my 12 speed to and from the factory job I had. And it was 12 hours each shift.

But that was then.(20 years ago.) 4 years ago, I had BIG issues.
1. A painful, rather sudden divorce, out of left field.
2. 2 Room mates that were crazy-yes really crazy you'll see.
3. Bad financial dealings: bad decisions, and over-spending my earnings.
4. A condo in a state of disrepair, sliding its worth downward from the level I refied at. (Upside Down)
5. A stressful job that I did not handle well in my stressed lifestyle.
6. Lack of sleep and no quality sleep even when I did rest.
7. Terrible diet, enough said.

OK, stop, breathe, don't focus on the negative I just threw at you. Unless you see your present life in the descriptions.

Alright. The divorce. I will NOT dwell on that. I am a Christian and it totally surprised me that my bride went off the deep end and got involved heavily in drugs. She just checked out. She MAY now be sober. She deserves our prayers and has battled her demons.

Room mates. I will condense this because I feel that I have at least two chapters in a future book on this topic. My one room mate was a cool guy, but one night he 'snapped.' Now that is not the medical term I am sure. Remember there are no letters behind my name. But it happened. He became scattered, hostile, threatening, really out of control.

The other room mate helped me deal with the first one. But he was a handful himself. He thought he was an reincarnation of Jesus, yes he did. He thought that when he went through an emotional experience in Western Canada once(many seem to think they are saved at that moment) that he, in fact became Jesus.

On top of that he was running for president. Yeah really. The only thing he had going for him in that illusion was that it truly was 2004 and there really was an election going on.

These two guys were rooming with me at the same time. The first one went nuts and I had to get a restraining order on him the night we changed the locks

The other one just up and left after that incident, but while he was there he paid me handsomely for editing his story. Once he talked me into it, I took a real liking to the project.

Bad finances. I spent more that I made. I made some big mistakes. I refinanced after being convinced that my home was worth more than it really was. I was not financially healthy at all.

My first wife and I bought the condo when we were married and the deal was, when she left, she took most of the stuff and I got the condo. Not such a bad deal, but I never took the time or the money to keep up the basic repairs. It was ugly, with one bathroom torn up, and other things needing paint, nails, cleaning or major overhaul. I owed 97K and it was worth 81K.

My job. I was passed by by technology according to my boss. He told me gently, roughly, rudely, and in attempts to shock and embarrass. I listened,it went in one ear and out the other. My production declined, my pay did too, of course. The company changed the deal for us as well. Many of us know that when they change the deal, they give you LESS money, not more. Guess what? Now that I am spending my time on the phone every day, I figured out that my boss was right in his criticism. We keep living, we keep learning, hopefully.

I slept too little and it was ruined by worries and caffeine among other fears and situations.

My diet. The biggest and easiest to identify, in retrospect. Everything was wrong. Too much red meat, bratwurst, cheese, eggs, pizza and more. I really overdid it. Also, I drank Pepsi and Mountain Dew like there was no tomorrow. There came a time where that almost happened.

No fruit, and few vegetables also.

Combine that with the no exercise, the stress, some good old-fashioned despair, and now you can see my situation. Also, I could be a victim with the best of them. All in all, I was a train-wreck waiting for a place to happen.

The event itself is another story. Let's just say that I was in the right place, at the right time, and made the right decisions, even under the effects of the heart attack.

Milwaukee Wisconsin's finest cardiologist was on duty. Dr. Frank Cummins saved my life with an agressive cardio-catherization, just 64 minutes after the onset of the incident. In heart surgery, agressive is good. In rushhour traffic-agressive is bad. (In case you were wondering.)

Now, what has changed, and why am I grateful?

I was grateful that I came out of the procedure without too much damage, heck I was breathing.
I'm grateful that so many of my bros and sisters in Christ saw fit to visit me. My mom, and two of my sisters made the drive up from Chicago (to Milwaukee).

I took another look at my life, and eliminated most if not all of the stress. Eventually people stepped up big time to help reassemble my poor condo.

Less than one year after the visit to the hospital I married the most wonderful perfect woman for me. And she is a Holistic Chiropractor. I live in Hawaii. God has been very very good to me.

The changes I made right after I got back home from the hospital included adding fruits and vegetables and cutting out the red meat for the most part.

Then Dr. Malia and I met in person. The moment I saw her at LAX, I said "She's the one for me!" She said to herself "He's OK."

She gave much more advice about nutrition and gave me adjustments. She also introduced me to NET,(Neural Emotional Technique.) I felt more love and encouragement the more we got to know each other. We are a great match.

I work at home (do you call this work?) so most of the frustrations from a job are gone.

The beauty, the skies, the beaches the air so wonderful, the trade winds, the temperature here in Hawaii obviously blows away the gray, too cold or too hot, rush hour traffic life in Milwaukee. I know there are good things there too, of course.

I want to share my life, my knowledge of health, my wife's knowledge and advice. I want to help those I can. I know the Bible a little and find that that is a major help in my life. I am willing to share that too. (I don't think God let me live to just kick back and watch ESPN.)

Sharing YOUR story will be refreshing and will help others. You definitely CAN become a part of a published book, Thank God I had a heart attack. (If that is your passion.)

We will get some audios, some videos and some pictures of other survivors. The top pic is me and my lovely bride, Dr. Malia walking down the aisle. I guess you will see others.

I have lost 20 pounds with the help of some herbal tea, and I can share that with all of you. The Holy Tea can be found on my blog.

I use a health formula, a liquid nutritional, called Zrii and that has really impacted my health.
Go to http://www.rickemmerich.myzrii.com for details.

I'm starting Yoga and can't wait to get back into a workout routine. It's been a while.

We have some new technology that will really impact people and their sleep and energy, but I will get to that at another time.

My blog is at http://rickemmerich.com so you can find most of the products and some of the stories.

Please write your heart attack survivor story and share pics as soon as I get to that part of the application.

I love you all, my wife Dr.Malia and I are very grateful for our lives... hope you all are as well.